Furling Line Control

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Pblais

I doubt a little bit of a big yankee would have done much. The shape would have been horrible. The idea of deploying it in that much wind was not a wise choice.

Yes, I think this is true. That was my fundamental mistake. I just wasn't thinking.

But then what to do? Sailing at 3.5 knots upwind in 45 knots of wind felt rather ridiculous; but that's all the drive I could get -- the staysail was completely unreefed. Maybe I should have let out a bit more mainsail? Boat probably could have handled it; there was no trace of weather helm. Mainsail shape was good. I was worried about tacking inside the running backstays, which can't be done without unrigging and rerigging them on every tack, unless the main is very deeply reefed. I was really trying to avoid leaving the cockpit in that storm, and I was going to have to tack a lot --I was trying to get somewhere directly upwind. But in hindsight, that would have probably been the better compromise to make.