Survival sailing in a TH?

[bearmcnally]

Sea anchors ? We have one , it's been hanging in the boatshed for 35 years waiting for the day !!


Exercise : Next time your out in 25 knots throw your anchor line (NO anchor) over the stern all 100 metres of it .Tie one end round a port winch and the other around the starboard winch ?

Bear

[Dolphin]

What I've found out about heavy weather sailing.
The person telling the story says that the wind is stronger than it really is. And the seas are higher too!
The weather bureau predicts the wind at sea as best they can but it is ALWAYS 5 kts stronger than they predict.
The weather bureau cannot predict the wind at sea. Despite your best planning you will get caught out in stronger winds than you wanted.
Some people set a wind limit for themselves of say less than 20 kts but invariabley will go out in stronger winds if the pressure is on. (Been there done that.)
It's important to have the knowledge and the gear on board and not use it than the other way round.

I bought a dinghy a long time ago from Cohoe Marine and the older bloke there, I forget his name, was telling me he was was caught out in the storm that wrecked the Sygna off Newcastle (1972?) when he was returning to Sydney Harbour from Broken bay. He just kept motoring slowly ahead into the storm. He had an outboard and he had his grandson on board. He had no problems.

Racing was abandoned due to a gale warning one day when we raced out of Port Hacking. I put the storm sails on and the boat perfomed well. It's clumbsy putting them on. Even in 25kts the boat sat upright and had heaps of power. It cruised along easily. I had a storm main made up that only goes as high as the spreaders. Its orange, so its highly visible.

Bernard Moitessier who was competing in the first round the world race was running towing a warp and cut it off and decided it was better to run before the storm than try to slow the boat down.

[storm petrel]

I think it depends on the boat and the severity of the conditions. Jack Earl who completed many ocean crossing in Maris ( A long keel Tasman Seabird) found trailing warps was very effective. While the couple who bought Jack's Smokey Cape (23 ft long keel yawl) and sailed her to Tahiti used one of those sea parachutes in a bad storm and had nothing but good things to say about it. Other boats are more comfortable running with the wind or lying a hull. Not sure what the best solution for a Top Hat would be. Perhaps Jamie Mitchell would be a good person to ask?