Challenge: What Would You Do ?

[Hampus]

You are sailing 100 miles east of a coastline when you find yourself in an easterly storm. The weather is severe with a wind of 60 knots, gusts reaching 80. Waves are around 20 feet, some even reaching 30 and breaking. There is no marina or safe anchorage within reasonable distance. Nothing that has happened up until this point is relevant. What would you do?

[Hampus]

I'd go for number one myself, until it's no longer possible, then number three.

[Talbot]

parachute anchor

pray

[easterly]

open seacocks, jump ship

[Charlie]

Heave to. put up the storm staysail and the trysail and either heave to. If that didn't work I would go for a close reach rather than a beam reach so that the boat wouldn't be as prone to roll.

[David M]

Well, If I were sailing 100 miles East off the coast line where I live, I would be somewhere in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. If that were the case, I would probably hop off the boat, get out of this nasty wind and maybe go visit Charlie who lives nearby.

[Karletto]

i voted option 1 and 2 -> close the cabin/ windows, shorten your sails and fight it

[SMcD]

Originally Posted by Hampus

You are sailing 100 miles east of a coastline when you find yourself in an easterly storm. The weather is severe with a wind of 60 knots, gusts reaching 80. Waves are around 20 feet, some even reaching 30 and breaking. There is no marina or safe anchorage within reasonable distance. Nothing that has happened up until this point is relevant. What would you do?

As someone who is new to sailing, I don't feel qualified to answer that question. I am watching the responses with interest, though.

I *am* curious: how many of you have been in a situation similar to the one Hampus described? Let's say someone has full-time cruised for about five years...on average, how often might someone find him/herself in that kind of situation?

Hampus, if those are the only choices, I would continue to beat out for more sea room, but given my druthers, I would heave to. Of course that depends on the storm, wind direction, and hemisphere. Lying ahull, even with a storm anchor, or chute would be a bit further down on my list of options.

[Ex-Calif]

Put on my lifevest, throw my shipmate over and hope this appeases the "angry" Gods.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by SMcD

As someone who is new to sailing, I don't feel qualified to answer that question. I am watching the responses with interest, though.

I *am* curious: how many of you have been in a situation similar to the one Hampus described? Let's say someone has full-time cruised for about five years...on average, how often might someone find him/herself in that kind of situation?

Hampus…you have no choice but to fight it…… “Intelligently”

You didn’t say where we were or what type of storm….. Frontal or TRS?

Sea Room needs to be maintained so

For that to happen you need to be able to plot the storm’s movement knowing what you have studied about the behavior of that type of storm in that particular local condition.

To answer SMcD’s rather nervous question:

Extremely rare these days unless someone is not paying attention….this poll is more of a joke as you can tell by most of the answers.

Ps…Dan…maybe we wont sail together!

[Hampus]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Hampus…you have no choice but to fight it…… “Intelligently”

You didn’t say where we were or what type of storm….. Frontal or TRS?

Sea Room needs to be maintained so

For that to happen you need to be able to plot the storm’s movement knowing what you have studied about the behavior of that type of storm in that particular local condition.

To answer SMcD’s rather nervous question:

Extremely rare these days unless someone is not paying attention….this poll is more of a joke as you can tell by most of the answers.

Ps…Dan…maybe we wont sail together!

You're right. I should have specified the type of storm, and also given a prediction of how long it was expected top last. The question was only part jokingly and I'm actually really interested in how people would handle the situation.

/Hampus

[CharlieCobra]

I'd heave to with storm sails while keeping option three as the last option. Leaving the boat is a non-starter. Ya really needed a heave to option for this.

[Wotname]

Since heaving to is not an option in this challenge, I would start with option 1 ( beating to windward) and then go to option 3 sea anchor as soon as fatigue prevented option 1 being viable (which in my case would be pretty soon).
However I would deploy sea anchor on a bridle between bow and stern quarter trying to ensure the boat lay about 50 degrees off the weather.
Depending on the success and degree of rest obtained, I might go back to option 1 although if boat was safe with sea anchor deployed and drifting less than 1 kt downwind, I would probably ride out the storm with the sea anchor.

[mauiboy86]

I would continue on my original course, shorten sail to storm sails, eat some food, put my life jacket on and hold on for dear life.