Taking in sail without an engine

[pbryant]

I learned to sail in Sweden, where people were enormously reticent to run an engine. If you started your engine, you obviously didn't know how to sail. They'd rather break out the oars and paddle like Vikings while singing: "Vem kan sigla forutan vind?" (Who can sail without the wind?) Their marinas were designed to accommodate engineless entry and exit - while many of ours are not.

I did learn one very useful technique that I find far safer and easier than what I will call "the American Method" of taking in sail. They taught me to heave to -- instead of trying to force the bow into the wind with an engine.

I've been single handing my Ariel for three years now, and I've never had to run my engine to take in my mainsail. And I frankly can't understand why anyone else would. You have to point the boat up on a knife edge heading and deal with a bucking boom that's being slapped around by the turbulence of a sail in a full luff, and as soon as you start to take the sail in, the helm has to be continually readjusted to compensate for the sail coming down. I can't imagine anyone attempting that method in a fresh wind single-handed without an autopilot. Using the method I was taught, the helm is controlled by a short piece of bungee cord.

Am I missing something here? Is there something good about the method that most people around here are using? I've crewed on racing boats in the Bay, and I had to cringe watching them take in the mainsail, and laugh to myself when my suggestion they heave to drew only blank stares and the question: "how do you heave to?" In 25 knot winds, with the mainsheet pulled in tight to center the boom on these racer-crewed boats, twice I've experienced the bow falling off and the boat heeling all the way over on her side, spreaders and sidedeck in the water, sliding sideways along the chop, while the crew hung on with their fingernails! Why would anyone risk that?

Here's a video I shot in 20 knot winds and 5 foot swells off Pillar Point. It doesn't look that ruff while I'm hove to because an Ariel hove to creates lots of nice surface eddies that break up oncoming swells . Notice how the swells suddenly appear at the end of the video after I get back underway and leave the boat's slick of turbulence in the water. Here's the vid:

http://youtu.be/EI_PnHZwBOY (note: you need Adobe Flash installed for it to play.)

Doesn't this technique look a lot safer? Of course, it'll be hard to accomplish if you've cluttered up your cabin with a dodger that can't be gotten out of the way. Which is why the dodger was the first thing I took off my Ariel when I bought her.

Please. I'd love comments about what I am failing to understand about the technique being taught for taking in the mainsail by sailing schools here in the U.S.

[ebb]

Can't fool me, can hear an engine running the whole time!

(just kidding, but you gotta admit your camera sounds like a diesel.)

One thing, please continue, AND MORE OFTEN, making these TIPS for us.
Enjoy your writing style too!

[I don't know yet how to save UTubes in a folder, but I'll ask somebody.]
By the time I get sailing I'm going want your Ariel specific no nonsense tips and instruction. Really.
(Even tho I have a dodger.)

Did hear of, or see, a gizmo for the microphone pickup called: dead cat. I think.
But it is a furry muff used to stop the eddy of wind around your sound pickup.
You see fat furry muffs used by TV crew when they're outside and holding the pickup close to a politician.
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There was a newspaper cartoon strip when I was a kid called Smilin Jack. He was a pilot.
There was among the characters one whose face the artist never drew.
The character's body type wasn't at all like yours, but his shirt was always popping buttons off.
And there always was a chicken ready to gobble it up.

But anyway, keep your hat on!
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just looked it up on google first time in a hundred years
- There he is: Fat Stuff, so called, face and all..... But I remember his face was NEVER shown in the strip.

Nothing like a mystery.

[mbd]

It wouldn't load for me earlier today, but great video! Thanks for posting.

[SkipperJer]

I learned to sail at the Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore. The training fleet is J-22s with no motors. The entry to the slips required a 180 degree turn around a pier from the open water. We learned how to do a lot without a motor before we were cleared to take boats out ourselves. When I bought a boat with a motor I would use the motor to go into the wind to lower the main when I had crew because it could be done quickly with extra hands or when I was in narrow, restricted waters. Sailing alone I habitually revert to not using the motor for these things. Using the motor seems extra work and adds another dynamic element to the whole operation that confounds my meager skills. I need to make the decision to do these things early and avoid small spaces. I'm glad I was taught to trust the boat to take care of itself in open waters while I tend to the gear.

Being equipped with a motor is not part of the definition of being a sailboat. I once had my motor quit at the mouth of a river 3 miles from my slip after a race. My crew guy (he claimed he was a veteran racer) was really upset. "How will we get back?" he whined. "We'll sail", I responded. The look of consternation on his face was amusing. It took a long time, many tacks, and the beer got warm as the day wore on and the wind died (it was July on the Chesapeake Bay). He got upset again when we approached the marina. He wanted me to call someone to tow us to a slip. We sailed in very slowly, had plenty of time to drop the sails and coast into the slip. Crew guy said, "boy, we were lucky." He's not been invited back.

[mbd]

Great story SkipperJer!

So I went out today in my foster Sea Sprite 23 to practice heaving-to. It was a little gusty, nothing for you left coasters I'm sure, but since I was going out alone, I decided to tuck in a reef just to be on the safe side. I dropped the mooring and sailed a little ways out, then, as per Patrick's excellent video, started heaving-to on a starboard tack. It worked great. I left the tiller, adjusted some lines, tidied up a bit, and just sat there for a bit thinking how cool this was. I was starting to creep out into the channel and figured it was time to do some sailing, so I let go the jib sheet and hauled in the leeward sheet to get underway, then I took in the main to where I wanted it and yanked up to jam it in the cleat when BAM, the traveller car popped off the track and little nylon bearings scattered everywhere! The only thing hollding the main sheet hardware onto the stern was the lines for the traveller. Hmmm, I thought, what to do? So I hove-to, lowered the main, and then tied a spare line to the stern cleat to keep the boom in order. I sailed back to my mooring under the jib, tied on and sorted things out. Many many thanks Patrick for this timely video!

[sinbin]

Read "Heavy Weather Sailing" by Coles.