[Rhodes22-list] Higher winds

[Steve Alm]

Mark,

I've heard it said that the R22 is manageable in winds up to 27.  Beyond
that, well...you were there.  If it's gusting above 30, I bail out.  But I
agree that we should all gain the experience of handling the boat, one way
or the other, under those conditions.  I am surprised too that you were able
to point and tack with jib alone.  I usually opt for just the opposite--full
or somewhat reefed main and only a hanky of a jib.

Slim

On 6/2/03 11:19 AM, "Mark Kaynor" <mark at kaynor.org> wrote:

> 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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