Sailing Downwind Offshore - how to stop rolling ?

[barnakiel]

Hi,


What are the best ways, any ways, to lessen monohull rolling on a down-wind ocean passage?


It is a small mono of older design and so she rolls quite a lot.


Which sail-combinations are known to roll less?


Will weight distribution help? If so, how to place the movable ballast?


Please let me know your advice.


Best regards,
barnakiel

[ThereAndBack]

Bring as much weight as possible low and center. Crack off a few degrees if possible or go deeper, find where the boat likes the waves to touch on the aft end.

[thomm225]

I think you're stuck with it cause that's just what they do.....these old narrow full keel monohulls

Doesn't bother me now but when I was first transitioning to these old full keel boats in 2011 from beach cats the rolling would do a number on my stomach so much so I was like STOP THE F'ING ROLLING!.

Didn't help though.

But that was with main and jib. (2019)

With jib alone, they seem to do much better.

2nd video main and jib. (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agtdrmAqojs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd3E5-KyiZ8

[Cheechako]

Heading toward a broad reach rather than full downwind can help. It can be fast and less gibe issues too. You then need to gybe now and then though to stay a course.
I like the headsail only option also.

[dougweibel]

If your setup allows try sailing a quite deep angle with two headsails flown wing-on-wing. If you have a pole, use it on whichever side will tend to be a bit upwind. You will find when flying two headsails wing-on-wing that the lack of a gap between the sails tends to stabilize them much better than if you were wing-on-wing with a headsail and main, so you can tolerate more rolling without slatting. If you are concerned about the main not providing backwards tension on the mast use a tight topping lift and mainsheet. Or, you can fly the main with it sheeted tight to center though this may tend to disturb the flow to the headsails and make it more difficult to keep them happy. In some conditions this setup will allow you to make better VMG than sailing jibing angles and taking waves very near directly from behind may alleviate your rolling.

[Bellinghamster]

As said, pole the genoa clew windward and come up a bit so the sails are flying instead of just being a parachute. Yes, flying the genoa "backwards". It's amazing how turning away from DDW 30 degrees or so and getting the sails pulling both stabilizes the boat, picks up a lot of speed improving steerage, and also brings the apparent wind forward which allows you to then fall off quite a bit and still maintain faster boatspeed.


Our boat (then a CSY44 cutter rigged sloop) didn't sail very well with twin headsails in Pacific tradewinds, plus it was a pain to host on the second furler track (using the spinnaker halyard) and made the headsails non-furlable (i.e. if in a squall).

If we needed to dampen roll when sailing deep downwind wing-on-wing we'd raise and sheet the staysail hard to center (it was on a club boom). If wind was higher we'd fly poled-to-windward genoa and sheet the reefed main hard to center.

[Benz]

My boat (full keel, stern-hung rudder) rolls least with a healthy amount of main up. It's just a great steadying influence. With just a headsail, it's obscene, so I always have some main showing.

[barnakiel]

Thank you every for your answers and for the videos too !


We are collecting insights before assumed passage Atlantic East to West in late 2022.


It will be our 7th time but each time we are out there I dream someone has THE solution to this roll-hell situation. The older I get, the more I hate the roll.



barnakiel

[MartinR]

Easy, do not sail dead downwind. Depending on the boat, 20-30 degrees off DDW will result in a faster crossing, less rolling and a more pleasant sailing altogether. Of course, you will have to gybe halfway.

Personally, I avoid DDW as much as is possible. It is the slowest point of sailing for all boats.

[Gaia]

Buy a junk rigged schooner Gazelle with double sheeted sails.. Set the foresail tight in the middle and presto, no more rolling. Heaven.

Ours will be for sale 😊

Jim sv Gaia

[Gaia]

Ps The website is gaiaforsale.com

[JohnHolland]

We usually had wing on wing poled out genoa and jib when sailing downwind in trade wind conditions.

If it got rolly we raised a double or triple reefed mainsail, sheeted in tight.

It dampened the rolling, but did not eliminate it.

[donradcliffe]

I have done a transat with a main and poled out genoa and another with twin genoas. The boats and the conditions may have been a bit different, but I found that the twin genoas cut down the rolling quite a bit.

I hoisted both genoas with the same halyard, then used a bit of lashing on the bottom of the shorter one to get the same luff tension. In the early days when I was reaching with the main up I had to use a separate lead for each genoa because the clew heights were different.

Once I was in the downwind phase, I lowered the main and put the weather jib on a pole. It seemed to me that the twin sail configuration itself damped the rolling. I also could line up the boat with the swells because I didn't have to worry about gybing.

Another big advantage was that one person could reef from the cockpit at night by simply easing both genoa sheets and pulling in the furler. The autopilot seemed to be happier because the center of effort was further forward.

I plan to use the twin genoa configuration again on my next downwind passage.

[shimari]

I like the idea of this approach, and I'll be trying it if/when I get next boat.

https://www.rhbell.com/Simbo/index.html

[SteveSadler]

As most passages are ddw, it's hard to avoid. I've found that the genoa poled out to windward and full main out to the shrouds to leeward, the best option. The biggest help is the vang to flatten the main. With just a genoa, the roll is twice as bad.