Multihulls - Heavy Weather (Passive) Handling

[raphaella]

Good day sir, this is Jean-Pierre and his 2 girls that you have helped out of the slip beside you 2 months ago in Oyster Pond. Just to say thanks for the info and that I wrote a little article about you and other people that actually are giving crucial info on good sailing. Have a nice one,

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by raphaella

... Just to say thanks for the info and that I wrote a little article about you and other people that actually are giving crucial info on good sailing...

Where might we read your article, Jean-Pierre?

[raphaella]

Look for (New Captain in need of help)

[ty.gregory]

Well, we can't leave this video out~!

Sailboat gets hit by huge wave - YouTube

[h20man]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Where might we read your article, Jean-Pierre?

I suspect Jean-Pierre is talking about his 'post' not an article in the common sense...

[Mr B]

After nearly 3000 Nautical miles from Fiji to Bundaberg and then down to Forster NSW.
I found the best thing for my Cat was to drop the motor and lock it down in neutral, The centre board down on the windward side, a very small bit of the Genoa up to give me a bit of speed and keep me ahead of the following sea,
And not surfing into the wave in front.
This is in continual 5 to 7 metre seas probably higher, I am not getting out there to measure any. But they were higher than my first spreader, and some above my top spreader.
I have a 12 metre mast, so work it out for your self.

I do have a drogue, but I thought that would slow me down too much with the following sea,
I did have the cockpit full of water, twice, and a huge mountain vertically over the transom, I thought I was gone, but my little Cat just popped out from under it in the nick of time,
The first time it did it. I opened up the Genoa a bit more to give me a bit more speed, But in these seas, more speed was a frightening experience, so the first reef was where I kept it. and just ran before it.

The motor down, Genoa and centre board kept me virtually in a straight line,
It worked for me,
but different boats probably need other things to keep them going in the thick of things.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by ty.gregory

Well, we can't leave this video out~!

Yeah, but at least it came out right side up.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I do have a drogue, but I thought that would slow me down too much with the following sea

The way I see it...There are many different reasons and conditions where slowing and/or stabalizing is wanted/needed. Sometimes I just want to sleep better with a rookie at the helm, other times delay arrival, and of course survival in nasty weather. To achieve these the amount of drag deployed needs to be in proportion to the desired effect. I have no desire to run my motors in reverse, carry assorted size tires, nor a lot of "survival only" gear that I hope to never use.

I recently asked Dave P. at Ace sailmakers (who make jordan series drogues) if anyone else has expressed this interest or gone this route. He replied:
"One Open 50 had his tapered Dyneema rode built so about a third of cones were on aft section that could be separated.

Others have had dedicated Speed Reducing Drogues built by us.

PLAYSTATION had a 4 section drogue for The Race.

Team Ellen, Groupama, and others have tested speed reducing versions, have not had any feedback."

Personally I like the 4 part drogue idea. I can even see using it for emegency steering. To me, a series drogue should not be "all or nothing", and can be so much more..

Dave L38 #38

[quirimbas]

on 10 December 2007 the South Mozambican coast received a 65knots storm turning into Maputo Bay coming from Durban, I was on my way back to Maputo from Zoenge river mouth just south of Xai-Xai in my Wharram tiki30 pleasant sailing when we noticed the storm weather line coming towards us mid-afternoon, we just managed to get sails down and stored when under bare poles and our Suzuki four stroke 15hp outboard run ning we hit the weather full on, from that moment the tiller steering was all dominant, no drogue or parachute and our tike 30 foot and 1.5ton light was playball in waves and wind but i kept under control and chose ideal diagonal wave approach head on into waves going out to high sea to not risk hitting coast, all night we saw white crests coming to us when almost on us but i learned in last light how wave then was coming allowing me to without visibility steer for most comfort. The crew members were panicking and i sent them below doing tiller work all night, it meant holding on to a support point closeby and lever my power on the tiller, i didnt know i had that strength in me to keep this up all night, in morning we did by compass, no other instruments working anymore, approach coast in somewhat lesser wind, and anchored of Macaneta beaches, went to sleep 2 hours then wind picked up again and we went back out to sea, but did controlled return same day to maputo.

Lessons learned, in countries like Mozambique rely on your own weather knowledge to judge what will happen, make sure you got crew that will support you, have good bad weather clothing ready as i sailed in rain jacket and swim trunk getting very cold although in tropical waters, negoatiate the waves with engine power, ofcourse run bare poled

[niel12]

Great Quirimbas, i am glad you made it!

Another lesson from your experience is probably that no two storms are the same and neither are two boats in a storm. Certain basics like running bare pole must be dictated by the circumstances and the boat you are sailing in. There is no question that in your boat in those circumstances your reactions were spot on!

Experienced sailors... well that's another seagull, perhaps thats why more and more people rig their yachts for singlehanded sailing! I guess experienced help is nowaday's more expensive than reliable equipment, or are they?

[Southern Star]

Dave, I too would like to experiment with a multi-part (actually, a two-part) series drogue. I was initially concerned about the ability to attach an extension on in deteriorating conditions, but on reflection it seems you should only have to be able to winch the bridle back on deck, then attach a further section to the existing bridle and drogue before releasing the attachment of the orignal drogue and letting the now extended drogue back out.

Lets face it, if all you want to do is slow the boat a bit and help keep the boat from skewing or broaching, there is no reason that a shorter series drogue would not also benefit from the more constant pull over that of parachute drogues.

Brad

[pbr]

I think the potential duration of the storm and conditions and the direction you need to go are considerations. If you are running before it, reducing sail as needed, to the point of bare poles and continuing on in your planned direction makes sense. I have found drogues difficult to deploy and retrieve and set accurately on catamarans. If your route is in the other direction, Forereaching with reduced sail with or without motor assistance is a great way to go. Heaving-to can work on some catamarans for short duration but I would prefer a sea anchor for longer periods and ultimate survival and would not leave home without one.

[kwsnowflake]

....any thing put in the water to control a multihull [anchor, drogue] should be off a 3 point bridle .off each outer hull and one up thru the middle. this allows for unlimited adjustment.this should fabricated and tuned to each boat before deploying.i've had great success with this as it controls crabbing, holding the bows steady into the wind

[niel12]

Exellent post KWsnowflake i will most certainly apply this to my cat!

[kwsnowflake]

...a rig i use and like,off each bow,a line, eye spliced to a central ssteel ring thru which the center main anchor line [holding the main load] runs with a pre measured figure 8 stopper knot[often 50 feet out],this with adjustment allows for unlimited tuning..like on a rail road track performance...