Swell Dampening

[Sailmonkey]

and here I was going to suggest to just move your water ballast to leward and cant the keel to leeward also.

[Zednotzee]

I seem to recall reading that John Voss hoisted his anchor up the mast in this situation. It was secured, not swinging though, but evidently reduced rolling.

[maxingout]

Even in a catamaran I find the small roll of ocean swells is irritating when there is little wind. It makes the mainsail flap which is unnecessary wear and tear when you are crossing an ocean.

I don't fight it if there isn't enough wind to keep a sail from flopping and flapping. I just drop the main and turn on one engine until the wind picks up.

[seandepagnier]

Well dropping the sail and using the engine may work for some, but I am dealing with an electric motor running off solar panels. It works great for bursts, but the sustainable thrust under full sun is weak (1knot)

I'm looking to upgrade my batterys and add more panels, but the limitations are still in place. I should be able to combine solar-electric and light wind to extract even more power from the wind and go substantially faster (at least of a beam)

I though it was interesting that someone mentioned you can do roll compensation with the rudder alone. I realize this was true when hand steering, and it works better when the boat is moving faster, not so well in light winds. I had to do rather large movements of the rudder with each roll. This probably adds a bit of drag, and it is much faster (probably 10x) than my electric autopilot (simrad tp22) can move.

I also noticed my pendulum wind vane automatically does this roll compensation. When you roll, it rotates the pendulum rudder, since it grabs water, which does the correct action to the main rudder (makes sense, no wonder those things work so well) but it is too weak to fully dampen rolling unfortunately

[sww914]

Yeah, the trimaran thing works pretty well. I had one, it was almost a great liveaboard except for the rotting plywood part. One night it was blowing 50 kts sustained in the harbor and gusts of 75. The San Juan 30 (or so) on the mooring next to me was heeled at 45 degrees with no sails on the boat at all due to the opposing wind & tide. My trimaran was actually not bad at all to be on in that snot, but it was really loud.
7 boats sank that night.
BTW, I own a monohull now so I'm not trying to stir the pot that I'm in.

[barnakiel]

A catamaran.

Moving the CG up on a mono (just do not capsize her ! ;-)

I also water ballast the lee side (on the deck - so the CG goes up too).

Try sailing different angles (try both tacks if destination is downwind - usu one tack has a better breeze/swell combination than the other).

b.

[Sailmonkey]

As rebel heart says, light sails will work wonders. If I was you, the first thing I'd try is a 30-55 gallon drum on the lee rail, fill it from a hand pump with seawater. this will function to overcome the initial instability that the boat has. It may not work, but it's virtually free to try.

[barnakiel]

Re light sails:

I have found light sails a blessing in the following situations:
- around the cans,
- in flat waters,
- on a big boat,
- on a stable boat.

However, offshore, I have found the SMALLER sails to work better than the big ones. This is probably related to the fact that an average cruising boat will not have light equivalents of the working sails. My wardrobe is normally 7-9 sails and I feel there is a need for another 2 or 3, except there is no space for them in the sail locker.

So, I too say "have some light sails", but when you do not have them and if the ones you do have seem not to keep the air, try rolling them in a bit or lowering the main one reef before you get (censored) off and start the engine.

barnie

[mrohr]

Have the admiral shinny up the mast until the rolling is eased,then hang on at that point until the wind picks up.
Can one be politically incorrect at sea?