Heavy Weather Strategy for a Ketch

[Mike Sibley]

The Admiral and I have sailed our ketch (Pearson 365) for two years, but never in really heavy weather. The boat will heave to in 20 kt wind with a reefed jenoa and main, but still sails at about 1.5 Kt, with the bow pointed at about 45 degrees off of the wind. I assume I coulld cut the speed by deeper reefing, but it seems that there might be a better strategy. Are there any heavy weather strategies that are unique for a ketch? What about just dropping all sails except for a reefed misen? Anybody have any pet strategies for a ketch that they would like to share?

[zeehag]

keep your jib and mizzen and ditch the main.. when it gets really bad, ditch jib and use a flying innerjib. unless ye have a forestaysail-- then use it and mizzen reefed if necessary. will confirm/deny this in 30 days or so-- leave here mar1-ish. these reportedly fly at 4 kts under jib and jigger..... yours shold be similAR, I WOULD THINK, OR MEBBE A TAd quicker.

[AnchorageGuy]

Mike, sailing with just the mizzen will make the boat uncontrollable in heavy weather. We never hove-to in our Mariner 40 and we have seen some serious weather. Sailing with a working jib and the mizzen, jib and jigger, will keep the boat moving and make it manageable for the crew. Sea Trek was extremely well balanced with this configuration. Chuck

[Sailmonkey]

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm told by the owners group that and Allied Seawind II ketch will heave to quite nicely with the mizzen sheeted a touch to weather and the wheel turned down wind. The idea being that the windage of the bow will force it down while the windage of the reefed mizzen will tend to push the bow up. Soon I'll try this too.

[zeehag]

mizzen is a great steadying sail for anchoring and heaving to... dont yaw as much with it up.watched a ketch scream by us in gulf under mizzen and jib-- was awesome--- one like mine... we will be using a flying forestaysail instead of a fixed one. that way we benefit from having a storm jib as well as the furled one.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Mike Sibley

The Admiral and I have sailed our ketch (Pearson 365) for two years, but never in really heavy weather. The boat will heave to in 20 kt wind with a reefed jenoa and main, but still sails at about 1.5 Kt, with the bow pointed at about 45 degrees off of the wind. I assume I coulld cut the speed by deeper reefing, but it seems that there might be a better strategy. Are there any heavy weather strategies that are unique for a ketch? What about just dropping all sails except for a reefed misen? Anybody have any pet strategies for a ketch that they would like to share?

Sounds to me as if you were forereaching, not heaving to. When you are hove to you are moving backwards and creating a "slick." The following brief article may be of interest to you:

Heaving-to and Forereaching

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Mike Sibley

Anybody have any pet strategies for a ketch that they would like to share?

For our Shannon 37 ketch, a typical heavy weather sequence was:

Drop the main entirely at about 25kts apparent and go with mizzen and yankee (90%) and staysail.

Get rid of the staysail at about 30kts (this is slightly unusual. Most people would suggest keeping the staysail and getting rid of the yankee but the boat felt better with the yankee - the staysail was a bit too small for this wind.

Drop yankee at about 35kts and heave-to with just the mizzen with the wheel centered and the boom vanged slightly to leeward of centerline. The boat sat stable and steady at about 40 degrees if the wind like that.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

The following brief article may be of interest to you:

Heaving-to and Forereaching

That's quite annoying . . . that's an article we wrote that those guys have stolen and even removed our names from, although they left our boat name in it.

[Zednotzee]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

That's quite annoying . . . that's an article we wrote that those guys have stolen and even removed our names from, although they left our boat name in it.

Imitation plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery?

[Jack Tar]

Reefed main and a staysail. Or a sliver of headsail and reefed main. Bring the center of effort to the center of the boat.

[barnakiel]

Just guessing :

drop the main and the foremost sail, stay with the staysail and the mizzen. You may then reef the mizzen or swap the staysail for a storm one to get the right balance. Sure thing all this while beating to keep the speed so that you have steerage and avoid being tossed backwards by white water.

b.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

That's quite annoying . . . that's an article we wrote that those guys have stolen and even removed our names from, although they left our boat name in it.

Plus they put their own copyright notice at the bottom of the page LOL. If you want the article taken down, a call from your lawyer should do the trick.

It's a good article, BTW.

[Kettlewell]

Maybe it's because my ketch has such a small mizzen, but I haven't found it of much use for anything other than adding a teensy bit of drive in very light air. In fact, my boat balances very well under just main and roller genoa, or even fairly well under partially rolled up jib. I suppose heading hard into the wind it would help balance the jib if the main were down, but our boat really isn't too bad under jib alone, and I find I generally try to head off more as the wind builds anyway, assuming I have the room. Downwind in heavy air the jigger is a nuisance, so I hate to leave it up too long if the wind is building and I think there is any reason to head downwind.

[Khagan1227]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

That's quite annoying . . . that's an article we wrote that those guys have stolen and even removed our names from, although they left our boat name in it.

I'd like to get published too, can you write an article I can steal too?

It was/is a good article, I can't believe the nerve.

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

That's quite annoying . . . that's an article we wrote that those guys have stolen and even removed our names from, although they left our boat name in it.

They owe you money. Send 'em a bill.

One of two things will happen -- they'll pay or they'll take it down. Possibly both.

Cheaper than a lawyer.

Connemara