Heavy Weather Gear and Strategies #4—Options When Heaving-to is Not Working
posted by John & Phyllis
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In the previous post in this series I wrote about an experience we had on “Morgan’s Cloud” when being heaved-to turned out to be dangerous. In this post I’m going to cover the options we considered to stop the breaking wave strikes we were experiencing.
Running Off
I did briefly consider running off towing the Galerider drogue that we have carried for years. However, the significant wave height was running 20-feet (confirmed by weatherfax) with some bigger breaking waves around (like the one that hit us). We had stopped sailing earlier because even our massive autopilot was no longer able to handle the loads and, while the autopilot might have handled steering while dragging the drogue, I had recently heard from two friends that had had Galeriders pull out of a wave face resulting in their boats rapidly accelerating; a very dangerous occurrence that, in the conditions we were experiencing, could have led to a bad broach or even a roll over, particularly if the boat was being steered by the autopilot. All in all, this option failed all five of our goals.
Lying to a Sea Anchor
At the time, we carried a 24-foot diameter PARA-TECH sea anchor that we had bought in case we were dismasted or some other damage made it impossible to heave-to. I considered using it but was loath to do so because the deployment process required setting it on 600-feet of 7/8-inch line as well as a trip line with three fenders on it; way more complicated and fraught with opportunities to get hurt than I was comfortable with in the very rough conditions. I was also skeptical about our ability to retrieve this massive sea anchor and its associated gear, which would weigh several hundred pounds when wet, at the end of the blow. I know you are supposed to just pick up the trip line and pull it in, but the thought of trying to haul the boat upwind to, or motor up to, the trip buoys and snag them with a boat hook in the left-over sea after the blow was an evolution so full of opportunities for disaster that it gave me the horrors.
(We had bought the sea anchor with an awareness of the retrieval problem and were willing to accept that since we felt that it was the best technology at the time. Assuming that it had done its job in a true survival storm, the loss of several thousand dollars worth of gear if we had to cut it away would be an acceptable price to pay. However, in this case, although the wave strike had been violent, we did not feel that the conditions were actually threatening our survival.)
So with the deployment challenges, together with reports that said that lying to a sea anchor in big breaking seas can result in violent yawing and pitching, this option failed two of our goals, at least.
The Pardey Bridle
At the time, we were set up to use the sea anchor discussed above with the “Pardey Bridle”, a method for deploying a sea anchor while remaining heaved-to with sail up, pioneered by Lin and Larry Pardey. I think this technique would have removed the wave strike danger without the yawing and attendant violent motion problem of the sea anchor alone. Also, if I had fully understood their method, I would have bought a much smaller sea anchor than that recommended by the manufacturer and perhaps lighter gear, making deployment and retrieval easier. Having said that, I would guess that Lin and Larry’s boat weighs less than half what “Morgan’s Cloud” does, making the loads a great deal smaller and deployment much easier for them.
Although we did not try it then, because of the deployment and retrieval problem, I think the “Pardey Bridle” technique discussed in Lin and Larry’s Storm Tactics book and video makes a great deal of sense. I would also strongly recommend that anyone who goes, or is planning to go, to sea in sailboats read the section of their book on the dangers of running off in heavy weather. I had long been uncomfortable with running off, but it was Lin and Larry’s book that really clarified and confirmed my thinking on the matter.
Next post we will look at what we did to solve the forereaching and resultant wave strike problem and how this technique has become an integral part of our heavy weather strategy on “Morgan’s Cloud”.
Earlier Posts in the Series
#1 Goals
#2 Heaving-To
#3 When Heaving-to is Dangerous
If you want to make sure that you don’t miss the next installment in this series, without having to keep checking this blog, subscribe to our feed or automated notification e-mails, both available on the side bar. You will then receive a short notice when the next post comes up. Of course we will respect your privacy and will never divulge your e-mail address or shower you with junk. If you don’t like the feed you can unsubscribe in a moment.
Labels: Seamanship
A practical interior at sea or in harbour
posted by Colin Speedie
Web Site
Our new saloon taking shape
A boat designed for extended offshore cruising has very different priorities from one designed for the occasional weekend aboard or a two week annual holiday. The former, is, after all, going to be your home, and you will be spending the majority of each year aboard at anchor or in harbour. The emphasis therefore shifts towards practicality, stowage and liveaboard comfort.
