Un-cluttering the Deck

We currently have 5 sails on the deck: Drifter, Jib, Staysail, Mainsail, Trysail; and we can't take them off the deck of the boat. We keep the sails flaked and/ or bagged on the deck to keep them out of the way, but we can't escape the fact that all of these sails are always on the deck.

Maddie has told me that we can't have any more sails on the boat if they are all going to live on the deck. While the sails are put away, they still take up our limited deck space, and she wants as much space as possible for living and relaxing.

The solution is simple: The working sails can stay on the deck but the light air sails need to be stored in a locker. The storm trysail will remain on the mast, as it needs to be ready to hoist at a moments notice should a squall develop quickly.

The reason all of these sails needed to remain on the deck is the way the sheets are tied to the clew. I used a larks head knot, which offers a very secure attachment to the clew while keeping bulk to a minimum. This means the sheets won't foul on the rigging as we tack and the sails have to slide through the forward stays slot. The problem is a larks head knot can not be untied without removing the sheets from the deck. I would have to pull the sheets out of their leads and coil them up to store the sail off the deck. To set the sail up, I would also have to run the sheets through all their leads and back to the cockpit. This seems like a lot of effort in my opinion, so the drifter lives in a bag with the sheets permanently run to it. 

The solution to our clutter problem is simple, change the knot we use to attach the sheets from a larks head to a bowline. A bowline is a very strong and secure knot which is a standard for sheet attachment with a little bulk that can get caught on the rigging. Being how we have synthetic standing rigging, we won't let a fouled sheet stay fouled for long because it could saw into the rigging as the sail flogs around in a blow. 

With bowlines, we can easily untie the sheets from the clew and store the sails that are not in use in a locker. The sheets can be left tied to the lifelines forward of the shrouds and ready to attach to the clew of the sail we want to raise. This also helps make it easier to reef the jib, as we just need to lower the sail, tie the sheets to the new clew, and re-hoist the sail.

The sheets are out of the way attached to the lifelines with the excess coiled up on the lifelines by the cockpit.

Riding Out a Series of Storms

Storms at sea are inevitable. This is a simple truth. 

If you are going to be out on the water for any length of time, the weather will eventually change. When it does, it will either improve or degrade. No one seems to complain when the weather improves, but everyone wonders what happens when the weather gets bad!

The answer is simple, you ride out the storm!

There are a few key requirements you need to safely survive a storm:

1. A tether and jacklines
2. Storm sails
3. Enough water to drift in

The tether and jacklines will keep you attached to the boat and safe. Jacklines should always be rigged and you should always clip in, especially when the weather gets bad. During severe weather, we clip in even when we are sitting comfortably in the cockpit. You never know when a boarding wave will wash across the boat and float you right out of your protected cockpit and into the unprotected storm seas! 

Storm sails are very small sails made out of very heavy sailcloth material. They are specifically made to handle heavy weather and a crucial part of your storm plan. Flying regular sails is very dangerous in very high winds, the sails can overpower the boat as well as shred in a powerful gust. Storm sails should always be ready to raise when they are needed.

The last part of the equation is having enough water to drift in. A properly setup boat will drift along in the roughest of waves and strongest of winds indefinitely and not sink during the process. There is no amount of equipment that can prevent a sailboat from breaking up on a lee shore if it runs aground.

During a storm, the most dangerous obstacle you can encounter is land! Most boaters head for shore when a storm approaches, but if you can't make it into a safe harbor in time, you should do the opposite and head further out to sea; putting as much distance as possible between you and land before the storm strikes.

In our situation, we found ourselves in a river, with land on all sides and a severe storm approaching. I expected the storm to be a low pressure because the clouds had been gradually building and becoming lower throughout the day. Low pressure winds tend to build gradually as you get further into the storm. Low pressures also suck you into them, knowledge which I planned to use to my advantage! 

The river may look wide, but the deep water is very narrow. Most of the water near the shore is actually very shallow and the river is littered with crab pots and obstructions! Not the best place to get caught in a storm.

To make the most of the narrow water we had, we moved our boat towards the southern edge of the deep water. I expected the low pressure approaching from the North to pull our boat in a northern drift across the river at a slow rate. This would give us enough time to drift while hove to while the storm moved past.

We sat waiting with our storm sails rigged, ready for the winds to draw us in!

As the storm approached, a stiff cold wind struck the boat. This was not a low pressure, but instead a high pressure with strong cold winds blowing away from the storm. This meant that we were not going to be drawn North across the river, but instead we were being pushed South onto the very close shallow water. We hove to and waited to see how the storm played out.

Uploaded by Herby Benavent on 2016-07-11.

As soon as the high pressure hit, I set the sails to heave to. We were flying the trysail and the staysail with a reef in it, acting as our storm jib to balance out the trysail. Getting the boat to heave to was frustrating at first, but once we got in our slick, everything calmed down on board our sailboat, Wisdom.

We were drifting through the water at 0.5 knots with only 0.25 nautical miles to shallow water, meaning that in 15 minutes we would run aground! The choice was made, to claw our way off the lee shore and work our way out into the river toward deeper water in winds of 35 to 40 knots.

