Running Before the Windddd....

[Pernicious Atavist]

Great day sailing the canoe today. Water was cold and spray was colder! Froze my butt off, but what a great day! Now, some feedback needed.

!6' canoe, lateen sail. Running downwind, water pretty fair with slip chop, some wakes. Wind about 15-18kts. To keep 'er under control I kept the sail close-hauled so the wind would slip out the front of the sail, and to keep the spars inboard to prevent that death roll it develops when running hard. The boat kept getting trying to come up. Trying to avoid gybing which, as bad as it is, would have been flat fugly today, probably accompanied by snapping sounds, cursing etc.

Any suggestions to improve on this? Don't like running downwind when it's blowing like that.

[bamamick]

O.K., I don't know anything at all about canoe sailing (as evidenced by my attempt at owning an IC), but in Finns, which is a derivative of the canoe type, I learned the hard way how to sail downwind in seas and breeze. In the Finn we tie what is called a 'Jesus knot' (as in 'thank you, Jesus!') any time that the wind is up a little bit, and we tie it depending on the strength of the breeze. You don't want your boom to go forward of 90 degrees and since we are holding the sheet in our hands directly off of the boom and not through the block, were it to slip out of your hand odds are you are going to be levered over unless you've got your Jesus knot tied. In 15 knots you might tie your knot at 80 degrees or so. There was a race in California the other day where the breeze was hitting the 30's and the guys were shortening their main sheets by tying the knot at as little as 50 degrees off the wind!

So you are sailing downwind and the boat rolls hard one time. The natural inclination is to try and come up to stop the roll? That's what I thought, too. What you do in the Finn is to give the sheet a good tug and pull the helm towards you so that the boat comes down the wave with a burst of speed. 90% of the time that one move will get you back on even footing and surfing again (the rolling will stop). I have done this in Stars since learning a few hard won lessons and it works the same way. The only problem, which may not concern you unless you are sailing to a particular point, is that sailing this way more or less disregards the course or the marks of a racing course. You sail the way the wind and sea wants you to go, then at the end of it you have to either gybe over or harden up, both of which can be an adventure unto themselves in this kind of weather.

Try it. Next time you start hobbyhorsing just give the sheet a good tug and peel off to leeward. I bet you'll settle out immediately.

Mickey Lake

[Pernicious Atavist]

Thanks, Mickey, I'll be out tomorrow and may have to use it then. I've scared the crap out of myself running when she starts a'rollin'...

[Tom Lathrop]

As Mickey said. The main problem with the way you were setting the sail is that it is a guaranteed capsize if you do round up. What happens is that as the boat rounds up, the air reattaches to the far side of the sail and develops a large heeling force. Bearing away, as Mickey said, keeps this from happening and you go faster.

Finn, Laser and other catboat sailors learn to deal with this after capsizing a few times. The leeward mark is not your friend because you HAVE to round up there and pick your way through capsized boats that did not do it correctly.

Ed, where do you sail on the coast?

[Hwyl]

Standing in the shadows of giant here, and humbly agreeing with Mickey and Tom.

Just wanted to reiterate that this is completely wrong thinking To keep 'er under control I kept the sail close-hauled so the wind would slip out the front of the sail,

[skuthorp]

I learnt to control it mostly by keeping the speed up and not falling off. Todd designed a sort of spinnaker with a split boom rigged forward of the mast and 2 control lines that drags you down wind, not pushes. Been very usefull too.

[Pernicious Atavist]

Tom--I sail out of Cape Carteret.

Now, maybe I didn't--couldn't--explain what I'm doing very well. Of course, I'm not racing. When I have to run straight downwind, especially when it's blowing 15kts or better, I need to keep as much wind OUT of the sail as possible or the boat gets hyper-squirrely. I've done this in the past by letting my sail [lateen] go forward of the mast, but this is a bit iffy at best.

Yesterday, keeping it close-hauled and amidships, it seemed to be the most stable. I could have veered off and run like a bat out of hell 'tacking' downwind but that would require gybes I'd rather avoid. I would have reefed, but can't. The pressure seemed to push my bow down as well.

Fun fun fun!

[Tom Hunter]

You have already got the sail handling advice, the one thing I would add is (if you can) play around with where you are sitting. I'm assuming the boat is small enough so that you are part of the ballast, shifting a bit can make a large difference in how she handles.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I can't say that it's the easiest reef to put in on the fly, but the customer says it does work with a bit of fiddling.

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