Graeme,
Thanks for your thoughts. A couple of questions from someone who will only
start sailing on their Seawind in a month or so. One, when you say to lash the
helm, should it be centered or pointed towards or away from the wind? Is the
strop just a line from a strong point on the boom to the cleat? Also, any
chance of getting a picture of this setup next time you use it?
Thanks,
Cliff Stober
----- Original Message -----
From: Graeme Nolan
To: scoaa-members@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 11:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Scoaa-members] Heavy weather tactics
Hi Joe, we have known each other since our "Little America's Cup" days in
1977. I really respect your dedication and sharing of you experience with us
all. I whole heartedly support your recommendation to "reef early, reef
often". I have understood your position on "heavy weather handling" from your
"Katy Cats" log but I can no longer stand back from sharing my two storm and
three strong gale catamaran experience over 30 years and 80,000 offshore ocean
miles around the world. My troubles have all been in the Tasman Sea around the
beautiful Lord Howe Island on a Seawind 31 "SKY" and 44ft Crowther Design
"Tempo II". I can not express highly enough how well all Seawind catamarans
designs handle heavy weather conditions.
I think the key to the Seawind handling is in that they are very wide for
their length and full in the hulls with accelerated flair and round minimum
wetted surface. The fixed mini keel allows side slip and the light weight
allows them to lift above a following sea. They are a large life raft, a life
support system, I have never felt threatened with the feeling they might lift a
hull. In fact I have been accused of enjoying the heavy weather, particularly
while active hove to.
Active Hove to - incredibly easy, safe and relatively calm in a gale.
Completely furl the jib and turn up into the wind. Set the main sail fully
out on one tack or the other. Point the mainsail into the wind which will be
about at 40 degrees. Lash the helm on full lock such that as the boat drifts
backwards the wind comes around to 60 degrees. The mainsail will then drive the
boat forward and rudders kick in to turn the boat into the wind and stall at
around 20 degrees. The boat will continue with this active zig zag hove to
drifting about 1kn down wind. This hove to method is far more robust to
changing wind conditions and rogue waves than keeping the balance of jib
against main.
You can hove to with one, two or three reefs obviously in a gale you need to
be on the third reef. You need sufficient mainsail to be driving the boat
forward by the time the wind comes around to 60 degrees as you never want to be
broadside to the swell. I have never felt the need to go beyond third reef (60%
reduced sail area) and in fact found a storm main sail too small to provide
sufficient drive. I have been in 80kn gusts (50kn winds, horizontal spume) for
many hours. I believe the fully battened main could handle much higher winds
but I would rather to not be there.
To further help to reduce the load on the fully battened main sail I
triangulate the boom. By that I mean to have a strop from a boom main sheet
block shackle to after mooring cleat. Let off the mainsheet and set the boom to
hold the ton of boom, reefed mainsail and rain water with the 10mm toping lift,
strop and pull the mainsheet on for this triangulation to hold the boom in just
the right position to take the load of the mainsail. One tack will be preferred
over the other as the wind will change direction faster than the swell.
Running - less safe, the problem is old age and uncontrolled jibe of the
mainsail
To hove to you need shore room. Running with the heavy conditions may get you
to a preferred safe haven near by. The problem is avoiding an uncontrolled jibe
of the mainsail that can not be tied down and being able to see the steering
compass particularly at night. For me wet glasses and tired old eyes are
catching up. Best fully drop the main and run off partly furled out Jib. The
problem with partly furled jib is you are now dependent on an 8mm drum furler
line. One clever option here is to have clew reef points on your jib or Genoa
so your not dependent on the furler. Better still have a storm jib that zips
over the furled headsail. Running is an option, probably even last resort if
the main is blown out, but is far less safe than hove to because of the loads
on the boat and people.
A drogue is most useful when running to help pull you off the top of a swell
and avoid the danger of running uncontrollably down the face of a 100m long 10m
high ocean swell. The Seawind mini keels also help here in very heavy
conditions slipping the boat across these giant swells. The drogue is always
set off the stern (not to be confused with parachute which are a false sense of
security). I have found a plastic milk crate an ideal drogue that takes up
little storage and contains all the line required to store with it but good
commercial collapsible drogues are available. The drogue needs to be weighted
down with 5m of 10mm chain so it does not jump out of the water at higher
speeds. It needs a 15m single line attached to two 15m lines going to each
hull. 15m mooring lines are ideal for this purpose. The drogue line each side
goes through under then over the aft mooring cleat up to a main winch. This
enables you to bias the drogue using the winches to either port or starboard to
help pull the boat over the top of the swell as it comes through.
