Got caught yesterday...(sorry it's long)

[Russ Sylvester]

Weatherman was predicting a 40% chance of rain, winds out of the WSW at 10-15, highs in the upper 80's to 90. Sounded right to me! Got out to the boat around 11:00 got ready and left the slip around 12:00. Noticed on the way out that it was mostly overcast with high clouds but sun was peeking through periodically. No real rain clouds around. Headed north to stay within running home distance just in case.

Got 2-3 miles north and noticed a thunderhead forming to the west. No big deal but keep an eye on it. Ten or fifteen minutes later this thunderhead has anviled and is now growing into a decent squall line but still out west by ten or fifteen miles. I say we're not going to chance it and turn around and start back. Before we are even halfway back this thing turns black, grey and green along a line that is now easily ten miles long.

Now I'm really scared and crank the motor with sails up to make all possible speed for the harbor. Tell the boss that we will have to douse sail really quick once it starts coming in. I figure we can make it into the harbor and get into the lee and either motor head-to-wind or drop anchor and wait it out. Well at least we tried.

We got the jib down but didn't have time to secure it properly. When that wall of wind hit I thought for sure we were going over. Even with a bare pole. I didn't think a boat could heel that far and still recover. The rain was so thick that I couldn't even see the other boat 50 yards away. I actually saw little zephyrs whip up the water like little waterspouts trying to form. That's when the trouble started. Seems the screeming wind had gotten the jib opened up and was whipping away at it. One of the jib sheets got pulled out and went overboard unoticed by me. SWMBO got the jib doused again and so I figured we were actaully gonna make it. At least until the motor died right when I needed it the very most. When I tried a restart it kicked and seemed to free up. Well it did free up because something broke in the bottom end. Now we are screwed. The only thing I could think of was to get the anchor out and pray that it holds as the lee shore is getting closer and those rocks promise a quick end.

The anchor appeared to be holding at least somewhat anyway. The bow is dancing around like a leashed wildcat and I am expecting the cleat to pull out any second. I actually get a second or two to take stock of the situation. Motor's broken, sails at this point would be suicide, no lightning so far but it won't be long, nobody's hurt at least not badly, the anchor is holding. Maybe the best thing to do is just wait it out and don't try anything really stupid.

As fast as the storm hits, it's gone. It felt like two hours but I'd bet that in reality it was a total of fifteen minutes. The next problem is that the wind totally died. Not a breath to be had to sail into the harbor and away from this lee shore. I'm even contemplating getting out that stupid paddle the CG makes us carry or calling SeaTow. About that time a guy comes out in a ski boat so I wave him down and he agrees to tow us in. A hero at the perfect moment.

Safely back at the dock and tied up we do a survey and find that the worst damage is the boat motor, the cabin table which broke loose and is now a write-off, the jib sheet is chewed up and will have to be replaced. The worst casualty was our nerves. Found out later that the only thing broken on the motor was the shear pin. Easily fixed.

She was so mad that if someone had offered her ten dollars for the boat she would have sold it right there and then to buy a gun to shoot me with. I may as well get comfortable here on the boat because she may not let me back in the house. I'm in so much trouble.

What did I learn? Well the first thing is don't trust the weather guessers. I should have headed for home at the first sign of the thunderhead. During the weather I should have secured the jib better and been prepared to set anchor much earlier. The other option that I didn't think of was to head to the weather shore and anchor there. It would have been far less chop to deal with. As it was we almost got blown onto the lee shore and the boat would have been destroyed.

I apologize for being so long winded but if someone can learn from my mistake then I feel the space is worth it.

Russ

[Dave R1]

Russ, sorry to hear about your near disaster but glad to know you made it through alright.

I guess its my experience with the "weather guessers" (good name by the way) while flying that makes me a bit leery of going sailing if there's any talk of rain. I prefer to look at the charts and and make my own guess as to what the weather is going to do. At least I can get the aviation reports which give a lot more detail about the weather than the public info.

I think if you could have done it, heading for the weather shore would have been the choice if you could get there ahead of the gust front. That's a big if.

While in southern Iowa a few weeks ago, I watched a big line of storms roll in from the west. The NWS was saying that the gust front was 35 to 40 miles ahead of the line of storms. They were right that time. We got the wind about 45 minutes before the clouds passed. Fortunately we didn't get rained on but north of us about 20 miles trees and stuff got knocked down. Glad I was standing in my uncle's backyard and not on the deck of JULIE K.

[Mike Pennington]

My Wife got awful salty, after our first big scare. We weathered the big one by pulling up wind like you. In fact, we use that one as a regular dodge these days. :roll: Now you have a limit to go by, or what you can get away with.

Very well written and action packed, I enjoyed the tale. Add a few more words and enter that one in a contest.

