Livin' up to my name...

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

For the first time I had my eleven foot skiff out in quite a blow. I checked the weather and winds were forecast 10-20 knots. I took off the afternoon, loaded things up and headed out to a state park an hour away. When Dawn Marie and I arrived, the wind... well it just seemed to be really blowing. I looked around the 300 acre lake and not a sailboat to be seen.

I pondered things a bit and then decided that, hey I drove an hour, by gosh I was going to do some sailing! With a sprit sail though I decided to scandalize it by leaving out the spar. The 49 square foot sail then became perhaps 35 square feet but more importantly had a lower center of effort - just to play it safe. After five minutes I realized that it sailed just awful. Wouldn't point, sluggish, top of sail flapping away. Back I went and installed the spar. What happened next still has me grinning at the thought of it.

I had a fifty pound bag of sand up front to help balance things against my 180 pounds. Leaving the sheltered dock area went fine. Then I got out into the lake proper. WOWWWWW!!! :eek: Suddenly I was flying hither and yon. Just screaming across the wind. Feet against the gunnel and heaving my shoulders back over the side. Sheet pulling at my palm like a wild horse. That skiff has more weather helm than a weather man. Cat rigged it was all I could do to keep it on course. Without any reefs and having tried the scandalized route I was off for the ride of my life (so far!).

I tacked back and forth until finally reaching the extreme windward end of the lake and then it was time to run with the wind. I let out the sail, turned the bow downwind and Katie bar the door!! It started innocently enough and by now I was used to water shooting up the centerboard slot. As I headed down the lake it surprised me how quiet things got as I went with the wind. Very cool to have a huge bow wave pealing off the sides. I was in this placid state of mind when my eyes wandered to the centerboard slot. It was rapidly filling up. I looked to the bow and it was clear that the bow wave was rising, rising, and then overflowing (!) the bow. At the same instant the centerboard slot overflowed as well. With water pouring into the boat and around me I just screamed out,"YAAHOOOO!!!!" I was grinning like a kid dancing on the edge.

I caught up with a park employee on a patrol boat and asked, "Say, how strong is the wind?" He didn't know but did say that you need to add 10 knots to whatever is forecast. That would make it 20-30 knots and I believe it. The flag over the bait stand was snapping pretty horizontal. The whitecaps were frothing out in the middle of the lake. Makes it around Force 5 anyway, plus gusts.

You can be certain that if my wife was along she would have bailed early - that is, bailed out back at the dock. Then she would have called Mutual of Omaha for another policy. What a riot and it is only June.

[Concordia..41]

:D :D :D

[capt jake]

Yes, good story! smile.gif smile.gif

[Scott Rosen]

:D

[Hwyl]

Did you consider moving the bag of sand aft for the run (or throwing it over the side).

[Leon m]

Ah yes, a dingy in a force 5...Good times :cool: :D

[L.W. Baxter]

:D

Good story!

All that's missing is a pic or two... though it sounds like you had your hands full!

[martin schulz]

Great story!

Don't you have reefs in the spritsail?

Currently we have a major argument about the rigging of our spritsail "smakke" fisherboats. Those more on the "yachtie"-side want to set the sails almost like on a yacht running up mast and spar. I would rather like a more primitive sailsetting. Keep the sails always on the mast, to stow it just get the spar to tha mast and wrap the sheet around it to attach it therre. As for reefing I would like to have "noses" on the spar to fit in the top leech, so one can reduce the sail by just sticking a lower "nose" in the leech.

Anybody here with an advice to wich way works best?

[MJC]

Solo sailing small boats in Force 5....YeeHaw!!!!

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

Originally posted by martin schulz:
Great story!

Don't you have reefs in the spritsail?

Currently we have a major argument about the rigging of our spritsail "smakke" fisherboats. Those more on the "yachtie"-side want to set the sails almost like on a yacht running up mast and spar. I would rather like a more primitive sailsetting. Keep the sails always on the mast, to stow it just get the spar to tha mast and wrap the sheet around it to attach it therre. As for reefing I would like to have "noses" on the spar to fit in the top leech, so one can reduce the sail by just sticking a lower "nose" in the leech.

Anybody here with an advice to wich way works best?Martin:

Actually I do have a couple ideas on the subject. Our very own Todd Bradshaw, when approached by me with the idea of installing reef points on my 49 sf sail, talked me out of it. He said something to the effect, "With a sail of that size on an eleven foot skiff you should be able to weather any blow short of a hurricane." As you have read, once again, Todd proves out.

As to how my sail is attached onto the mast. I have actually tried three different ways. One was to tie the head directly onto the top of the mast and then each grommet down the leach had a short piece of rope that looped around the mast as a mast hoop would. The second way was to actually have the sail on a halyard so I could raise and lower it rather than the head being tied off at the peak of the mast. The third (current) way is to have the head once again tied directly to the peak of the mast and then lace the leech to the mast. This last I like the best. It happens to be the most traditional too - nice when tradition meets up with personal taste once in a while. ;)

So the sail is wrapped around the mast when stored. To get rigged at the dock the mast is inserted in the mast partner, spar inserted into the loop in the aft most corner of the sprit sail and then hoisted into position. Last summer the sail was loose footed - no boom. It was a disappointment to say the least. This spring I made a boom for it and what a difference! The boom is only attached to the sail at the tack and clew - it is not laced to the bottom of the sail. After the boom is attached I simply run the sheet through the blocks, tie a Stevedor knot in the end and shove off. And that is about when I realize the centerboard is not down, the boat isn't steering because the kickup rudder is "up", and, oh yea, I'm still tied to the dock. :D Ah, a day in the life...

