The reason you take your headsail down in a hurricane!

[Blue Stocking]

A loosely furled headsail, such as one would do after a casual afternoon sail, will, when buffeted by high winds, tighten up its roll and the weight of the sheets will cause a small triangle to form. Trying holding 1/4 sheet of plywood in 30+ knts and you will get the idea of windage created. I ALWAYS put 2 or 3 wraps of sheet on the sail, and then snug the furling line on a winch. Not only does this safety the sail, but makes for a much smaller area presented to the wind. Bluestocking's 53 ft luff length x 3" wide is almost 1/2 sheet of plywood. Try holding that up in 30 + knots o' breeze.

[zeehag]

i priced my genoa after it blew out due to repairman error from la cruz, and i found it is over 10,000 usd for a replacement. 2000?? i WISH. especially as mine would not have had issues had it been repaired correctly in first place.
thos ewho leave boats and intended not to return for storm prep are irresponsible and deserve what they get.it is when those essentially abandoned boats injure others that it gets difficult. as seen in newton damages and in fla, this is a real possibility.
marinas were destroyed by a combination of unprepped boats and poor marina design.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Sailor647

This is the dumbest thing I have read on this forum this year.

I think you will find contenders for that accolade...

[thinwater]

Short of full hurricane conditions, taking the spinnaker halyard and using it to wrap the genoa in the reverse direction can be quite effect. No way it can open, no even a little.

[neilpride]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Short of full hurricane conditions, taking the spinnaker halyard and using it to wrap the genoa in the reverse direction can be quite effect. No way it can open, no even a little.

The windage can be horrible , even can put a mast in the ground in 2.

[hpeer]

A few weeks ago we had a storm come through our marina. A relative newbie couple adjacent to us in a 27' Bayfield. They had been a little lax in rolling their headsail and the 60 knot winds picked out a corner. He was rather timid but wee she was a fireball. I tried to have them unfurl the sail a bit so that we could reroll it. It quickly became evident that was VERY BAD idea!

But something had to be done. A gust would shake the forestay mercilessly, trying to hold it to quiet it was a fools game. I think we all feared it would break the foil or attachments.

Next we tried to run some spare halyard around the sail, but we could not get the line to wrap over the exposed bit adequaley. Eventually I hit on using a halyard to raise a loop so we could collapse the flailing bit of sail. With some boat hook coaching we were able to get that to work. All in all it took 5 adults working at least a half hour to accomplish this. My shoulders were sore for a week.

We regularly leave a number of sheet turns on the head sail. My Wife, bless her heart, makes me redo the wrap if it's not tight. Usually if we expect big wind I will wrap 2 spare halyards around the foresail, one each way. When we left our big boat in NC last spring we took down the foresail, the main is in a cover, but I wrapped that with lines and snubbed it tight.

[Badsanta]

They just don't know any better. You don't know what you don't know. Expensive mistake, but it didn't sink.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Short of full hurricane conditions, taking the spinnaker halyard and using it to wrap the genoa in the reverse direction can be quite effect. No way it can open, no even a little.

watched this occur, right in front of my eyes in a cane. hahah a donot bet that wind cannot undo lines and knots as it can , as can water. tropical storm winds opened my genoa as i watched as well. i donot trust the winds

i removed my horribly difficult to remove genoa from the roller and stowed it for patricia--watched the neighbor refuse to do this, and he lost one sail and was sailing in his slip under the other headsail wondering why his cleats and lines would not hold. he broke 2 cleats and 4 lines. i busted one cleat--err removed it from the wood, but i was also tied to piling--which did not prevent the knock down of my boat into the dock for extended hours of cane abuse. i broke no lines.
upon my return to my boat, i found my halyards i had affixed nicely had been untied by the wind. yes they wee totally secured to my bow pulpit when i left. oops.
pin rails for next storm. i donot secure halyards to mast or near mast for huge winds as that creates havoc with em and ruptures the outer cover causing mandatory replacement issues.

[Tingum]

I wish the insurance companies would stop paying claims to people who do not prepare for a storm That woul save the responsible people a lot of money!

[adlib2]

Originally Posted by CHM

Attachment 132563
I couldn't believe how many boats took no action to prepare for this disaster!

Really! This is scary ****. I have seen so much damage here near Ponce Inlet due to poor preparation and planning.


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Mathew was the 7th Hurricane I've experienced with this boat and the first that I had no damage. I stayed on the boat through it all.
A lot to be said for being in a good Hurricane Hole tied to a substantial dock.
Here in Green Cove Springs we are 28 miles up the St. Johns River from the Jacksonville inlet and protected from wind and surge.
My house in St. Augustine is another story, severe flooding of the whole neighbourhood makes it look like a war zone with furniture and carpets, etc. out on the street for discard and 6in of slime on driveway and lawns. Pity the house doesn't float like a boat and sail it away. At least the insurance company is paying to have walls drilled and chemicals injected to wick moisture and prevent mildew plus for other damage.

[jkindredpdx]

Funny... we've only had a couple Big Storms (by our standards) in my lifetime; they were both on Columbus Day.

[adlib2]

Originally Posted by jkindredpdx

Funny... we've only had a couple Big Storms (by our standards) in my lifetime; they were both on Columbus Day.

I can never fathom why the US celebrates Columbus Day; after all, Cabot claimed North America for England while Columbus was sunning himself in the Caribbean.
There is no record of Columbus having set foot in NA.

[brownoarsman]

Originally Posted by adlib2

I can never fathom why the US celebrates Columbus Day; after all, Cabot claimed North America for England while Columbus was sunning himself in the Caribbean.
There is no record of Columbus having set foot in NA.

Knights of Columbus lobbying http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-day
In America, everyone needs their own holiday to feel special

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[CSY Man]

i did not remove the sails before Wilma, instead secured them well.
Regretted my decision in the middle of the storm blowing 120 mph but got away with it, no damage.
Not recommended however..
[IMG][/IMG]

[ghendoaus]

Originally Posted by zeehag

what other excuses are there for irresponsible boat ownership???

irresponsibility??