Waves always look small on video...

[44'cruisingcat]

But these still look pretty big:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ-svmgOxqw

Southern ocean on a Leopard 39.

[Roy M]

That's a real E-coupon ride in Adventureland! What were they streaming aft?

[cwjohm]

Interesting. It looks like both the drogue and the a/p are doing their jobs here.

[onestepcsy37]

Dont know what kind of drogue he was towing, but at least his cleats werent ripped out. (Hunter?)

[Steadman Uhlich]

They were also drying the laundry.

[robert sailor]

Yup those are good sized seas! If you get your timing right you can get the same view 100 miles off the Washington Oregon coast. Cat seems to be handling in just fine, nice easy ride downwind.

[rbyham]

I am curious why under bare poles? Wonder what wind strength was? Engine?

[Barra]

Im confused - says sailing the southern ocean but they have no sails up. Decent seas but wind wise doesnt look like much more than 30 knots if that????

ie are they motoring with a drogue?

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by rbyham

I am curious why under bare poles? Wonder what wind strength was? Engine?

As far as I know bare poles plus a drogue is really the only safe way to run these boats downwind in strong winds and big seas, simply put if they get going to fast which is pretty easy for a Cat they could run down a wave and stuff their nose into the bottom of the one in front of them with less than desirable results. Mono's are not that different but Cats will usually accelerate quicker.

[Barra]

haha rob great minds and all that!

please explain whats going on here

[robert sailor]

That wind was stronger than 30 knots.

[Barra]

Maybe though not convinced- vid can be misleading- but we can probably agree that the wind is not strong enough for barepoles downwind ordinarily so they chose barepoles for the wave size and the bow stuffing potential as you say.

I havnt had a cat in similar conditions wave size wise (just racing mono) but would have planned to have some sails for steerage and drive up the back of waves (unless they are idling the motor i suppose - so is that what was happening?)

[robert sailor]

Those are very decent waves they are running down on, videos always make the waves look quite small so when you can see them showing up like these you know you are in some good sized seas. I've taken videos with 10-12 foot seas which are no big deal offshore and the ocean looks like a lake with a bit of chop.

[Barra]

Yes I agree waves are never done justice on video and these are decent ones.

Went to the utube link as i really want to learn about what others do in conditions I might face one day where there are a few comments from the poster - 65 knot winds and 34 knot surfs were the tops. No motor just a "drogue line" (warps?)

So reading between the lines the bare poles were probably from earlier when the wind was really up and its good to know on a cat at least it seemed very stable without any sails up in lower winds later.

Like i said not what I would have planned to do from sailing a mono in the southern ocean in similar waves but its gone in the memory banks for an option when the wind and the sea gets up on my cat one day. I know we can do 6 knots barepoles downwind in 38knots flattish water so at around 45 knots its an option i guess.

[Atlantic42]

In these conditions, bare poles seem entirely prudent.