One last word on parachutes - throw them away they do not work, they are a
serious false sense of security. I have attempted to use them twice in gale
conditions and on both occasions need to cut them away to save the boat. There
are three fatal problems. First, deploying 100m of line in a gale that has not
been checked for some time. With the catamaran trying to sail over the line in
these conditions it is near impossible to deploy without a tangle. Second, once
deployed with the parachute on the second swell 100m away as the line takes up
the load the boat goes backwards for around 20m at 10+kn tearing you balanced
rudders (more area behind the rudder shaft than ahead) off or at best
overstressing your steering cables. I near ripped the transom off "SKY". Third,
if you survive the rush backwards, the line parachute takes hold irrespective
of how much green water is still coming at you and attempts to pull you through
the wave. 5m of green water is no joke. The loads are an order of magnitude
above anchoring, far exceeding mooring cleat or anchor bridle termination
loads. We cut the parachute away after bending the massive fore beam.
There are many more stories from where these came from. See
www.tempo2aroundtheworld.com. Kind Regards, Graeme Nolan, Seawind Customer
Support Manager.
-----Original Message-----
From: scoaa-members-bounces@xxxxxxxxx
[mailto:scoaa-members-bounces@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Siudzinski
Sent: Friday, 11 June 2010 12:36 AM
To: scoaa-members@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Scoaa-members] Heavy weather tactics
On Jun 9, 2010, at 8:19, Steve Ellsworth wrote:
> Pam and I will be sailing south to Mexico at the end of October in the
> Baja HaHa. I am looking for input as to the best source of information
> on storm tactics for catamarans. We have put a lot of miles on
> Barramundi but most have been in fairly mild conditions 25kts of wind
> or less. Any information would help in our preparations.
>
Hi Steve,
The Baja HaHa is a fun event, although we found it a little crowded and
really needed to stay awake with all those boats around.
To answer your question: presume you've latched onto a bunch of multihull
sailing/cruising books, as they all offer some words of wisdom regarding
heavy-weather. You will find a variety of opinions, and just need to formulate
your own plan. I haven't read it for some time, but I recall liking Gavin
LeSueur's "Multihull Seamanship".
Coastal cruising is a very different experience than crossing oceans:
doing coastal, YOU choose your weather and thus you'll never need to use any
"storm tactics". :-) The secret is to never have a schedule and thus you'll
never have to venture out into "iffy" weather.
Crossing oceans is a very different story: you WILL get whapped occasionally,
but IMO the Seawind is a wonderful platform and I personally have great faith
in the boat.
FWIW, my own approach is very simple:
Reef early, reef often. Practice so you can get a reef in VERY quickly if you
screwed up and didn't see an approaching squall.
Monohulls reef to average windspeed. Multihulls reef to peak (gust) windspeed!
IMO the biggest danger we face is broad reaching or running in an increasing
wind and being caught with too much mainsail up: at some point you simply
cannot lower the main, and bringing the boat around in order to head to wind so
you can lower the sail can be a very frightening experience (try that on a
Hobie 16 on a windy day and you'll see what I mean).
Reef early, reef often.
I added not just a third but a also a fourth reef to KatieKat and modified
the boom to enable easy use of the second, third, and fourth reef points
(eliminated the outhaul adjustment). I rig the first reef only if I'm going a
long distance in fairly steady 18-20kts true. I added a winch to my mast for
the main halyard so I can singlehandedly very easily and quickly reef the main.
Reef early, reef often.
Sail to true wind, not apparent wind. It is very very deceptive when broad
reaching, especially in our well-protected Seawinds. When cruising (not racing)
I already have the second reef in at 20kts true, third at 24kts, and fourth as
soon as I'm uncomfortable. We spent many days crossing oceans broad-reaching
or running simply on the jib and yet with great boatspeed. Real peace-of-mind!
Reef early, reef often.
I don't like sailing with a reefed jib because the furled sail gets badly
distorted due to the improper sheeting angle. I've experimented with using my
aft anchor cleat as an attachment point for a snatch block to provide a better
angle for the partially-furled jibsheet. I consider partially furling the jib
only if I'm beating in winds greater than about 28kts. Reaching or running, the
jib stays full in all winds until it's time to put it away. When running, I
attach a snatch block on a loop to either the pulpit or first stanchion and
wing out the jib. It makes a lovely mini-spinnaker and is so easy to control in
heavy winds.
When the winds get over 35kts, why bother bashing the boat (and yourselves)?
The Seawind heaves-to wonderfully and will happily sit there while your relax.
Need to practice practice practice your sail settings to determine exactly how
much of each sail to have exposed and where you'll have the (backwinded) jib
and main/boom and rudder located for various angles to the wind/waves and
whether you want to stop dead (simply rocking back-and-forth) or gradually
fore-reaching.
I find locking the rudder with my two autopilot levers (autopilot
off) sufficient but you can always tie off the wheel as well.
I'm a firm believer in carrying both a para-anchor and a drogue for ocean
crossing. Hey, when you know you're going to be whapped, it is so easy to
deploy the para-anchor early and then simply relax. If the wind will be behind
you (direction you want to go in), then running under bare poles still gets you
great mileage and if you start going uncomfortably fast then simply deploy the
drogue.
Be comfortable, relax, and be well-rested.
Again: reef early, reef often.
Have a great HaHa experience, and don't come back up the coast in April :-)
Joe Siudzinski
--
http://www.KatieKat.net
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