Reasonable and Responsible Offshore Practice

[Tetepare]

My favorite days with my old Catalina 30 was when they said Small Craft Warnings. I’d be excited with anticipation for days on hearing such a forecast.

And I busted my knee reefing the main, three hours from port. That was a long ride.

And a lot of stuff gets busted up.

It was pretty exciting off GBR in a tropical storm on a 44’, the main had ripped and the second headsail had to be lashed, being burried under water while trying to lash a flogging sail is challenging.

So heavy weather sailing is a good skill, it is more dangerous than sailing perfect weather. I’d work up to it.

[JasonS]

Reasonable and Responsible. How about we start with some of these

- boat maintained well (good to have a checklist - engine running well, bilge pumps operational, charts updated, VHF checked, etc)
- standing and running rigging inspected before leaving for offshore every time
- life raft inspected and in place to be deployed in 60 seconds or less
- ditch bags ready
- EPIRB checked
- Offshore communications plan
- Jacklines in place
- Everyone with offshore lifevest, harness, lines
- Briefing before leaving dock or anchorage
- Float plan filed and/or satellite tracking with messages sent to designated family or friends

- We have a rule that no one leaves the cockpit at night unless the other person is awake and is must be clipped in.

- Practice drills are good to do.

[Jackg]

>Heaving to, what a jacked up concept that is.


A few years ago we were returning from Bermuda in our Allied Seawind II and got hit by a northerly gale in the Gulf Stream. 40 knots. Pretty ugly. We hove to under a reefed mizzen. We were able to cook and sleep. Can't beat a ketch.

[MicHughV]

Worst weather I ever experienced was about 300 miles south of Bermuda. It was miserable as all get out. No sail up, streaming a drogue, but still doing 6 knots plus sliding down wave faces. Wasn't sure if I was on a submarine or a boat.
No cooking or sleeping for us, and was on a ketch to boot

[nortonscove]

John Kretschmer used to offer that type of training. He was here in Newfoundland a few years back looking for some nasty stuff. Saw his boat in St. Anthony in the wee hours of the morning while we were there picking up a barge. Sadly didn't get to say hello as it was probably after three in the morning and we were heading out the harbour again before four. You don't normally have to wait long here for that practice. The weather agency here calls a small craft warning at 25 knots otherwise you'd have one for 80% of days.

[Kd9truck]

Yes, yes and yes, knowing what you vessel can do up though the Beaufort scale and when you should be reefing or striking sail in coastal conditions is invaluable should those conditions arise off shore.
I would also suggest… to include… knowing each point of sail in those conditions….and if you have…how your auto pilot will hold up.

PS great thread

[valhalla360]

If you gradually work your way up, so you know how you and your boat handle it in lesser conditions...sure.

If you have limited yourself to mill pond days and then go out in 10-15fters...probably not so reasonable and responsible.

Of course as previously mentioned, boat in good condition and weather forecast is not always right.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Kd9truck

Yes, yes and yes, knowing what you vessel can do up though the Beaufort scale and when you should be reefing or striking sail in coastal conditions is invaluable should those conditions arise off shore.
I would also suggest… to include… knowing each point of sail in those conditions….and if you have…how your auto pilot will hold up.

PS great thread

Nice.

That's pretty easy on my boat.

It has one point of sail after the wind exceeds around 30 knots and that's DDW .......

[mako]

I'm cruising out of Port Canaveral (central Florida). On any given summer/fall day we see water spouts on the horizon. Sometimes really big freakin' ones like from a movie. Although I've sailed through small ones on Tampa Bay, I wouldn't want to get hit by a biggie. However they don't seem to move around too quickly so you should be able to avoid them.

[Orion Jim]

This photo is what is left of the seas from the full gale on the previous day. Walls of breaking water which reached 18 to 20 feet at the height of the storm. I was in the Gulf Stream north of Bermuda and the gale came out of the southwest, thankfully. I was headed northwest and my Monitor windvane kept me on course throughout. I just reduced sail as needed until I was down to a couple square yards of just the yankee at one point. I was able to reach over the seas making a knot or two of headway and only a handful of seas broke aboard, mostly wave tops, but the wind driven spray was like a firehose. At no time did I consider it prudent to heave to and reducing sail to near nothing allowed me to maintain steerage so I could keep the seas on my port bow.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by _LifeInTheWild_

Heaving to, what a jacked up concept that is. ...I suppose I should really work on heaving to on purpose.

almost the first thing I (we) learned.

