anchor v sailing at anchor

Nothing multi-hull specific, but if you're using a second anchor to allievate sailing-at-anchor, you might consider an old sailing ship technique called "Anchor under foot".

Set the first anchor and hook up the bridle as normal. Then, drop the second anchor directly down off the bow. Ease out only about 10' of rode more than the depth of the water.

The idea is that when the boat starts to sail off, the nearly vertical anchor causes enough resistance that the bow slows down and the stern catches up. The boat still sails back and forth a bit, but it really just wags it's tail in the wind - the bow's left/right movement is way less than a boat length.

I've done this a lot with just a 10 pound dinghy anchor dropped off the bow of an 18 ton boat. Works great.

good spin link - basic tips

http://www.mysailing.com.au/news/spinnaker-stories1

windward takedowns to have spin ready for next hoist

hell even Olso 30s do it that way you have to douse the kite to the side you will likely set on at the next hoist.

this means learning to do windward takedowns consistently, as well as poleless gybesets. Both of which are quite doable if you have a consistent bow and trimmer.

Roll to the left/ Roll tp the Right

We're not talking pole to headstay ease, more like 6-8" when u start rolling, maybe little more. This will help calm the boat down for the few seconds you need to get your shit together. If it is that puffy, why isn't someone looking back for the puffs? Realistically only the driver needs to be looking forward, and only so he doesn't hit anything. Homeboy trimming the guy sits backwards, goes OOO thats a big one, eases a foot waits for it to pass, brings it back. Also a hard pump on the main will also help the boat round up, heel to L and stop the roll. Watch any of the good college crews DW, an FJ DW is super shady, they are always looking back for 1 puffs, either comming or how to get to them, and having a hand on the vang to crank it just before that puff hits. Instead of playing the vang, play the guy a little more when the puffs hit. . . . You would be amazed how just putting the bow up 10 deg will put the boat back in a rock solid state. There are a number of reasons this is true, but primarily you reattach flow on both sails from the luff to the leach, ie reaching. When running ddw, wind will oscillate from one direction to the other to around both sides, top and bottom of the sails... very unstable. Moving the pole forward, up, down, in or out will not change the stall characteristics of sails DDW. As a matter of fact, when you ease the pole forward you accentuate the rolling ability of the chute!

General Up & Down tips

Upwind:

-Weight out of the ends, especially the back of the bus was critical. Light air I drove from in front of the wheel, reaching back to steer.
-Light air dramatic amounts of headstay sag was fast. In light, lump we sometimes carried 18" of sag.
-In ultra-light, we used the baby stay to open the main leach.
-Up wind in 25+, we let the top of main actually invert, vang sheeted and sailed on a nice flat #3. You may have to reinforce the deck around the partners to really vang sheet depending on how your vang is rigged. Well, we had to anyway.
-The rig was drum tight and we ultimately had to reinforce the deck beam.
-Hike bitches!

Downwind:

-We used flat headed kites and low pole to force an assymetrical shape in light and medium airs. Sailed at about 145 TWA, in medium airs, 135 TWA in light, (or 90-100 AWA).
-We carried the pole consistently about 2' lower than the clew and always went for speed over depth until the breeze was in the teens.
-We had incredibly light light air spin sheets, 3/32" kevlar core leech cord line. NO shackles. NO guys until solid 12 TWS.
-Breezy reaches we sometimes reefed, given helm from the oversized main.
-In a breeze, we had a bullet-proof 1.5 oz. stable runner that we could carry up to about 32TWS, but by then you were dialing for dollars on the helm.
-Low pole, never back more than 45?, twinged down. As SOON as the rig started to move to weather, BAM on the wheel to get the boat vertical. No hesitation.

Traveller Up, Sheet off

Some times have the traveler way to weather and slack the main sheet in a blow. This allows the head to twist off ad de-power the main without flogging as much and allows us to point higher.

more DeathRoll avoidance

The key is to develop a feel for how hard the boat can roll before you lose it. The usual roll pattern is a good roll to windward, a stronger roll to leeward, and then an even stronger roll to windward, which is when you will lose it. The key is to steer up hard on the third roll, which will stop the boat from rolling. It's even better if you steer off on the leeward roll, which will dampen the overall intensity, but it is absolutely essential to steer up hard as the boat begins to roll to windward, so the boat stays under the masthead.

The "training wheels" strategy of pole forward and low will dampen the roll, as will keeping the chute well trimmed. Ease the vang in a round-up, but not on a round-down, since a loose mainsail leach forces the masthead to weather and makes it nearly impossible to jibe back if you lose it.

In extremis, you can blow the sheet, but do it quickly, so the spinnaker luff doesn't increase the windward roll. Don't blow the afterguy. This will break the pole on the forestay and probably the tull-luff, too.

Chicken stays should go from the pole butt to the rail. The goal is to prevent the pole from pushing the mast out of column, but if the tip of the pole is well and truly buried, something will break. The cheapest candidate is the mast car, the most expensive is the mast. A foreguy to led to the middle of the foredeck will prevent the water force from rotating the pole aft and keep it away from the shrouds.

