Hi Courtney,
One time we got into a 35 knots gusting to 55 in choppy and very cold
seas travelling up from Hobart, Tasmania to Melbourne (Australia),
tacking uncountable times to try to reach shelter (by moonlight
-magic). There were no issues with tacking and winches as such, or they
were dominated by other manoeuvres like reefings and navigating and
staying on board. However, in relatively inexperienced hands or during
lapses of lost concentration or bad gear, problems can easily arise in
terms of not changing down to smaller sails earlier enough, sails are
still too large, knots not secured, helm over too fast, sheet not
flaked properly before throwing off winch, fingers caught in winch,
winch handle flying into face or vice versa, sheeting in too slowly,
colliding with the helmsperson, not being instantly ready when needing
to tack as emergency, and someone going forward getting whipped by the
sheet or sail or getting caught by a sheet or getting pitched into the
sea..

After all that things could still go wrong eg over-ride on winch, sheet
or tackle blown, car/block blown or seized, sail tearing, halyard or
tack blown, and sheethand being violently seasick.

Ways to fix, or avoid, these problems can be further explained if
required. I suspect most people are familiar with these so I'll just
say 3 things: 1) be preventative and ahead of the game, incl gear
maintenance and tying a bowline "very securely" and fast, 2) wear
safety gear and clip tether on a strong point or safety line (not rail)
"very properly" eg not in the way of the sheets and
3) if you get an override on the winch or get any sheet caught somehow
on a serious load, and where it's not an emergency situation of cutting
the sheet, you need to relieve the load in one of two ways:
a)
get another line and tie a rolling hitch on the sheet under tension,
take that line to another winch to take up the load, fix the override
or whatever the problem was, tension again on the first winch, release
the 2nd winch and the rolling hitch. See a secure rolling hitch (more
about this great hitch another time) on an excellent site
http://www.animatedknots.com Opinions vary as to how to tie this knot;
after much investigation I use the one on this site, it is a very easy
and fast secure-knot to tie in a hurry. My key for this knot is 'like
clove hitch but repeat cross over twice first then finish like a clove
hitch, load on the two-turns side'.
b)
in serious winds strong arms cannot take the load, if you can't do a)
then take a line (must always have a spare sheet ready) to tie to the
clew and take the load off on another winch.
OK hope this helps, please let us know.
PS Thanks all for the street-wise and kind comments above re net
manners. Weathered skin is leathered skin is thick skinned I s'pose....
we march on
Solo Thesailor
http://sailingstoriesandtips.blogspot.com