Mainsheet Rips Out Steering Wheel and Base - GrandSoleil 45

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by atoll

happend to friends of mine on "rouge wave",story in yachting monthly circa 2000.

.
as to blue stockings comment "bollocks",unless you are in a sailing dingy,.........or totally over canvased flying a spinaker.............

Guess you had to be there to see it

[atoll]

it's all about control or lack of.........blue,seems like there is a commonly known tactic using just these abilities of sails to be back winded..............think it's called hove too

[bob perry]

I think a preventer is just asking for trouble. Im with Blue on that one.
But a good spade rudder will allow you to drive the boat out of the rround up, IF you know what you are doing.

I once tried to convince a client of one of my 56'er that I coluld give him a faster and smaller rudder. He said no way and that he could always drive the boat out of those round up sitiations with the big spade rudder I originally drew.

Lots of variables to consider when you discuss these problems.

[daddle]

Originally Posted by bob perry

I think a preventer is just asking for trouble.

Yes. I use a preventer only in light winds. To control the boom in rolly shifty conditions. Sometime before the first reef goes in, which on this tender boat is quite early, the preventer is taken off.

I all my miles, in all my spinnaker spills and thrills, I've never backwinded a main with a preventer on in anything more than a gentle breeze. I don't know what would happen. But I'm sure it brings no good.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by matoi

But what fascinates me is that a major boat building company managed to design and build a boat that can have it's steering wheel and base ripped out by it's own mainsheet! Astonishing accomplishment.

are you kidding? an uncontrolled gibe in strong wind with the mainsheet wrapped around the pedestal? why blame this on the builder?

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by daddle

This has been bugging me all evening: Do boats have steering wheels? Shouldn't "Mainsheet Rips Out Helm..." be the title here?

My helm station has a wheel and I steer with it. Can't see what else you could call it.

Connemara

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by bob perry

The skippr should be glad it wasn't his head.

And so ended the day I figured out how to rig preventers....

[cfarrar]

If not a preventer, is a boom brake useful in preventing a flying jibe? Or do you simply rely on good steering (and mainsheet trimming)?

Colin

[Khagan1227]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

And so ended the day I figured out how to rig preventers....

Ditto.

[bob perry]

I've only ever sailed with on boom break and it kind of looked like a big boomerang. I forget the name. It was quite good a controlling the speed of the boom in a jibe.

[roverhi]

I really hate the wheel. Now I know how to get rid of the damn thing.

[bob perry]

This has nothing to do with fin keels.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by bob perry

I think a preventer is just asking for trouble. Im with Blue on that one.

Lots of variables to consider when you discuss these problems.

G'Day Bob,

Could you elaborate a bit on this position, please?

We've used permanently rigged "vang/preventers" (3 or 4 part tackles from ~mid-boom to deck near the chainplates, falls lead to secondary winches in the cockpit) in three boats and nearly 150,000 miles total. Felt them to be a big advantage for short handed sailing, with wind vane or a/p steering most of the time.

Thanks, and cheers

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Towlers Bay, NSW, Oz

[bob perry]

Cate I think it all depends on who is sailig the boat and their skills. An accidental jibe with the preventer on can be a problem if you can't release the preventer in time.
I have never rigged a preventer in my life, Ok maybe once. I've rigged lots of vangs but I never saw them as preventers. If I were the type to sail DDW maybe I would but I am not so I don't. The best VMG's downwind are almost never DDW.

I think in the end it comes down to a sailing style issue.
You like preventers. I can certainly see how they could be helpful.
I don't like them.

I've been sailing for 50 years and in the days before rigid vangs we lead our vang to the toe rail or a pad eye near the shrouds and then took the tail back to the cockpit. I guess you could call that a preventer but we always thought of it as a vang and did our best to avoid accidental jibes by paying attention to AWA and sailing the boat at AWA's above 160 degree to keep VMG's up.

I do remember an occasional accidental jibe or two and it was imperitive to get that vang/preventer off immediately. I have been pinned down while someone struggled to get to the vang/preventer.

I would suppose if I was sailing with you I would see the wisdom of your way.

[cal40john]

Many years ago made the vang double as a preventer by putting a snap shackle on the bottom end of the vang and a pair of padeyes on the deck on either side for our trip to Hawaii. One day on the trip I saw rain coming so ducked below to get foulies. While below the autopilot on the tiller broke which allowed the boat to jibe. The preventer successfully kept the boom from jibing, from the vang forward. The rest of the boom jibed, leaving us with a broken boom. Luckily I had filled the boat to the gills with just in case items. Three lengths of aluminum U-channel screwed onto 3 sides of the boom and a couple hours later the main is back up, sans preventer. I learned why some say the proper way to rig a preventer is from the end of the boom forward.

I have never been entirely happy with the idea of a preventer. I always pictured the boat broached, pinned over tossing people into the sea. I haven't used a preventer since breaking the boom.

John