Skip Novak explains the easiest and safest way to reduce sail and carry on in a gale int he latest Storm Sailing video. Check out our other videos at www.yachtingworld.com/storm-sailing-techniques
A 4 reefed main maybe easier to do, but a storm tri sail is designed for the heavy winds. It is stronger and it is lower, keeping the center of effort closer to the boat. If you have one, practice how to use it. It may prevent you from blowing out your main when you need it the most.
Excellent point!! I would also consider the additional force placed on the mast! It sounds strange- one would think reducing sail area would cause led force on mast but physics would show that there is an increase on Mast and both the back/for stays! I agree with you and also recommend adding a running stay for storm sails!
Franklin Gray If the main is designed with this use in mind, it'll take the beating so I think that one is a mute point. However, I agree with you that the C of E is going to be higher up and further forward using a 4th reef: I suspect, though I have no personal experience with ketches or yawls that it would have less effect, but with a sloop or cutter it's going to be more significant. He has a 12 ton keel so my guess is his whole system is set up for specifically this purpose, and the milage may vary using this method on a production boat.
I would prefer to have people running around the deck and climbing in the mast as little as possible in heavy weather conditions, plus using a 4. reef would be a more flexible option in changing conditions. No doubt You have to practice that as well, but rigging a tri sail at nighttime in 40 knots of wind and heavy seas is not preferable in my view.
Skip great idea, but needs work. Your main is heavy designed for the conditions that you constantly sail in. . Most mains are much lighter constructed and would not stand up to the loads that can be experienced at your location It also adds loads to the mast and rigging. I would hate to loose the rigg sailing in those conditions. I think it better to point the bow into the storm and drop a sea anchor. Resume sailing when conditions allow.
I learn something from every video Skip makes. I like the informative nature. I over look the real world he lives in while sitting at my house dreaming about sailing like him. Yes, I have 8 sailboats from 23' to 34'. So get a life rather than bitching about what a real sailor does.
Exactly!!!!! The 4th reef is the ONLY way to go. Jocelyn Nash at Quantum knew exactly what I was asking for when I said I wanted a fourth and I wanted it small. I do miss her.
Sorry, I have sailed about 50,000 ocean miles. I just witnessed a cluster fuck. Good Lord, heave the boat to. Hoist the storm sail, and then carry on. There isn't much of a reason to hoist the sail in the manner shown over the boom. With proper preparation it can be done with a single person. Been there, done it. Reef early, reef often is the old saying. One thing which helps is to secure the boom properly. The boom should be lowered to minimize its interference which also lowers the center of gravity. I sailed a 44 foot cutter and I did the work of four men and had fewer problems than I just witnessed. The vessel was not prepared properly for shortening sail.
Hard to imagine how someone would climb onto the boom in really rough seas. And once you get the main out of that track, you now have A LOT of sail in your hands, all of it in very high winds. Try not to fly away with it!
Sorry, I'm not a purist so my three reef lines lead to the cockpit. I like the foul weather gear, but not to do so much work on deck, or climbing a boom or a few feet of the mast in that kind of weather. Kudos to those guys.
I have done the experience, that it is the best way to wool the try sail and hoist it like a wooled spinnaker. I have done this in 50+ conditions and it worked pretty well.
@@wilfdarr Not sure if this link will work but you can try it.... halkidikiclipper.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/peeling-and-wooling-a-spinnaker-no-kidding-peeling-and-wooling/ or just google a wooled spinnaker if it doesn't work .... :-)
@@wilfdarr this may be redundant now. It refers to placing wool bands to keep the sail tight while being hoisted, these break as the sail is unfurled / deployed, of course adding to the trash floating in the oceans.
Had the trisail pre-rigged recently but as Skip points out there was no need for it with a small enough final main reef. Also important to have headsails pre-hanked as much as possible to save unnecessary mucking around on the fore-deck in conditions like this.
pgreenx A sailboat is safer than any power boat. You do not need to set any sail in a storm just reef all maybe a storm anchor Shute. However many sailboats left alone in storms survive with nothing but their own love of sea.
chimbatete Since no one answered your question, and it's a good question, I'll tri…(lol) Let's say a fourth reef is about 12 feet high, and six feet long, where the tri sail is about 6 feet high and 12 feet long, though they have the same area presented to the wind, the 4th reefed sail being higher, has much more leverage to roll the boat around than the shorter tri sail. Hope this answers your question.
I know it's blowing 40+, but why not point into the wind once the trysail is on its separate track for the hoist? Selected for TheSailingChannel on the free ReduxTV App for Smart TVs. Watch more sailing tips on your big screen Smart TV using the free Redux TV App under Cars + Vehicles / TheSailingChannel.TV. On the Web at www.redux.com/sail
yeah also infinite mistakes possible, that all lead to a mess! have you heard the horror stories of boom and mast furling systems, just thinking about them gives me the shivers and goosebumps!
This is great advice but for whom ? How many such boats and crews are there ? I'd love to see Skip Novak giveing the some advice about survive on a charter boat with summer crewed Yes, yes, I know ... if you don't have an expedition yacht for a few million and dont take a professional crew who spent all their lives at sea, stay at home.
You probably mean the leeward side? As Skip says in the video, there is a designated track just for attaching the luff of the trysail. The mainsail track is on the backside of the mast, so the trysail track has to be off centerline. This time it happens to be the windward side.
Just keep in mind that you have a boom to be worried about with a 4th reef - you don´t have a boom issue with a trysail and no jybe accidents in strong wind. So I don´t agree with this technique. but sure if you don´t have a trysail the reef max.
Was für ein Aufstand, mit einem Junk sail rig waere das nicht nötig gewesen, und man hätte alle Segelmanöver sicheŕ und bequem vom Cockpitt aus machen können, warte jetzt auf den shitstorm meiner Seglerfreunde.
you do know the earth is a horizontal plane, not a globe, Skip Novak. I hope those boats weren't paid for by someone's hard working taxes. The world has awakened & all these government organizations are not getting a free ride anymore.
thebentley71 He paid for both of those boats himself selling charters around both poles. Good luck selling flat earth to someone who's circumnavigated (12 times I think). 100k sperm and you were the fastest?