Survival sailing tactics...

Posted By: Tom House
Date: 3/18/10 8:54a.m.

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Well, spring is springing, the snow is melting off the boat and it's time to think about great sailing in great places. A buddy sent me this and I thought other might like the thought. I sail a fast 27 foot catamaran so this applies to it. However, modified a bit it can also apply to a mono. The question is: How to depower a catamaran as wind conditions escalate and sea conditions deteriorate. To depower a main, the first option is to pinch ever tighter to weather as wind increases and conditions deteriorate. Another option is to foot off, driving the boat further and further down wind, decreasing apparent wind and seas bashing the boat. One can also depower the boat by decreasing the headsail size and one can also reef the main or flatten it by adding down (or up) haul tension and adding outhaul tension to the sails foot. Modern high performance cats focus on flattening the main - by application of high main sheet and cunningham tension. In addition, the top of the mast will tend to bend off to leeward which 'spills' pressure when the apparent wind is forward. The combined main sheet and cunnigham tension place a reasonably large load on the head of the sail. This is why most cat main sails latch to the top of the mast - as that is a robust anchor to resist those forces rather than it all being on the halyard. Older designs with lower sheet / cunningham tension did have the ability to reef the main. In those cases, the main halyard is loaded and typically has a wire section with a slug that is trapped in a V on the front of the mast. A couple of slugs are placed on the wire section for the full and reefed sail positions. When I have seen those older designs reefed the mains do not look very flat to me - which means they still develop a lot of power reaching or going upwind. In a 'survival' mode sailing downwind the reduction in sail area would probably be useful. It seems to me that the window where a reefed main would provide advantage is narrow. Above a certain point you'd better take down the sails and sail bare pole (difficult in big wind/wave state). I know in some conditions we've sailed bare pole and it was surprising how well the boat handled, even to windward. Those conditions were very big wind and very flat seas and I was curious about how the boat would handle, so I tried it. If the seas are building, I prefer smaller head and main sails so I maintain the ability to drive the boat through, when necessary. I found bare pole do-able, but the boat wasn't nearly as powerful or driveable. On the other hand, a quiet protected anchorage is my first choice, for sure, or sitting in a cozy place having some hot chocolate or a cold virgin pina colada...and wathcing the boat dance pleasantly in the bay. Anyone have some other thoughts?