[Rhodes22-list] Higher winds

[Wally Buck]

Mark,

We had a great weekend in East TN but very heavy winds on Saturday as well. 
I was the only boat out under 34 feet; most of the big guys were running 
with genny alone. I was told the winds were in the 15 - 25 knots range with 
gusts hitting the 30s.

You didn't mention anything about the traveler. I find that it is a great 
way to depower the main. Also even when furling the main make sure you try 
to get it as flat as possible. I usually have to tighten the leech line when 
I furl the main this small. I haven’t tried raising the topping lift but 
without a boom vang mine tends to rise a little anyway.

Sauturday going upwind I had about half the main out and a 90 furled jib 
with just me and my wife as the high side ballast. We were both on the rail 
pretty much the whole time. You do have a tiller extension don't you? In 
these conditions I find it a must. Heading downwind we had almost full main 
out with about a 110 jib. Of course we had boom in lowest position at all 
times. It was a wild ride but the boat can handle it. We jibed in two steps, 
first going wing on wing than bringing the main over.

We rounded up a couple of times and buried the rail more than once but we 
eventually had things balanced. We weren't moving real fast but we were 
keeping the boat on its feet. Our wind wasn't as shifty as what you describe 
and of course this makes things even harder. I have been sailing for 30 
years but have only had the R22 about 15 months so I am still learning the 
finer points of tuning. The nice thing is you have so many options.

The hardest part was coming into my slip, I had the wind directly behind me 
and the motor in reverse and we were still going to fast.

Wally
>From: "Mark Kaynor" <mark at kaynor.org>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Higher winds
>Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 12:19:24 -0400
>
>I'd be interested to learn how other Rhodies w/ IMF and furling head sail 
>set their sails in windy, gusty conditions.
>
>We had our second regatta of the year last Saturday. At the start the wind 
>was 18 gusting to 25. an hour later it was 23 gusting to 32, finishing up 
>at 17 to 23, gusting to 38. Friends who have been sailing on the lake for 
>many years say they've never seen winds like these on the lake. Going from 
>17 to a gust of 38 with a 20 degree shift will wake you right up!
>
>Five out of the fifteen boats that started finished the course. Three boats 
>capsized (dinghies all - one Laser actually went over 6 times, but 
>persevered and went on to finish - the other two were towed in), a J/22 
>lost a crew member overboard (he was recovered safely in about 10 seconds 
>by a nerarby coastguard auxiliary boat), a Seafarer 22's tiller snapped, a 
>Catalina 22 broached pretty dramatically on a spinnaker jibe in the first 
>downwind leg, then continued on to finish. Two 1"x1/8" stainless straps 
>that connect their tiller to their rudder cracked but did not fail 
>completely, though they will require replacement. A homemade canoe rig got 
>swamped before the first mark and had to be towed in. One boat's headstay 
>broke, and several other smaller failures also occurred on other boats.
>
>We didn't break anything on Raven. Julie and I completed the first leg (an 
>exciting wing-on-wing downwind sleighride) and part the second windward leg 
>before deciding to drop out. We had the 135% genoa fully deployed for the 
>downwind run to the first mark, then furled it and the main to slightly 
>more than 1/2 full just before rounding the first mark. We did okay, but 
>the gusts were making the main flog pretty badly, and it wasn't worth it to 
>us to continue if it meant ripping sails or breaking equipment. Several 
>other boats dropped out at this point, so we decided to quit and see if we 
>could help some of the boats that were having real problems.
>
>We'd never sailed in winds much over about 20 mph. We knew the boat would 
>handle them - we were the weak link, so we went home and studied up on it. 
>Then we went back out again yesterday (17 gusting to 29) to experiment and 
>mess around. We started w/ the 135% genoa about 2/3 out and no main. We 
>gradually deployed more genoa until we had it fully out, and got the main 
>out to about 1/4. On a beam reach the gusts heeled us a bit, but at no time 
>was the boat out of control. It was a bit trickier on a close reach but 
>still manageable, much more so than when the main was out 1/2 way or more.
>
>We were surprised to find that we were able to tack on just the jib from 
>close reach to close reach in about 110-115 degrees. With the main fully 
>deployed we're generally able to do it in 90-100 degrees. The wind died a 
>down bit (to 12-15 or so) and we fully deployed the main. While we had the 
>main fully out on a beam reach one of the highter gusts laid us down pretty 
>well. We headed up, furled the main most of the way, fell off and 
>continued. Succeeding gusts powered us up well, but we didn't bury the rail 
>again. When we came in, we had a nice talk w/ the winner of Saturday's 
>race. He suggested that we also try fully deploying the main, but raise the 
>boom a bit with the topping lift to loosen the leech and let the main twist 
>off up high. We're going to give that a try next time we get a chance.
>
>Mark Kaynor
>
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