Wild & wet ride

[JeffM]

Yesterday was the only nice day in a long string of forecasts. I took my two younger boys and the Beatrice Ann to Fall River and launched at the mouth of the Taunton River, and headed out into Mount Hope Bay. Winds were forecast at s 10-15 with gusts up to 20. Inspired by Joe Nelson's high-speed ride, I opted not to reef right away, figuring that between our combined 300lb crew weight, we could keep her on her feet. But the forecast was accurate, and the wave heights were underestimated, in my opinion. In short order my crew was wet and scared. My little protractor and plumb insisted that we weren't ever heeling much over 20 degrees, but even I had a hard time believing it. It didn't help that my crew stuffed themselves under the foredeck (I am still amazed at how they can do this) to keep dry, making them useless as dynamic ballast. The only way to keep the angle of heel to much less than 20 was to luff up. I dared not trim the sails in at any time during the long beat downriver and into the bay.

I finally decided to have a go at moving the mast, which I've never done before. We anchored -- okay, first the boat anchored herself by tipping the anchor off the foredeck and tangling the rode around her cb -- just off the shore. I did the carefully choreographed dance of mast steppers and mast. And then we sailed neatly off under mizzen alone and as upright and easy as a duck.

Sailing was good after that and we managed to make fairly reasonable speed. We finished up our ride in middle of the night, after some good practice in identifying lighted buoys. I also got to try out a homemade patent log I'm trying to perfect.

I need to think about lowering my rig, I think. I made my masts about a foot taller than spec with the idea of leaving room to rig a cloth cabin/dodger that could be used under sail. I figured my 200lb could compensate for a little extra heeling force, but maybe not. In any event the cabin I had planned would create too much windage, so I'm scaling it back. Besides losing headroom, shorter masts will probably make it impossible to use the main in the reefing step--something I want to try first. The trouble is there wouldn't be enough clearance to use my mast stepper in the reefing step. Moving masts afloat would be nearly impossible without the stepper.

A related question: I found it difficult to trim the (reefing stepped) mizzen in very far-- because the sprit comes past the thwart where the main sheet is rigged, there is a lot of downward and forward strain in sheeting it in. How do others deal with this? Using the original mizzen sheet would be very awkward. I thought of putting an eyebolt through the sprit a little ahead of the aft end, and tying the mainsheet to that. If I try to use the main in the reefing step the problem would be similar, but much worse. Experiences? Ideas?

[Joe Nelson CS#35]

I dont want to be the motivation for someone doing something that gets them in trouble. When I was out in 10-20 without reefing, it was 100 degrees and we had 1-2 foot wind chop. Sounds a lot different than your situation.

I did flatten the sails with the snotter and downhaul to de-power the rig. I was amazed how much more pull there was on the sheets when I let the snotters out and got a bigger draft in the sails! I was also going mostly close to the wind or downwind...no beam reaches. When a gust came up I luffed up and the sails started flogging a bit, but we were still making good forward progress. Wing and wing, that boat really can go downwind! It was too windy to set the stays'l.

I think it would make a huge difference if you cut the bottoms off your masts to lower the center of effort. If you look at mine in the summer solstice post, they are perfect for me. They are lower than yours and I do not feel that they hurt my visibility.

[JeffM]

Thanks, Joe. My masts are longer than design, so I'm thinking of doing it right--not shortening them too much. Also, since I don't like burning bridges, I'll buzz the stoppers on the mast top bushings and simply slide the mast tops about a foot farther in, and make new stopper bushings. My masts bend so much now I don't want to shorten the bigger tubing at all. By the way, how many crew did you have aboard that day? If you were single-handing unreefed in 20kt my jaw's going to hit the floor.

[Brent]

Jeff,

Lowering your mast height is going to greatly improve heavy weather performance. The center of force on the sails will be lowered, hence reducing the healing force on the boat.

When the wind picks up I often lower the sail height on the masts (using mast tracks) before actually reducing sail area. Lowering the center of force by even 6 inches has a calming effect on the boat.

If your boat is like mine you will find that sailing the boat on her feet reefed sacrifices very little speed compared to sailing the boat heavily heeled under full sail in a blow.

[mustangermatt]

We just came back from Sucia island with some wild conditions. Winds would be dead calm and then come up to 20 - 25 knots in ten minutes. Crossing Rosario Strait and Bellingham bay we had higher gusts and steep chop 4-5 feet.

We found the best solution was simply to drop the main, slide the centerboard about half way up to move the center of lateral resistance aft a little, and go on the mizzen alone. The boat carries 10-15 degrees of weather helm, but we were only heeling about 10-15 degrees. Not pretty but very easy and effective to make a run for cover.

My masts are solid spruce and about 1' shorter than the plans to keep the effort lower, I also carry about 12% more sail area than the plan.

After a couple of days of this on/off wind we quit running for cover in the blows, everything the boat does is so predictable. I don't recommend seeking extreme conditions, but the coresound is capable of handling ALOT more weather than I would ever expect from a 17' skiff.

p.s. hope to have pics from the trip soon

[Joe Nelson CS#35]

We're heading for Bellingham tomorrow and Sucia on Friday. Hope we have better weather than you did! We have over 20 boats going...most putting in at Gooseberry, and some coming from Vancouver Island...but there are about 8 boats going from Bellingham. I will be with the Bellingham floatilla.

Did you time your trip to take advantage of favorable current? Hope you were not fighting that as well.

[mustangermatt]

Yes, we rode the tides. We don't carry an outboard, and rowing against the tide in Rosario is not an option :-)

We left Bellingham Friday at 1800 and were anchored at Sucia about 0115 Saturday. On the way home we left Matia at 1000 on Sunday and arrived in Bellingham at 2130. An outboard would cut a lot of time off in the uncooperative conditions, and I may reinforce my transome for one soon. But it is rewarding to make the trip without one.

I had hoped to make it up next weekend but I don't think my schedule will work out. I am going to miss seeing your boat.

Have fun!

[JeffM]

That's quite an adventure! Can't wait to see the pictures. I am currently shortening my mainmast by 8" and my mizzen by 6", bringing them pretty close to design. I am still hoping to be able to test the boat with main in the reefing step.