The OVNI comes with an aft cockpit, so that to some degree dictates the layout below. We have made a significant number of departures from the standard layout, starting in the bow area where we have done away with a heads and shower module, replacing it with stowage and a small fixed workbench. Years working on charter boats and sharing cabins with heads units made this an easy choice! The standard forward cabin has an offset double forward to port, but this loses width due to the shape of the hull, so we have opted instead for a big central double, lots of stowage and a small writing desk. This is a bedroom, in effect – forecabins are of limited use at sea (unless you like being flipped like a burger), and we want a civilised, comfortable sleeping compartment for when we are in port.
The saloon is very much as per the standard OVNI layout, which is largely governed by the presence of the centreboard case. Sensibly Alubat make a virtue of this, offsetting the saloon seating and table to port, and using the case as the backrest of the central seat. We have asked for the chart table to face forward (it normally faces aft – which just feels wrong to us), and have altered the corner angles of the saloon seating to ensure that we have two good sea berths as a result. Although we are more used to having an island galley aft, this is not an option, so we’ll have to get used to a galley down the starboard side of the saloon – let’s hope it works well.
Aft of the galley we have opted for an enlarged head and shower, with full standing headroom. Again, we want a home, not a compromise, and with plenty of grab rails should have a heads that works as well at sea as in harbour. This modification loses us space in the starboard aft cabin, but we had already factored that in. Instead of the standard double berth in this cabin, we have opted for stowage and space for all of our vital services. What we want is instant and unobstructed access to all equipment that will need regular servicing – the watermaker and heater, for example – as our motto is “if a job’s easy – you’ll do it”.
A big double berth aft to port will be for guests, as well as being split as an additional sea berth. One of the things we are looking forward to most is company along the way, and this comfortable double ought to make even the most picky sybarite feel at home!
Wherever possible we have specified equipment that we know will be dependable and easily serviced. Quality equipment always pays for itself in the long run, so it’ll be Force 10 in the galley, Lavac in the heads and Webasto for the heating system. We are, after all, going to have to live with our choices day in, day out, and so we’re spending good money now in the hope we shall save it in the long run.
Labels: Boats and Design
Heavy Weather Gear and Strategies #3—When Heaving-to is Dangerous
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
The key to heaving-to safely is keeping the boat directly downwind of the slick created to windward by her own drift to leeward. I can’t overemphasize how important this is. If a heaved-to boat forereaches fast enough to get out from behind the slick, heaving-to can actually become more dangerous than continuing to sail because it is the slick that causes waves to break before they reach the boat.
Some years ago Phyllis and I had this point forcefully brought home to us in a high pressure gale south of Bermuda. The winds were well in excess of forty knots and significant wave heights some 20 feet (confirmed by weather fax). As usual, we heaved-to and retired below to wait it out. All went well for a few hours until we were hit hard on the weather side by a breaking wave. Keep in mind that a significant wave height of 20 feet means that there are theoretically waves of 40 feet out there. I don’t know how big the one that hit us was, but suffice to say “Morgan’s Cloud” heeled to about 40-50 degrees and was pushed violently sideways. I suspect that a smaller boat may have been knocked down past vertical. Also, MC is massively constructed of aluminum; in a boat less overbuilt I would have feared structural damage, particularly to the lee side. (It is interesting that in such events it is usually the lee side of a boat that is damaged when it is slammed down against the water, not the weather side from the wave strike.)
I'm happy to say that I did not take this photograph at sea, but rather from the shore after tropical storm Noel.
I spent the next half hour in the cockpit observing the boat’s behavior. It soon became apparent that the substantial variability of the wind speed after the cold front passage, with lulls in the mid-twenties to gusts around 50 knots, was the culprit. The boat would fall off the wind during the lulls and then sail out of her slick with the next gust. Add the wrong wave at the wrong moment and bang. (Generally, high pressure driven gales—when it keeps blowing hard, or even blows harder, after the cold front passage, as the following high moves in—have more variable winds than low pressure gales due to vertical instability in the air mass.)
To make things safe we needed to slow the boat down and stop the bow falling off to leeward. However, the staysail was already rolled right in and the triple reefed mainsail centered, so we had done all we could with the rig to keep her bow up to the wind. (Learn about our heave-to method here.)
Next post we will look at the options we considered and the quick and easy solution we deployed to solve the problem.
Earlier Posts in the Series
#1 Goals
#2 Heaving-To
If you want to make sure that you don’t miss the next installment in this series, without having to keep checking this blog, subscribe to our feed or automated notification e-mails, both available on the side bar. You will then receive a short notice when the next post comes up. Of course we will respect your privacy and will never divulge your e-mail address or shower you with junk. If you don’t like the feed you can unsubscribe in a moment.