More Heavy Air Spin Tips - thx SA!

A couple of things that can help.

Pre Event (the way your boat is set up)
1) Chicken stays. These are stays that run from the track on the mast for the pole, roughly opposite to the gooseneck, down to the rail about 1/2 way between the shrouds and the bow. They keep the mast from being pushed aft as the pole jams into the water. They will allow you drag the pole through the water without dismasting - as often.
2) Fore guy that is actually a "fore" guy, as opposed to a spinnaker pole vang. My Moore-24 has a fore guy in the middle of the fore deck, it keeps the pole forward but loads the mast a LOT. See #1 above to fix that. A spinnaker pole vang, that goes to the base of the mast, is easier to use sometimes but way weaker in many ways.
3) Don't pull the pole so far aft in heavy conditions. Keep the pole about 1/2 way between the shrouds and the jib stay, right over the chicken stay.
4) Crank the sheet in a bunch on the chute in these conditions so the boat actually feels a bit pinned to leeward and choked - stable and over trimmed is faster than loose and on your side.
5) NEVER EVER EVER let the main vang off at all. Mainsails wrapping around the mast and pushing the mast head to windward are #1 cause of death rolls, IMHO.
6) Finally, set the pole up with the butt end BELOW the outboard tip and have the butt end track hoist line easy to blow. See what to do with this in the next section.

During the event (while things are going badly)
1) Pull the mainsheet in hard - really hard - and fast. Frequently you can do this faster than pulling in the chute sheet.
2) Pull the sheet in on the chute - really hard and fast.
3) If the crew can, pull hard on the vang.
4) If 1 through 3 aren't doing it, blow the butt-end hoist on the spin pole track. The pole will shoot down the mast (because of #6 above - remember you set it up with the tip high!) and the pole will look as though the fore guy has been blown. But, it's much safer and more in control. Now, the pole is pointed up at about 60 degrees and you won't have the chute up around the mast head - the chute can't go up any more because you didn't loosen the fore guy or after guy.

Blowing the butt end of the pole is my fav thing to do, but it can wreck everything if you don't have the butt below the tip prior to the "event" and if you don't have a good stopper knot or stop on the end of the track.

Enjoy, we all do it.

BV




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What the heck am I doing here? Why aren't I out sailing?


NoStrings

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Find Member's Posts Today, 01:28 AM Post #33


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I think that most often a Chinese gybe will occur in the middle of a gybe in a big breeze. Up to that point, you might have had the pole forward, blanketing half of the kite behind the main, and all is "well". then it comes time to run deep, pull the pole aft, and gybe. That's when things tend to go pear shaped for most.

1) talk through the damn maneuver first. Make sure everyone knows EXACTLY what it is they're supposed to do.
2) make sure that everyone is ready to execute their tasks
3) do it and don't hesitate for god's sake. It's when you have to drive a rolly boat ddw for a LONG period of time that you get fucked in the ass. Trust me... I know and suspect that Peter Lyons has pics that he's too kind to publish.

Once you know FOR CERTAIN that you're screwed, you have a couple of choices...

1) trim the kite hard to round the boat up

if that doesn't work

2) sky the fucking pole to keep the mast in one piece.

You're not thinking about racing at this point, you're thinking about keeping everything in one piece so that you can race in 5 minutes.

Some of you guys need to start thinking about these events from the standpoint of the people paying the fucking bills. And please, don't give me some song and dance about "if you can't afford to lose a mast, you can't afford to race". If you think that way, please wear a sign on your chest so we can keep you off of our boats.



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No Strings Attached

more DEATH ROLL avoidance

DO NOT reef the main this will move the center of pressure too far to windward, resulting in an even faster roll to weather.

When it is really blowing (above 25 kts) we always use the smaller, flatter spi without shoulders.
we keep it right in front and near the boat, sheeted to tight, almost touching the forestay
twings are your friend. set both about 12-18 inches off the deck.
PICK A SIDE, the wind "flows" around your sails consistently, if you're ddw, it swaps direction (leach to luff, luff to leach) all the time, helping generate that "rock and roll" you get going ddw
Its all a bout the driver. React early, hard and often. AS SOON AS the masthead just starts to move to weather, punch the boat quickly and firmly in that direction. Bang. Then let up. AS SOON AS the oscillation starts the masthead swinging to leeward, punch the bow quickly and firmly in that direction. Bang. Then let up. Repeat. Break a sweat.

The idea is to keep the bow directly below the masthead and stop the rolling on the first or second smallish oscillation with quick, quick short helm movements. Quick so the flow remains attached to the rudder.

When you are rolling to weather, NEVER let your trimmer ease the sheet. The kite will LOOK like its strapped, because you just rolled to weather. DO NOT EASE!

Main Full Hoist - no need to grind!