Once out into the middle of the river and with more water to leeward, we set the sails to heave too again.

Uploaded by Herby Benavent on 2016-07-11.

We hove to during the storm with more water to leeward as the storm continued to build. The winds stayed at 40 knots for almost a half hour as the waves continued to build, luckily they were calmed by our slick to windward, so any breaking waves would come upon us as gentle rollers. 

The end of the storm seemed magical! Sunlight began to pierce through the clouds as if to tell us that it was over and we survived!

Even though the storm had passed, we still had the storm sails set and ready for more. We are firm believers in "Reef early, shake late"; meaning you make your sails smaller before it gets bad, and you wait a while before you make them bigger again in case bad weather returns. As pleased as we were to have made it through that torrential storm, the clouds on the horizon never cleared up and the blue skies seemed to be swallowed up again. This was only the beginning of the series of storms that would fall on us!

We continued sailing along under trysail and staysail until the storm was much closer. Maddie and I decided that we would try heaving to under trysail only this time to see how that felt. We don't sit around and dream of sequntial storms to test out various storm tactics, but when the oppertunity presents itself, why not experiment a little? 

We made it through the first storm with 40 knots of wind hove to under the trysail and storm jib, but we did feel that we were heeling over a bit much and the boat had trouble keeping its bow into the wind. The decision was made to try this storm under just trysail, hoping that the gear and junk on the deck will provide enough wind resistance to keep our bow from riding through the wind.

The second storm was equally as powerful, with winds holding a steady 40 knots as well! This proved to be an excellent test for our storm tactics as we could compare heaving to under trysail alone and trysail with storm jib on the same tack, same day, and same conditions. 

You can hear from the calmness in Maddies voice that the severe storm is not of concern. We were both calmly waiting for the storm to pass as we slowly drifted through the seas. 

During the first storm (hove to with trysail and storm jib) I stayed at the helm even though it was locked over. I was ready to take the helm should the situation arise because I did not feel completely safe. We were close to shore and heeling over very far. During the second storm (hove to under trysail alone) I felt much safer! Maddie and I both huddled up under the dodger to stay out of the rain. Neither of us was at the helm because we felt no need to be. We knew we were safe as the boat gently rose and fell through the waves during a steady 40 knot blow!

We did have one concern during the second storm, and that was a bouy that was near by. We turned the chart plotter to face forward so we could watch our position relative to it on the screen as we slowly drifted through the water. Visibility was null, so we were unable to see it with our eyes, but we decided that we would run if we got too close to it, get past it, and then heave to again. That was our biggest concern during the storm. Not "will we sink?" "will we capsize?" "will we survive?", no, simply "where is that bouy?"

As stated before, staying clipped in to the boat, with the right sails set up, and plenty of water to drift through is the key equation to safely surviving a storm at sea. They are very easy steps that will ensure you are safe and happy while your boat floats through the water until the storm finally passes.

Sailing in a Storm

During storm conditions, you set and fly storm sails; this sounds logical, but which storm sails should you set and why?

Most people think of the storm trysail as the storm sail. When heavy weather approaches, sailors will lower all their sails and set only the trysail. Then these boats find it incredibly difficult to continue sailing during the storm, attributing it to the storm and not to the fact that they have their sails set incorrectly.

When sailing on a brisk day, would you raise only your mainsail, leaving your jib furled up or on the deck? Never! Sailing bald headed will make the boat horribly unbalanced and hard to control. You need some sail forward of the mast to move the center of effort closer to the center of lateral resistance. This will balance the helm and allow the boat to sail under more control and more comfortably through the water.

The same holds true during a storm, raising only a small scrap of sail, also known as a trysail will set the center of effort well aft of the center of lateral resistance. This small sail will provide some control during the storm, but not very much. As irrational as it may seem, you actually want more sail during the storm to balance out the sailplan and afford you more control during the storm. This additional sail is known as a storm jib.

The storm jib works in synchronous with the storm trysail to balance out the sailplan and allow you to continue sailing under control and comfort during wicked blows. Storm jibs come in a variety of styles, due to the varied nature of headsails. The most common styles of storm jibs are those for:

• Sloops with roller furling headsails
• Sloops with hank on headsails
• Cutters

Sloops with roller furling headsails are not able to take their headsail off during a blow and raise the small storm jib. Instead these storm jibs hook over the rolled up headsail. This offers an easy way to set a storm jib while also insuring against the headsail un-furling during the storm. The downside to this system is the headsail can chafe on the UV cover of the furled headsail. 

Sloops with hank on headsails simply lower their headsail and raise a dedicated storm jib. This is the cleanest way to set a storm jib as there is minimal resistance from the bare stay as compared to the massive wind resistance of a furled headsail. 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trysail#/media/File:Sturmbesegelung_2010.JPG

While both of these options provide a suitable headsail for storm conditions to balance out the storm trysail, they are not in the best of locations. Setting a storm jib on the headstay means that the center of effort has been moved very far forward. This will make control and comfort less than ideal, but still better than flying only a storm trysail.

