What is the secret to safe sailing in heavy weather?
There are probably as many opinions as there are sailors as to what is the safest way to handle heavy weather. The most popular strategy these days, which is usually possible with accurate weather forecasting, is to stay away from heavy weather.
However that doesn’t answer the question, and doesn’t apply if you take the attitude of lets go sailing whatever the weather.
To simplify your understanding of the options, I make the following comments:
The wind and the strength of the wind per se is not the problem; no matter how strong the wind is, it is not what does the damage, it is always the sea state.
Waves that don’t break also don’t give us any trouble, no matter how large and menacing they may appear.
The waves that will capsize a boat are ones that are breaking, so imagine sailing in surf.
Boats typically capsize in one of two ways:
1. One way is to surf down a wave and broach; which means the boat turns as it surfs down the wave, becomes side on to the wave and then rolls over.
2. The second is to surf down a wave and have the bow dig into the wave in front and the following surf to pick the back of the boat up and the boat tips head over heels on itself, called pitch polling.
The point I wish to bring your attention to here is that for a boat to capsize it must be moving through the water. A boat that is not moving cannot capsize; the wave will simple roll over and under the boat, leaving it harmlessly behind. The thing that contributes most to the possibility of capsizing is the boat’s own speed through the water at the time the breaking wave hits it.
The answer to not capsizing is to be going as slowly as possible. There are many strategies for this; heaving too, lying a hull, setting a sea anchor, etc and they depend on other considerations such as, is there clear water to leeward of you, and what is your preferred course you wish to make good.
There is a golden rule though; slow down! Going fast, being in a hurry or trying to run from a storm may be your undoing.
One of my own experiences of observing how safely going slowly in surf works, was coming over a shallow bar harbor on the west coast of New Zealand when the seas were breaking. As each wave approached us we would throttle right off, slow down with stern to the sea, let the wave pass, then open the throttle up and resume our course. A little nerve racking and it certainly got our adrenalin going, but that was all and we safely made it into harbor.
Safe sailing
Thank you for this and your other blogs. Such simple, no-nonsense but totally sensible and safe sailing advice. I admire and appreciate your sailing philosophy. I see Crusoe is up for sale. Best wishes for your future eneavours.
Thanks for valuable information! Especially for slowing down in bad weather… it can be a life savior.
Hi, John and Wilma, most excellent boat, I have the pictures on my boat folder, and look at them often, well past our price range, but gives me much pleasure looking at them when relaxing.
I wonder if you would comment on if such a large boat could be single handed aorund the world, we are sponsoring a 16 year old in his bid to do so, and wondered if he should consider this one over the one he is considering using. He is planing on using a Contessa 32, but we feel it is too small, but others have used simular boats and safely competed the trip so maybe we are needlessly worrying.
If it was me, I’d rather take Crusoe !
Kind Regards,
Michael.
@ Michael Regarding whether a large boat like 17 meter Crusoe could be single handed. The answer is yes, as with today’s technology, size is not an issue for single handing. But having said that, I wouldn’t recommend it.
The reason is that big boats are complex, often very complex and when things stop working or go wrong, then big boats quickly get too complex to do any thing with other than take them to port to get fixed. Things break down on boats all the time.
I cruised across the Pacific in a 26 footer and consider well found small boats to be perfectly safe.
Most safety issues are a consequence of the skipper and his or her decisions.
My opinion is 32 feet is plenty big enough and being well prepared is the secret to safety.
Hi John,
Nice website with some sound advice!
However I am concerned that this post on Heavy Weather is a little dangerous. There are many boats that have been lost due to going too slowly or stopping in large seas. While excessive speed is very dangerous and can lead to broaching or pitchpoling as you point out, reducing speed reduces steerage and ability to manoeuvre. This can lead to the boat lying broadside to breaking wave and in just as bad a case as excessive speed.
There are many published accounts of cases where slowing down, heaving to and lying ahull lead to loss or near loss of vessels. Equally of course there are many cases where surfing has lead to capsize and sinking, so my point is merely that there is no silver bullet for heavy weather. Different boats, different crews and different sea states all require individual solutions.
I would suggest the secret to heavy weather sailing is to remain calm, and sail your boat to the conditions at hand. A good helping of luck doesn’t hurt either
@ George
Thanks for your insightful comment and further explaining the issues.
I agree that there is no silver bullet and endorse your suggestion that every situation has to be assessed on its merits. I love your closing comment to “remain calm”. Challenging as that may seem when wind and water are screaming all around, staying calm by far makes the best sense for surviving heavy weather. I’m sure you would agree that in most cases, the weak link in an extreme situation is not the vessel but the crew.
I just run into your blog and it is very interesting and gives simple good advises, expetially when you said that the focus should be more on the sea state, not the wind strength. This could be very useful.
I agree with slowing down in a storm, but… my limited experience tells me that the danger time is once the storm has passed, soon as the wind begins to ease, allowing those waves to build. Once the wind starts to ease, lying ahull or running under bare poles may no longer be a safe option - time to set a small amount of sail, sufficient to maintain steerage. One knockdown was sufficient to tell me this - I had no desire to repeat the experience. Failure to break out some sail leaves the boat vulnerable to those monster breakers that continue to build after the storm has passed. Remember Monsarrat’s advice? Wasn’t he forced to cut away his towing warps to increase speed once the storm winds eased? As George says, there’s just no silver bullet - it’s not so simple as just easing speed.
Nice website - I’m currently searching for a good steel liveaboard cruising yacht, so I’m canvassing all viewpoints: interiors, safety gear, auxiliary propulsion or none - everything being considered.
Hugh, in 35 years of offshore sailng, I must say I hve never been in your situation, I have been hove to a few times, but always found that comfortable, and just carried on after winds dropped.
I had a chat with a man in Tin Can Bay not long ago who was bragging about how his boat was so strong he survived a 70kt “southlery buster”, he went on to say how it was forcast, he was in port, and he decided to “out run” it up the NSW coast. I have to question any decision to put to sea when a 70kt blow in remotley possible!
My point is if your prudent with watching your weather carfully, one should never be in storm force winds, however when on long ocean passages, you may not have much choice that to deal with the conditions as they develop.
I always reef before I am over powered, I am a pus, I don’t want to be a hero and tell people I was in a big blow and did this and that, I just want to carry on as safe as we can, the answer is don’t go out in bad weather, if your caught out, be sure to have a strong well equiped boat, and know how to use the gear, and use it before it is too late, and reef early!
Fair Winds, Brent