Tough Day - Thunderstorm

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by barryglewis

OP, could you clarify how the main got out of control? Was the sail only held by clew tack and halyard on head, with nothing holding the luff to the mast? If so, did the slides on the luff break, were they not in the track, or is this a main whose luff rope goes up in a groove in the mast?

Wind pressure on halyard definitely can at least partly raise main, have seen it happen.

"Incompetence" is a term that is completely inappropriate, in my opinion, so don't pay any attention to it!

Sail was held by clew, tack and head with halyard attached, stowed in the stack pack with it's zipper shut. The sail has Rutgerson sail slides, quite a few, they are maybe 28 inches apart. 5 of those are screwed directly into the batten receptacles.

When the sail went up, the slides attached to the batten receptacles blew out the plastic on the receptacles and came detached. The remainder were sewed on the sail, but the bolt rope blew out of the sail and that is how those detached.

[JPA Cate]

If that was a microburst, rather than a thunderstorm, svensflicka, you did really well, not only did you have the boat on her ear, and needing relief, but the main was hindering. I think, though, that the precautions have been pretty well covered. Have you any more specific questions?

Ann

[svenskflicka]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

If that was a microburst, rather than a thunderstorm, svensflicka, you did really well, not only did you have the boat on her ear, and needing relief, but the main was hindering. I think, though, that the precautions have been pretty well covered. Have you any more specific questions?

Ann

No. But thank you and all the other contributors for the advice!

[sonofasonofasailer456]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Removing the uphaul would likely have prevented that happening.

What the heck is an up haul? I know what a halyard is, a mainsheet, jib sheet, jib halyard, spinaker halyard. I know what an outhaul and a downhaul are!

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by svenskflicka

So I was enjoying a lovely afternoon out with the family when we got a thunderstorm warning. We were about 20 minutes from home so we headed home, got everything (what I thought was secured) and turned on the motor.

When the thunderstorm got to us, I turned head to wind and we were slammed by a wall of water.

Our mainsail, which was stowed in it's stackpack literally exploded into the air causing a major broach. We were on our ear for what felt like forever until I got the main down. Had to cut off the outhaul, reefing lines and halyard.

The highest windspeed before our wind sensor departed the boat was 52kts...

The sail snagged on our saildrive and we were completely without steerage or power.

It was a really tough afternoon, but I would like to learn as much as possible from it.

1) WHY did the mainsail go up? There are two issues in hindsight that I can see, 1 - I neglected to remove the halyard from the head of the sail, so I am thinking that helped pull the sail up. 2 - our stack pack has an open front design, so I guess that allowed the wind to enter push through the folded sail? Anything else you can think of? Do you need to use sail ties with a stack pack usually?

2) We have some damaged to the main, the wind sensor is gone, I have cut several lines, there may be damage to the head stay. What do I need to do at this point, do I need a marine survey? Could the saildrive have been damaged? We didn't hit bottom as far as I could tell, but could there be hull damage?

Any other advice you guys could give for preparing for this kind of weather?

Thank you.

Might be a good idea to lash the main down and put things away so the dont fly away, Other then that go down below, the boat will look after itself.

[JPA Cate]

Each to his own. I would prefer to remain above decks, where I am more quickly available to try and deal with something, especially in as restricted waters as the OP described.

Ann

[Boston Blackie]

Great thread. Our 4 year old Doyle Stackpack came with a hefty snaphook sewn to webbing on the starboard side just below the zipper 18" aft of the mast. This is provided to snap to the halyard after dousing to avoid slapping and wind hoisting. I leave the front panel zipped on both sides around the mast to avoid the wind tunnel. We will now start using several sail ties as well as zippering when we leave the boat or expect heavy weather.

[kayakerChuck]

Thanks for the discussion!

I have lots to learn- which is a big part of what makes sailing fun for me.

[bensolomon]

Svenskflicka,

I want to thank you very much for starting this thread. I was sailing from Rock Hall Maryland to Mystic Connecticut through the Atlantic this past week when all of those storms came through. I would have never thought to lash my headboard or think twice about securing my mainsail. Having read this thread oh, I learned it a wind storm can blow a mainsail up the track in the masked. Without this information, being caught out in those storms like you were with 70 mile an hour winds would have resulted in severe damage. It was bad enough that I was caught out with my jib and had to cut my port jib sheet in order to further all the sale, but my main was very secure, even through the headboard.

Thanks again for starting this thread.

Ben

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by bensolomon

Svenskflicka,

I want to thank you very much for starting this thread. I was sailing from Rock Hall Maryland to Mystic Connecticut through the Atlantic this past week when all of those storms came through. I would have never thought to lash my headboard or think twice about securing my mainsail. Having read this thread oh, I learned it a wind storm can blow a mainsail up the track in the masked. Without this information, being caught out in those storms like you were with 70 mile an hour winds would have resulted in severe damage. It was bad enough that I was caught out with my jib and had to cut my port jib sheet in order to further all the sale, but my main was very secure, even through the headboard.

Thanks again for starting this thread.

Ben

Oh, Ben, So sorry to hear of that. But you did the right thing, eh? One winds up either being hyper conservative, or having the occasional ooops.

No one was hurt, few, if any, were scared, everyone learned something: all in all, a win.

Ann