Labels: Seamanship
Fortress Anchors
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
This post has been archived to our main site. See Anchoring.
Labels: Anchoring
Heavy Weather Gear and Strategies #2—Heaving-To
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
On “Morgan’s Cloud” heaving-to has been for years, and still is, our first and favorite strategy when the weather gets nasty. It satisfies all of our goals discussed in this post and has the particular benefit of being surprisingly comfortable. In fact we have even enjoyed a sit down dinner at the salon table when heaved–to in a full gale.
We also believe that in most conditions a sailboat properly heaved-to is much less vulnerable to being knocked down or rolled than one running off, at least if the running boat is not using a good drogue system.
In recent years heaving-to has fallen out of fashion. I think this is because of, what I believe to be, the misconception that modern fin keel boats won’t heave-to well. In most cases the actual problem is the limited ability that modern sloops have to appropriately adjust their sail area to lie heaved-to comfortably, rather than a hull form issue.
On “Morgan’s Cloud” we have found that as the wind increases, we need to slowly reduce the ratio of sail area in the fore triangle to that of the mainsail. When heaved-to in 25-30 knots, we need about a third of the roller furling staysail rolled out and backed to keep the boat from tacking through the wind. But once the wind is over 30 knots, this much staysail will cause the boat to lie too far off the wind and forereach ahead. In fact once the wind gets over gale force (34 knots) “Morgan’s Cloud” lies most comfortably with three reefs in the main and both headsails rolled up completely—the windage of the rolled sails is enough to stop her from tacking.
Our heaving-to system on “Morgan’s Cloud” makes use of the following gear:
Cutter Rig
"Morgan's Cloud" is a cutter and so we use the backed staysail when heaved-to, which brings the center of effort much further aft than would be the case if we used the jib. I think that sticking a small storm jib way out on the bow, a long way from the keel and the center of lateral resistance, makes it very difficult to heave-to well. So even if a voyaging boat is rigged as a sloop I think she should have the ability to quickly and easily rig an internal headstay and running backstays to allow a storm staysail to be set.
Staysail on a Roller Furler
Our staysail is on a roller furler, which allows us to easily adjust the fore triangle sail area in the small increments that we have found necessary to achieve a stable heaved-to attitude. I know there are those that will question the wisdom of relying on a roller furling working sail in gale force conditions; however, the loads on our partially rolled staysail are very low because the area we show goes down as the wind speed goes up, till finally we fully roll it up when the wind reaches gale force. (We do carry a storm jib in case the staysail gets damaged but have never had to use it on this boat.)
Easily Adjustable Staysail Sheet Leads
It is vital to be able to adequately flatten the staysail as its area is adjusted. To this end one of the first changes we made to the boat was replacing the original staysail sheet lead tracks and their difficult to adjust pin stop cars with Harken roller bearing cars that are easily adjusted under load using 4:1 tackles. We also lengthened the tracks to make sure that we can get the correct sheet angle, even when the sail is rolled almost all the way in.
Three Reefs in the Mainsail
We have a very deep third reef in the mainsail that reduces the area from its original 600 square feet to about 250 square feet. This coupled with a powerful and easy to use reefing system and roller furling headsails means that we can go from full working sail to heaved-to in minutes with no sail changes. (We do have a storm trysail bagged on its own track ready to go at all times, but have never had to use it on this boat, even when heaved-to in winds in excess of 40 knots.) The subject of three reefs brings me to one of my pet peeves: reefing systems that require the crew to re-reeve the first reef pennant as the third reef pennant after the second reef is taken in, or some such variation. It is already blowing hard and a crew member has to balance on the boom end to reeve the third pennant. Even with a messenger line this is dangerous. If you have three reefs, and I believe you should, then all three pennants should be reeved at all times.
Wide and Easy to Use Mainsheet Traveler
We have quite often been in sea and wind conditions where “Morgan’s Cloud” lies closer to the wind and more comfortably with the boom right on the center line or even a little to weather. This is easy for us to do since we have a massive dual-car low-friction Harken roller bearing traveler system that spans the whole aft cabin roof. Like the staysail, the cars are fitted with 4:1 adjuster tackles. I think many voyagers make the mistake of thinking that such “high tech” deck gear is for racers only. While this stuff is expensive, it pays huge dividends in making a short handed boat easier to handle in fair weather and foul.
