Lee shore and no steerage

[fidkid]

Originally Posted by boatman61

What happens if one needs to tack out off a closing headland.. would the towed bucket be able to achieve it..

I don't know it depends on the boat and bucket, but I should clarify the bucket would only be for fast leeward turns which seem increasingly unlikely the more I think about it.

but as for tacking everyone seems to assume the rudder is amidships or gone and most boats I have seen want to go head to the wind if the sails are trimmed wrong but for tacking like this you could use that to your advantage and at 20 knots of wind I bet you would have the speed for it especially if you are using the engine so you can point higher.

[Bellinghamster]

What a great time to own a ketch!
With mizzen sheeted hard center and no main or headsail and I can motor straight upwind. Unfurl a bit of headsail and ease the mizzen and I can angle off the wind and sail. I haven' t tried tacking by backwinding the mizzen, but it feels like it should work and I'm now I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

20kn isn't much of a blow. As long as there is some slope to the bottom, I'd have no qualms about attempting to anchor if the alternative is to blow ashore. Drag anything (bucket, etc.) or adjust sail so you're beam-to in order to slow drift then drop the hook. When it sets you'll point into wind and waves and can deal with assessing the cause and making repairs.

I believe I could back upwind in 20kn with the bow blown off as someone previously suggested, however if the rudder is still present but either jammed to the side or free to swing (jumped cable, etc.), that probably won't work to make any speed and could do more damage to the rudder. I probably at least hold station, at a minimum certainly slow the drift towards shore.

Stating the obvious: Always be mindful of cascading failures - things like fouling the prop with a trailed line (whether intentionally trailed or accidentally) during a crisis, a poorly lashed headsail washing off the deck and getting under the boat or wrapped up in the anchor, a non-restrained rudder slamming back and forth until something breaks while you're dealing with something else, etc. can quickly turn an otherwise salvageable situation into a hopeless or certainly more dangerous/difficult one.

Last year I pulled a sailboat off the rocks in 15-20kn. I watched him blow onto a lee shore rock jetty while fiddling trying to get his motor started. (His boat surely would have been holed in a very short while had I not stopped to help) He was drunk or on drugs and obviously not capable of making good decisions, but I was able to manage risk to myself and my vessel to something I was comfortable with. Low slope sandy bottom all the way to the rock jetty - i.e. perfect holding ground. Dropping anchor would have saved a whole lot of damage, risk and hassle.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

By not needing the sails for propulsion, you gain some options. You could furl the headsail and sheet the main in hard to make the boat point up closer to the wind. Then if you need to fall off to one side or the other, adjust from that point (likely by pulling out some headsail).

A drogue for steering may also become more effective with use of the engine (or engine + sails) as you would be able to handle more drag behind the boat without losing your ability to make progress to windward.

Or, instead of a drogue, as long as the engine is the propulsion, why not just pull the boom forward with a preventer on the port side to steer to port and stbd to steer to stbd? I haven't tried it yet, there's another thing for the youtube channel in the spring.