Performance in rough seas

Good comments, and well put. Dave

Aleš

Well, the race started with just over 20 knots, and with a single reef and a bit more jib than the picture, we were doing fine, 4.5 to 5 upwind and 7+ off the wind. At the point where the picture was taken we were not doing very well, from memory about 2 knots vmg. We were going sideways almost as fast as forwards

In the photo we had a single reef because the wind had increased quite quickly over a few minutes, and we were almost at the finish so we didn't put a second reef in. You can see that the sail is not powered up and is being mainly supported by the battens.

As far as kit is concerned, I have upgraded a few things to make it easier to control the sail shape: a good 4:1 traveller from Barton, adjustable jib sheet leads (just a couple of blocks and some 6mm control lines), 8:1 backstay tensioner, dynema halyards and a 8:1 main sheet. The change that makes the biggest difference though is  good sails. I have mine in Hydranet which is constructed from Dynema. It has the stretch characteristics almost as good as a laminate, but with the prospect of lasting a lot longer than a laminate sail. The main is loose footed and so can be flattened very hard, it has full length battens as well. The genoa has foam luff strips which mean that when rolled I still get a flat sail.

My I also sugget to have always on board a gale sale to be hoisted over a very stiff roller furled sail? Last August I tested it while I was solo sailing out of Corsica in 40+ knots of wind. With only that gale sale my Hanse 300 sailed very well with an angle to the wind between 60 to 90 and about 3 knots of speed under autopilot. I hope this information can help.

In the recent german Yacht magazin is a small test of diffrent gales/storm sails.

This on seems to be the best solution:

http://uk.storm-bag.com

watch the didactics video.

It is easy to install as you only have to move the sailbag around the rolled jib. Than you pull the sheets and the halyard. To me the only solution for haevy weather with the smallest amount of work on the foredeck.
Any other solution needs a lot more work on the foredeck, except you have a additional forestay, but thats not the fact on Hanses.


Edited by Peter-Blake - 28 October 2010 at 08:29

I bought a Gale Sail a couple of years ago to comply with the regulations of a race I was doing - they required a separate storm jib on board. I went for the smallest one - 60 sq feet - which is about 6 sq metres. It seems reasonably easy to fit, though I have only tried it once in 20 knots as an experiment. I did learn that preparation is key though. Get a pair a dedicated sheets ready, a good tack line ready attached to the tack, and sort out somewhere to tie it before you need to do it for real. Oh, and make sure the jib stays furled by using the original jib sheets to keep the jib wrapped up.