Main should hoist to the marks and that to add luff tension to depower you adjust the cunningham.

sail cutting tolerances

The old adage of "measure twice, cut once" was never truer than in sailmaking.

mainsail girths coming in at between 9mm and 1mm under the max. If it was 10mm under, it was too much.

douse options

If you can do the 3 basic douses, leeward, windward and stretch and blow you've got it 99.999% covered. If something wierd comes up don't hesitate to free fly the kite and work it out as you go.
dousing into the cabin hatch is your friend.

Reach Douse = Stretch & Blow or Ltr box

Stretch and blow - sheet on to stretch the foot, pole to forestay. Smoke the halyard. Grab sheet/lazy guy and gather.

the rig snapped....several things are working against it. First, the main is WAY eased. Second, there's not nearly enough vang. Both of these issues are allowing the main to leverage against the spreader (big main too) and the combination of twist and column distortion further exacerbated by stuffing the boat in to the chop has made a tough job for this poor tin rig.

Mutiple factors are in play including lower vs upper tension

it's distortion is centered 2' above the gooseneck and the main has the wrinkles of death
They determined that the backstay didn't prevent the out-of-column issue happening 2' aboave the gooseneck whereas the checkstays did (U20 big main)

Adding Dyform also helps as the 1x19 gets the shit stretched out of it when loaded and the dyform just holds it's length MUCH better.

Blowing the vang dead downwind with the main eased out like that is the exact opposite of what you want to do. Essentially it does nothing to depower the main, but instead shoots the center of effort up into the top 2/3rd of the rig. The leech of the main is your backstay!, so with the main eased all the way out and vang off, you basically just blew your backstay off.

You need traveler down and sheet on to keep at least some pressure on the leech of the main, otherwise, rigs gonna come down as well. Without the main, you only have the caps to save you and that creates huge compression loads in the rig.

Haylard tension - no dedicated haylard winch

By luffing you are de-powering both the main and the headsail, as opposed to just the main...
I see many people over tightening the luff on Kevlar mains also, different than with relatively stretchy Dacron.

Anchor safety

360 solid blue LED light for one of the boats. Solid blue has no official meaning in our waters, and it's not flashing, so I'm not impersonating a police officer. I tested it a few evenings last fall and the observations confirmed by belief: Drunk people on the water avoid blue lights.

How to drop a new haylard without a messenger

Once you're up there, the best way to run the new halyard down is stack about 20 1/4" nuts on a light line. Rolls right over the sheave and, if you've heeled the boat properly, right down the correct side of the mast. Bob's your uncle.

Measure and mark the line so you know when you should be at the exit port.

downwind reef

drop 3 ft haylard, winch in reef line, drop another three feet

or

When unexpectedly caught in a 50 knot squall when running with too much sail up, don't even think about trying to reef downwind. Simply release the halyard and turn upwind.

or

with main at 45 degrees release haylard and gybe - watchout for boom and the whole mess droping

of course keep main sheet snug so it does not lasso someone

More Reasons to go down Fwd

Down the hatch. Down the hatch. Down the hatch.

Make sure you have a good look your hatch and take care of anything that could snag the kite on its way back out. Put a whiffle ball on top of the stanchion that is going to be on the kite's path on its way out. If your hatch is big enough, have a laundry bag made for the hole.

If you are doing mainly w/l courses with port roundings, practice doing windward drops so you can get the kite down on the left side of the boat, ready for the bear away set. In any case, the brains at the back of the boat should know what side they will want the kite for the next set. The brains at the front should be able to execute whatever is necessary to get it there --windward, leeward, mexican, whatever. But if you want to do a windward takedown and it is blowing 20kts be sure that you can get the boat deep enough to execute.

Now you've got all the gear on the correct side of the boat. You may need to unclip the spin halyard if you can't put enough slack in it. Spin halyards are too short on a lot of boats. Close the hatch on the head of the kite so you can hook it back up at the appropriate time. Otherwise, leave the halyard hooked up with a lot of slack. A clip to the rail (a snap shackle with a trip line that is lead back to the mast) can be nice but may not be necessary.

What came down untangled should go back up just fine, so you won't have to repack and you can keep bodies on the rail. It won't take so many people to get the kite down because it travels a shorter distance. The bow and mastman should be able to handle on their own. You can throw one more body at it if necessary (ie. bow still needs to deal with pole). Start doing windward drops and the kite will practically put itself away.

Benefit of Foredeck Hatch Drop

We do it down the hatch. Our pointy end guys re-launch with little or no work or re-organization, as long as no one fucks with the gear or screws the takedown. If it's a straight leeward takedown and a bear away set. If you have other combinations sometimes the gear has to be moved, but the tapes don't generally need to be run unless something bad happens. (said from the perspective of the guy sitting in the back of the bus of course...but I did bow on my boat once!)

On a big boat the companionway can be pretty damned far from where the spinnaker is flying. It is less practical to douse to the companionway. You'd have to drag it around 2/3 of the boat, and there's stuff going on there.