[Rhodes22-list] Thanks!

[Roger Pihlaja]

Jay, Lou,

It been my experience when sailing a broad reach in heavy air that there is
usually a chop hitting the boat from the stern quarter.  The helm tends to
be very "busy" - i.e. you are always correcting for something throwing you
off course.  Thus, it's very easy to "spin out" or broach if you are trying
for
high speed under these conditions.  The autopilot has a terrible time
maintaining course under these conditions because it's not "smart" enough to
anticipate the effect of the wave that the helmsman can see approaching fast
a couple of boatlengths aft.  For the standard rig (mainsail & genoa), I've
found it's best to put a couple of reefs in the mainsail (or furl it to
about 33% if you have an IMF mainsail) & then carry the full 150% genoa.
The large amount of sail area forward of the mast will tend to cancel out
the boat's natural tendancy to round up in the gusts under these conditions
and point of sail.  But, the helmsman will still need to pay close
attention.  The ultimate version of this strategy is to fly a spinnaker with
a double reefed mainsail under these conditions.  Surf city baby; but,
definitely not for the faint of heart or if you have anyone on board subject
to motion sickness or afraid of going fast!

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilbrium

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay Friedland" <jsail1 at verizon.net>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Thanks!


> Lou-
> When the wind kicked up 5-6 kts. in the open areas, we were
> overpowered. On most boats, the rule of thumb is that "when you're
> convinced it's time to reef, it's already too late". Here, we got
> over-powered quickly. With family aboard, always safety first and reef
> down quickly and quietly-no panic that can get transferred to others
> very easily.
>
> For us, compared to the calm sail we had with your wife, I knew we
> could push it a bit with significant heeling and find balance, as
> opposed to burying the rail. If I remember, we talked about worse case
> situations with controlling the boat in increasing winds, short of
> squalls, and with limited centerboard, about 1/2 down. Letting the main
> out abit for each puff ("when in doubt, let it out"), then adjusting
> the traveler as the first trim to spill the wind, and finally, getting
> balance through main and gennie reefing.
>
> The "rounding up" or "tender" aspect, aka. responsiveness of the boat,
> is all very manageable, as Roger, Bill, Rik. and others have conveyed,
> with practice. Actively sailing it as Roger said. Once we headed back
> on a long close reach and set the trim accordingly, we found the sweet
> spot again. We had the option where we could sail either flatter or as
> we did, with some degree of heel (10-15°) for 18-20 kts. with its
> neutral helm. On many other boats, the balance would be very difficult
> to achieve, and here we avoided knockdown as may have occurred with a
> delayed response on another boat.
>
> Jan. 20-23 we'll be there at the Convention Center. Look forward to
> getting together with a few pops.
> J
>
> On Nov 22, 2004, at 7:52 PM, Loumoore at aol.com wrote:
>
> > Jay
> >
> > Thanks for you comments.  Yeah you are right.  She was trying to round
> > up on
> > the gusts when we were sailing on a broad reach.  How do you avoid
> > that?  I'm
> > not sure, but I remember that tact was initially incredibily smooth
> > then it
> > got rough.  The bay seemed to get suddenly choppy too.
> >
> > Hope all is well--I owe you all a beer--especially Jay--in
> > Philadelphia.
> >
> >
> > Lou Moore
> > __________________________________________________
> > Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
> >
>
> __________________________________________________
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>
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