[Hwyl]

I seem to be becoming the curmudgeon of choice. You are mixing up "leach" and "luff". I tell the kids that "luff" has a "f's" in it ad it's at the f ront of the sail. By the way the top front corner is the "throat" and the 'head" is the edge along the top leading to the "peak"

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

You are no curmudgeon, you are simply correct - thanks for the help. This well illustrates my amateur status! :D

To answer a question from your previous post, no chance of moving that sand back or heaving it over. It was way too late when the bow wave got higher and higher and then surged over the bow - I had never heard of such a thing. Looking back on it the wind was actually driving the sail forward and down at the same time, thus submerging the bow. Cat rigged as it is all the drive is way up front when running in a strong wind, or any wind for that matter. Only by quickly turning back into the wind was I able to bring the bow back up as the wind was no longer driving it down. Then it was time to bail out, shove the tiller back over, sheet in and YAAHHHOOOO!!

[ 06-10-2004, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: Captain Pre-Capsize ]

[capt jake]

Capt, FWIW, I have the same problem with terminology! smile.gif I am getting better, but sometimes your way works also (at least for us amateures). ;)

I took my Weekender out today in a SCA. WOW! :eek: I think your story is a great one, I realize what you went through! smile.gif winds 15-25 kts!

[Hwyl]

Originally posted by Captain Pre-Capsize:
Looking back on it the wind was actually driving the sail forward and down at the same time, thus submerging the bow. Cat rigged as it is all the drive is way up front when running in a strong wind, or any wind for that matter. Only by quickly turning back into the wind was I able to bring the bow back up as the wind was no longer driving it down. Then it was time to bail out, shove the tiller back over, sheet in and YAAHHHOOOO!!It's not unusual at all, there's even a name for it "Submarineing", a surfer would call it "pearling" nicer name. I've got to learn to post pictures. but if you look at these high performance dinghies (International 14's) http://www.sailshots.co.uk/Int14.html you'll see that the crew are way back even though the spinnakers are lifting the front of the boat and some have a horizontal trim tab on the rudder to keep the back of the boat down, and they still pitch pole regularly.

[ 06-11-2004, 05:04 AM: Message edited by: Hwyl ]

[J. Dillon]

Good tale Captain. I'd forget about the "ballast". If you went over the boat would sink. :eek: Without the sand bags you'd probably float. :cool:

I got a nice way of keeping the water from coming in and over the CB slot,if you're interested. ;)

JD

[Captain Pre-Capsize]

JD:

I'm all ears - tell me how!

Great point about the sand. It does present a quandry. With me in the back the bow rises off the water a bit much for my taste. The sand bag levels it out just right. If the boat went over the last thing I would have time for would be to throw the sandbag out. I put it inside of one of those rubberized dry bags and nary a grain of sand in the boat these past two years. What to do?

[Matt J.]

:cool: story, Cap.

I've been out in those winds in a Hobie 14 and one of our 8' prams. On the Hobie I stood on the windward hull all the way aft - almost at the rudder gudgeon, and still couldn't keep the leeward hull (aka? ama?) out of the water... I think the most was F7 on the Hobie, F5 on the pram. I was having too much fun yee-hawin' like a sailing hooligan to care. The pram has a nasty habit of shipping water over the bow, too.

Way :cool: !

Now on our "big" boat, I don't like much over F4 :rolleyes: .

[David Tabor (sailordave)]

Now on our "big" boat, I don't like much over F4 But Matt, that's when it's just starting to get good sailing on the bay!!! You should be good up to F5 at least, unless it's been blowing long enough to whip up some good wave action.

Do you remember what the wx was like Last Saturday on the Bay? IE rain and Thomas Point Light was reporting 28G33?

I "tried" to take the 30 footer out of Herring Bay. That NE wind just had it too choppy and rough. And with just me and one person who's only been sailing 3 or 4 times I didn't think it was too prudent. We got out of the channel into the bay w/ half the mast furled main up and I said the hell w/ it. Should have taken a clue from the 40+ footer that turned around w/o even raising a sail!

[ 06-13-2004, 02:27 AM: Message edited by: David Tabor (sailordave) ]

[sbsbw]

Remindes me of a time I was out on frenchman's bay in maine solo

I was sailing in a Mercury 15 in (i'm guessing here) a sustained 30 with gusts over 40. nice 3-4' seas. I was tons of fun until the bailer went over the side. I'm not used to man overboard drills in this much wind.

(the problem was not getting the bailer, as much as turning around to get back to the mooring)

Just keep on having fun.

[paladin]

Dave.....I would sail in and out of Herrington Harbor under sail...without even starting the engine.....sorta figured summma those folks were working on a heart attack...especially Stu Chaney, I think he figured I wuz gonna poke holes in his multi megabuck sport fisherman.....

[J. Dillon]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid121/p4aaeb70a37c2773d5f857b3137cd6a5e/f8495634.jpg
View of "Waterstopper " half way in.

Captain,

Here's my "waterstopper" for preventing water from coming up over the CB trunk.

I loosened and removed the after screws that holds the open CB trunk cap. Then in from either side I insert a suitable sized length of thin plastic like a hunk of formica. With the board down and when any water threatens to slop over I insert the "Waterstopper". It keeps most of the water out and crew bottoms dry. If in shallow water where the CB might touch bottom I do not use the stopper. The "Waterstopper" has a handle on the stb.underside( not visible) enabling a better grip when in use and also prevents it from going too far across.

Maybe you can adapt the idea on your own boat.

JD