I was just thinking it was time to go out and get the Wolf ready for a sail in the morning. I need a little adventure, but it sounds like you got enough in for all of us. :wink:

[Craig]

Great story Russ. Glad everyone is OK. I had an experience with an electric storm while out on the bay. I told my friend not to worry those black clouds were going North. Not! He hasn't been out since. My Gran always said a miss was good as a mile.

[Brent]

Russ, Looks like you have discovered the basics of heavy weather sailing!

Reducing sail is always prudent. Running downwind under limited sail (jib only) can be fun, as long as there is room. A general rule is to sail down wind on the puffs and then move to a reach on the lighter winds (if one wants to go left or right of dead down wind) A boat properly trimmed can cover a lot of ground this way without taking damage. Watch for quartering seas. This is really only practical on very large bodies of water...like the ocean. I run out of room on the inland lakes really fast.

Second option is heaving to. Can be done with sail trim in deep water, but anchoring is probably better in sheltered or confined water. This is where having that anchor chain could save your boat. The weight of the chain dampens the shock on the anchor that might otherwise break the anchor loose or part the anchor line.

Apologies to all those who already know this stuff. I thought this might be a good opportunity to share some of that salty stuff that can make sailing less daunting and more enjoyable.

[Mike Pennington]

Thats the idea, Brent 8)

Sometimes we learn the hard way, but it doesn't hurt to hear, "what to do," said now and again. Little things like advice are what jog our long term memories. Providing one has paid attention. :roll:

This is the Loon, a home design, and build of my friend, Lars Opland. I see the picture in the margin is a similar boat. The Loon is a very fast boat and stable for her width, fun to sail, and kicked my butt and left me behind, until the wind came up. :wink:

For a thrill we some times throw our fender guards out and raft to gether for a multi-sail ride :shock:

Russ, that fine cabin on our boats puts a whole new meaning to being in the dog house.

[Frank Hagan]

That's a harrowing story, Russ. Got to the end before I remembered to breath ... and I am NOT showing it to my wife!

There's a couple of things I realize I need ... like a way to securely dowse the jib and quickly get it stowed when I don't want to be on the forepeak, and an anchor. I guess the anchor is really what saved your bacon ... and your fast thinking.

I'm always concerned about quartering or following seas and being pooped. My Weekender is built of wood, but the main reason small boats sink ... even wooden ones .... is because of a pooping wave filling the cockpit. Put enough non-floating stuff in a wooden boat and it will sink.

[Mark Gudschinsky]

Good report Russ, it might help keep a few of us less salty types out of trouble or a least help us recognize trouble is coming.

Next time though remember we need pictures! :wink:

[Russ Sylvester]

Yeah, I was really thinking about pictures at the time.

Heaving-to was a viable option I didn't think of at the time. I'm gonna have to practice that just in case there's a next time. Thanks Brent!

Yeah, in retrospect I'm convinced the anchor was the best option and I should have gone to it earlier. I do have about six feet of chain on it but I don't think it made any difference as the anchor line was very taut.

BTW, after re-reading my story I realized I left out that the reason the motor died initially was because the jib sheet got wrapped around the prop. I'm still digging pieces of line out of the prop shaft.

[Mike Pennington]

I was wondering, because you said the jib sheat was shredded. :oops:

I got to go get my boat ready for a sail, your fun has given me the sailing bug. I've been sitting here thinkong, I need to go sailing, so I'm out of here.

[Knut]

Thanks for sharing the story with the rest of us. The point is, anyone can get cought in a situation like that (unless you don't go sailing at all, which is not an alternative).

In hindsight there is also frequently some things to learn and most of us have to learn by doing our own mistakes, but it is actually possible to learn a lot by checking out what could I have done myself in such a situation and in particular: What equipment may I be missing if a similar situation comes my way??

A favorite of mine is the sea-anchor or para-anchor. It may sound a bit drastic if you are sailing mostly on lakes, but there are lakes that are too deep for normal anchoring and if you can preserve precious sea room by using a sea anchor, you may avoid having to test out whether the ground tackle will stop the boat before reaching the rocks. Typically, lakes are of limited size, so the sea anchor may actually be more valuable on a lake than on the ocean (where a lee shore may be far away).

By heaving to you may reduce the down-wind drift to between 1 and 2 knots, but a good sea anchor holding back a hove to boat will reduce the drift to about 0.5 knots and it is quite easy set and retrieve.

[Tim Diebert]

Great story Russ. Thanks for that.

I was thinking I might respond to this thread when I read Knuts post. I was just going to add the same as what he had to offer.

