Mooring lines

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HEAVY WEATHER SAILING STRATEGY

Although I don’t like glib aphorisms, ‘If in doubt don’t go out’ does make sense. It’s true, we know how to get off the dock in more or less any condition. We know how to get on the dock in more or less any condition. We know how to match the sails to the wind and sea conditions and to put that reef in before we go out. We know how to heave to. So we know how to do everything we might need to do to go out in heavy weather. But do we really want to go if we don’t have to? Probably not.

Passagemakers and blue water sailors don’t have any choice when it comes to heavy weather, they just have to face it. But weekend and holiday sailors can choose. We can decide that the conditions forecast are more than we want to go sailing in. Interestingly, Lin and Larry Pardey, who have sailed more than 200,000 miles over the past 45 years (past all the great southern capes and twice around), said that storms accounted for less than 2% of their passagemaking. Eric Hiscock, who

Not a day to go for a sail

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There is one important thing to understand, though: If you do decide to go out in heavy weather you will discover the difference between a landsman and a sailor. For a landsman the land is safe and the sea is dangerous. For a sailor the sea is safe and the land is dangerous. You could go out in heavy weather and find that returning to port was dangerous, a lee shore, breaking waves at the entrance and so forth, and that staying at sea until conditions had improved was the safest option.

So before setting off, check the forecast to make sure that returning to harbour is likely to be an option. Even relatively low wind speeds with opposing tides can make things very uncomfortable; 20 knots of wind against a strongly ebbing tide in shallow water or over a bar will make the conditions rough. There is a mass of weather data available to help you decide what it will be like out there and local knowledge is always worth listening to. You should always know what to expect before you set off.

Remember that you are single-handed or shorthanded and will get tired quickly in heavy weather – so prepare a strategy for coping with it. Preparation, the key to stress-free sailing, is never more important than when facing heavy weather. Nature has upped the ante. Where you might have been able to tame a sheet that has slipped off the winch, now with strong winds the sheet will lash about dangerously. Lines are now bar taut and the boat comes under a great deal of tension, which is why it is time to reduce gear and shorten sail. I find hanging on very tiring and the motion of the boat mind-numbing so I have carefully prepared strategies and systems to use in these circumstances.

TOP TIP

Know your engine

Take a diesel engine course. It will save you a fortune. Knowing how the diesel engine works is very useful – it’ll give you the confidence to do basic first aid on an engine. If you can fit fuel filters, air filters, impellers, fan belts and find out why the engine electrics have gone down and fix this at sea, then you’re in business.

USING THE RIGHT SAILS

Getting the best out of heavy weather means having the correctly shaped sails for the conditions. Rollerfurling headsails, which are a fabulous convenience in moderate weather, now become a bit of a liability. The shape of the sail which is perfect when it is fully set becomes less successful the more it is reefed. If you are going to sail in all weathers you will have a suit of sails – No 1 genoa, lapper (135–140%), No 2, No 3 and a storm jib – so you can match the sail to the occasion. I have just such a selection and will set the correct sail on the furler for the expected wind strength. My storm jib hanks on to a removable inner forestay, which I set up when necessary.

A mainsail to match the foresails should have at least two reefs, preferably three reefs, after which you would move to a trysail. A trysail really needs its own track so that you can set it in place before it gets too blowy and then tie it down ready for when you might need it.

CENTRING THE EFFORT

The ideal when it comes to reducing sail is to bring the centre of effort inboard, as this helps to balance the boat. As a main is reefed there is less sail aft and therefore less effort aft. If you had a jib set on a bowsprit and a staysail you would hand the jib to move the effort inboard.

p A trysail

p I get away with being able to feed my trysail into the gate for the main track because the header on my main tucks down just under the gate. This is not always the case on every boat and it does mean that it has already started to blow up when I am setting the trysail, which is not ideal

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