Had to heave to this past weekend in 10kts and 1-2ft seas.

Picked up a crab pot and could not get it loose, started prepping to go overboard, at the same time the continuous furling line jumped off the winch doofer at the mast (bloody, bloody furling main!), could not get it in....

Ended up hove to, pulling the main down in a hurry while putting a sissy line out and going overboard to cut the crab pot floats off the prop.

Cold water felt great on my sunburn

[Kd9truck]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Nice.

That's pretty easy on my boat.

It has one point of sail after the wind exceeds around 30 knots and that's DDW .......

And Knowing that is everything, have you tried a Drogue to keep from surfing down a swell while rocking that DDW? And maybe pulling one would give you more points of sail?
I have not outfitted my vessel with a drogue yet, but it’s on the list. More for a back up to a lost rudder, AND. As a net to hoist a incapacitated MOB back on to the boat. And I plan on keeping it close to the life raft, my over active imagination sees the prospect of a toboggan ride down a wave with a hard stop when we hit the back of the wave in front in blackout conditions to be less than optimal, maybe I’m over thinking ?
Cheers mate.

[_LifeInTheWild_]

Some great words have been spoken here. I appreciate all the responses.

I actually started thinking about this stuff after a sail I had last summer. He headed out in the Apostle Islands on the big lake (Superior). We had a nice breeze and the sailing was wonderful. In the afternoon the wind picked up. I remember feeling a bit over powered. My wife giving me the "oh sh*t" look confirmed. I wasn't really that over powered, but my rig is on the older side at the moment so I don't push it. I dropped main and continued on with the mizzen and head sail. I figured the wind was over 20kts. I was moving about 6.5 which is a pretty good clip for the old girl when a big gust would come in. The problem was that was all the reef I have as my main was never rigged for reefing (old roller boom.) I was looking at the boats around me and I seen another ketch go jib and jigger soon after I did. That validated what I did because I know the boat and the captain has some experience behind him. I came around the front of the island and had to head up a bit to get home. I realized then that I was out of sail options for what I had up. I decided it was time to pull them down and motor home directly into the wind. It was blowing hard enough I barely made 2 and half knots the rest of the way back to the dock. I wasn't overly stressed, but was glad to be tied up. The next weekend I had my in laws out and the motor quit. I was ignorant and didn't have a spare fuel filter on the boat and had to get towed to the dock. It was at that point the lessons were learned. US Boat Tow won't always be there. Home won't always be at the best point of sail. Being prepared is more important than just being important. Seamanship matters. I was in the protection of the islands. Worst case, I could have just turned around and headed DDW and hid behind the island. I also had a set of storm sails below. My thoughts have drifted out to the open ocean. Do I know what my options are? Do I know how to employee those options? Wisdom and experience goes an awful long ways. Those things make a difference. Thanks again for helping out.

[JPA Cate]

It was very helpful to me for us to do to what you're suggesting, Life in the Wild.

We were based in San Francisco, and were just Bay and coastal cruisers, but we decided to take Jim's Yankee 30 (an S&S sloop) to HI and back. After we bought the next boat, and when we were getting ready to leave to go cruising, we went out intentionally in the bigger weather, and learned lots about stuff like where to sheet the storm jib so that the boat will heave to under it rather than tacking and flying off on the new tack. And who cares if it were pouring rain and cold. A warm house, hot shower to come back to and super take away food! It was an excellent preparation for more passages. It was all Jim's idea, too. People thought we were cuckoo. And yet, the strategy worked very well for us.

Ann

[gamayun]

Yes, do get out there in increasingly bigger conditions for you and the boat! How else will you learn what needs to get beefed up. I think I broke everything those first five years....

Oh, something that I was reminded about from friends in a boat they had grounded during a recent storm on the bay -- don't furl your jib and expect to sail the main alone to weather. Downwind is ok but not close hauled. Even though I have a tiny jib on my Freedom I learned the same early on when I was "exploring going solo" in 32 knots.