Cutters have the advantage of having an inner forestay. This stay usually flies a staysail, which looks like a small jib. The ideal is to remove the staysail and a storm jib set on the inner forestay. This would place a small storm jib ahead of the storm trysail to balance the boat, but still keeping the sails low and centered to the hull, improving control and comfort during the storm. With a balanced sailplan during the storm, you will be able to sail in extremely high winds in a similar fashion to when you are sailing in lesser conditions.

While the staysail is small, it is usually too large to function as a storm jib when paired with a storm trysail. Our staysail produces too much lee helm and overpowers the trysail, making it impossible for us to sail to windward during strong storms. For this reason, we had our staysail made out of very heavy sailcloth, allowing it to serve as our storm jib when we tuck in a reef. 

Not the prettiest of reefs, but the storm was approaching and I had other matters to attend to.

A reefed staysail made out of very heavy sailcloth (storm sail grade) will serve as an easy to set storm jib that will balance the storm sailplan and without needing to take the staysail off the stay, bag it, pull out the storm jib, and hank it on. A mousing was tied on the snap shackle to avoid accidental openings during the storm. 

With this sailplan, we were able to claw our way off a lee shore during sustained 40 knot winds. Once further from the shore with enough water to drift through, we lowered the reefed staysail and hove to under the trysail alone.

With the staysail raised, we were able to sail comfortably, but had some difficulty heaving to. With the staysail lowered, our forward motion slowed and we hove to easily; the boat drifted sideways through the water and kept the bow towards the weather. This made weathering the rest of the storm very easy for us!

The difference between the storm jib and trysail, vs trysail alone was dramatic! If you plan to make headway off a lee shore under only a trysail, you will find yourself facing an impossible task. You will need the balance and drive provided by the storm jib and trysail to work your way to windward in an emergency.

Trysail Setup

The trysail is a very small sail set in place of the main for storm conditions. It is considered one of the two sails that are never used on a sailboat, the other being the spinnaker. This is probably because people like to turn into powerboats during a storm by dropping all the sails and cranking up the engine.

The problem with this is the extreme motion of the boat during a storm is sediment in the fuel tank can become suspended in the fuel and clog the fuel filter. This is why you always hear of sailors complaining that their engine died at the worst time possible during a storm. If you were relying on your engine, then now you are adrift! Laying a hull under bare poles has been proven a horrible storm tactic, leading the boat to lay beam to the seas and usually capsizing or rolling over completely. When your engine dies in the peak of the storm is not the ideal time to raise your trysail, but at that point, you might be willing to "try" anything, even that "sail".

Being how we don't have the luxury of motoring during a storm (our electric motor doesn't have enough charge to power us through a long storm), we rely on our sails and have actually used the trysail a few times! As soon as we see a severe storm on the horizon heading our way, we rig our trysail. This lets us get everything ready and rigged in calm weather so we are ready for the storm as soon as it hits. 

The trysail runs up its own mast track next to the mains track. This allows the trysail to be raised without removing the mainsail. 

The sheets of the trysail are run to a turning block aft, and then forward to a large sheet winch. A simple bowline tied to the clew will hold very well during the harshest of blows. 

It is important to make sure the lazy sheet is run over the boom and not under it. When it is led over the boom, the sail is able to switch to the other side without issue. If the sheet is led under the boom, the boom will interfere with the sails ability to be on the opposite tack.

The trysail has fallen out of favor by most sailors who state that they could more easily tuck in a third or fourth reef into their mainsail than to rig up a trysail. This is a true statement, trysails take some time to rig in fair weather (before the storm) and could be nearly impossible to rig during a strong blow! 

Trysails do have their place though, as they are made out of much heavier sail cloth and are purpose built to weather out a storm. This means that your mainsail is not subjected to all the wear and tear of a storm. If your deeply reefed main were to tear or rip during the storm, you would have no mainsail once the storm has passed. If you tear or rip your trysail during a storm, your main is still untouched and ready to hoist once conditions improve!

The other advantage of a trysail in a heavy blow is it takes the boom out of the equation. Jibing the main can be an eventful occurrence in heavy wind. The boat will heel over greatly and the boom will slam to the other side as it falls past the midship point! Accidental jibes due to wind shifts or purely accident are risky and dangerous during high wind situations. The trysail takes the boom out of the equation and lets you jibe it as easily as you jibe your jib! Simply turn the boat, loosen the windward sheet and tension the leeward sheet; it takes all the fear and noise out of storm sailing. 

On a final note, the storm trysail has less going on than a reefed main, which translated into less to break during the storm. The sheet is tied to the clew, run to a turning block and set on a strong winch. Any snags or problems are easy to identify and straightforward to correct. 

Barber Hauler Setup

The process of setting up a barber haul is very simple, all you need is a snatch block!

On a beam to broad reach, the headsail is eased, causing it to twist and loose efficiency. 

The first step is to ease the headsail until there is slack in the line but not so much that the sail begins to flog. This will reduce the tension on the sheet, allowing you to place it into the snapshackle by hand. Then sheet the sail back in and trim to the apparent wind.

Now the headsail is able to hold a better sail shape, resulting in higher efficiency and more speed through the water. 

With the better sail shape, you can reach your downwind mark in less time and more comfort!