So once we have used all of the above gear to get “Morgan’s Cloud” perfectly balanced for the conditions—neither forereaching too fast nor threatening to tack—we retire below and maintain a watch on radar from the warm and dry chart table with a quick peek out every 15 minutes and a security call with our position and status as “limited in our ability to maneuver” broadcast on channel 16 every half hour—beats heck out of epic hero stuff like steering for hours in a spray swept cockpit.
Different boats will require modifications and strategies that are different from ours, but by using these concepts as a starting point and with some thought I’m convinced that most boats can be made to heave-to well.
In the next post we will look at what we do when the conditions are such that no matter how we adjust things, “Morgan’s Cloud” continues to forereach out of the zone of wave strike protection caused by the slick she leaves to windward when properly heaved-to.
By the way, if you want to make sure that you don’t miss the next installment in this series, without having to keep checking this blog, subscribe to our feed or automated notification e-mails, both available on the side bar. You will then receive a short notice when the next post comes up. Of course we will respect your privacy and will never divulge your e-mail address or shower you with junk. If you don’t like the feed you can unsubscribe in a moment.
Labels: Seamanship
Heavy Weather Gear and Strategies #1—Goals
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Before discussing the actual nuts and bolts of our gale and storm survival gear and strategy on “Morgan’s Cloud” I’m going to write a bit about our goals when we are putting together gear and thinking about strategy for dealing with heavy weather at sea.
Keep the Keel Side Down
If you read accounts of sailboat losses at sea due to heavy weather, the series of events that eventually leads to abandonment almost invariably starts with a knockdown, rollover or pitchpoling. It’s also amazing how often the survivors say that everything seemed to be going fine until suddenly and without warning the mast was underwater.
No Requirement to Steer
A boat steered by a good helmsperson can survive amazingly violent conditions with little gear or forethought other than strong storm sails. However, I’m no Bernard Moitessier*. For me, the Zen of steering lasts about an hour on a good day. Add some breaking waves, howling winds, and cold temperatures and my Zen time goes to less than five minutes. Phyllis came to sailing as an adult and, although a surprisingly good helmsperson, she must concentrate and work harder when steering than someone who has sailed from childhood. Realistically I don’t believe that the two of us could steer “Morgan’s Cloud” for more than 6-8 hours in a gale (and less in a storm) without exhausting ourselves and eventually making a bad mistake.
No Requirement for Automated Steering
Although we have a massive autopilot that can and does steer well in near-gale and even gale force conditions when running off, we are not willing to risk an ambush from Mr. Murphy by relying on it in these conditions.
No Sail Changes and No Moving Heavy Gear Around
I’ve paid my dues wrestling to hank on a storm jib on a pitching wave-swept foredeck or standing on a winch and threading the slides of a storm trysail into a track gate above a furled mainsail as the wildly thrashing bunt of the sail tries to take my head off. Been there, done that, and don’t need to play that game anymore. In addition, my middle aged back does not take kindly to dragging sodden bags of rope or sea anchors around, which, particularly when wet, have all the maneuverability of a dead body. Such sweaty exertion also tends to make me puke, not to speak of the fact that it is dangerous.
Relatively Comfortable
Heavy weather at sea is nasty enough without employing survival techniques that, while perhaps safe, result in unnecessarily violent motion.
In the next post we will look at heaving-to, the first in our various lines of defense against heavy weather, and the modifications we have made to “Morgan’s Cloud” to make it easy to do.
* Moitessier survived truly horrendous conditions in the Southern Ocean by hand steering for many hours and even days. Anyone who goes to sea or is thinking of it should read “The Long Way” by Moitessier, a classic of ocean sailing.
Labels: Seamanship
Running Off
(We had bought the sea anchor with an awareness of the retrieval problem and were willing to accept that since we felt that it was the best technology at the time. Assuming that it had done its job in a true survival storm, the loss of several thousand dollars worth of gear if we had to cut it away would be an acceptable price to pay. However, in this case, although the wave strike had been violent, we did not feel that the conditions were actually threatening our survival.)
Although we did not try it then, because of the deployment and retrieval problem, I think the “Pardey Bridle” technique discussed in Lin and Larry’s Storm Tactics book and video makes a great deal of sense. I would also strongly recommend that anyone who goes, or is planning to go, to sea in sailboats read the section of their book on the dangers of running off in heavy weather. I had long been uncomfortable with running off, but it was Lin and Larry’s book that really clarified and confirmed my thinking on the matter.