I sail in a very deep lake as well. There are almost no places to drop a hook....although I carry two. A sea anchor is a grand plan in some cases. If you don't have a proper sea anchor....a 'warp' might work....a long length of line paid out with the two ends secured on the stern, or I have heard of folks tying a bucket to a line. I have never, so far, had to do any of that. I have found my boat to be wonderfully mannered, for anything from a beam reach down, under stock jib alone...when it get really hairy. It is actually downright relaxing.

I have had these same squalls come down on me....maybe not like yours, but what I guess would be similar. Initially I tend (if I did not have time to reduce sail) head up to windward to meet it (rather than a reach of any kind) and deflect the gusts by rounding up or spilling the main. Heave to if it gets weird. Then scramble to get the main down....once the main is in the boat will fall off and run nice on the jib. (Getting main all gathered up is the tough part...I still have my main halyards cleated off at the base of the mast)

Personally, I have had more people than I can count critsize me for two sets of reef points...each a 20% reduction in total main. They have said, "you won't be sailing that boat in storms!" I always say, "not on purpose that's for sure." But, I am not the one in control of the weather, as it happens. Why not be ready to deal with a crap situation? Maybe even enjoy it?

This last past Sunday was a great test for my new mods on my WE. We set out in conditions much like you....knowing there was weather around, but taking a chance it would not be too bad. intermitant rain, black clouds etc. I sail a mountain lake where you really can't see past the mountains that suround the lake....so you don't get much warning. I have gotten some warning when it goes from glassy to squall, as you can actually see the line of white water approaching. On Sunday though, it was already windy (measured 6-10 knots) perfect sailing conditions for having my wife out for the third time in three years. She had been (in her words) a 'wind jinx'....we got skunked the two preveous trips. Not Sunday...she got a years worth in one afternoon.

Going to windward for most of the day trying for an area in the far south of the lake. We were sailing in the largest expanse of the lake when the wind basically doubled in speed and was gusting up from there. It was awesome. Busting through waves, both of us up on the rail. Daphne was hooting and hollering....and very wet (a hot day). Spray over the bow pretty constantly...enough to slide the hatch shut and consider putting the hatch boards in. When it got even heavier I changed tack and beam reached (spilling wind off the main as well) into a semi sheltered area and reefed down one. Back out. What a difference. You can go out in quite windy rough conditions and relax a bit more. After getting back out there, I figure it would have been OK to have gone two deep. We played with different points of sail, but decided to gibe homeward on a broad reach. The boat was very well behaved and quartered the short steep three foot waves nicely. Lakes actually seem to have worse seas than...well, the sea.

The waves are really close together and will break easily when they are only 3- feet high....but the stern always rose to meet the wave. I love the busy tiller action on that point of sail in big wind. Didn't spill a drop of beer....my new gimballed holders work great.

BUT...if my Weekender was stock with the overweight spars and unbalasted, I would not have been out there....or I would have been knocked over.

At the very least it would have been scary as hell. Instead, we had a great (but exciting) sail. Daphne told me today (2 days later) that she still has sore muscles.

Sorry for the long post....I got carried away.

Thanks for the story Russ, good one. Glad to see you, your wife and your boat are fine....and had a grand story to tell.

[Kudzu]

It's been said in different words but I consider an properly sized anchor and PROPER LENGTH of line as important as life jackets. I tend to buy an anchor one size larger than they recommend just in case. I take it for granted now but I keep one (really should have two) on any boat of mine. It has been very handy on both sail and power. But it's an essential item on a sailboat in my mind because we can't always outrun a storm like I can in my Sea Skiff.

My CS-20 will be rigged with an anchor roller and line lead back to the cockpit so that it's always there and easy to drop.

[Russ Sylvester]

I totally agree. I now have no problems with dropping the anchor and riding out a blow rather than try to fight it.

Russ

[Craig]

Tim I have used my reefing points 5 or 6 times now. Not wasted $$ for sure. It is the diffrence between having a nice safe but exciting sail or going home.

[Tim Diebert]

Other than pure one design race boats, any sailboat should have reef points. Hell, it just makes sense....and it helps a person to relax a bit as well. It is a fun thing to be able to stay out when some of the other little sailboats are heading in.

It's all fine and dandy to say "I ain't sailing in any conditions that require reefed main"...but we don't always have a choice. Dropping sail and using the motor is not a choice IMHO.

I sewed mine in myself and it was a big job. Put two sets in 20% reduction on each. I have been double reefed once this year. Makes life good.

[Kudzu]

Other than pure one design race boats' date=' any sailboat should have reef points. [/quote']

TOTALY AGREE! I had a Cal 21 and I reefed the main a lot of the time. Of course if the it wasn't whitecapping I really didn't want to go sailing anyway. Many times I have had to reef while sailing and change a head sail too.

Have not looked into how to reef the CS-20 but you can bet it will be set up so that it can be reeefed as easy as possible.