Martin,
I found a lot of humor in your description in that I pulled a similar
stunt with a Naval Academy 44 yawl racing from Biloxi to Isla Mujeres
Mexico. Just NW of Cuba (1967), hit by a squall at oh-dark-thirty,
spreaders in water, cut spin halyard. In that race, the only time we
had significant wind was at night. We laugh after the fact.
Don Kern
C&C35 Mk2, /Fireball/
Bristol, RI
On 2/26/2023 5:46 PM, Martin DeYoung via CnC-List wrote:
“A masthead wind instrument works at night.”
Absolutely, except when it doesn’t. During the 1982 Vic-Maui race on
a Britt Chance designed 54’ IOR boat in trade winds reinforced by a
tropical storm nearby (steady high 20’s, gusts to mid 30’s) the wind
instruments were lagging behind the actual apparent wind enough that
we needed to improvise. It was the kind of dark wild night that made
Mister Toad’s Wild ride seem tame. We had a reaching spinnaker up
(slightly smaller sq area and shoulders) with a full mainsail. AWA of
160 was our target. Boat speeds were running in the low teens until a
good surf then headed into the high teens.
I was watch captain with two other, experience crew on deck. We were
quickly schooled by the wind gods that relying on the wind instruments
resulted in being caught by the lee at the end of a surf. (The
apparent wind goes forward while surfing then quickly back to “base
line” when the boat slows.) Naturally being caught by the lee in
those conditions often resulted in a spin out/round-up/broach, mostly
to weather. (Spin pole up, boom in the water.) The owner would
occasionally stick his head up from below complaining about the ride.
I would suggest we were at the top of the spinnaker’s wind range. He
would indicate maybe we needed better drivers.)
On this particular night we resorted to dividing up the information
processing tasks. The helmsman concentrated on the compass using a
base line course as a guide. Another crew concentrated on calling out
AWA as shown by the lighted Windex. (Usually something like “5 high”
or similar. When the Windex indicated we were by the lee a noise
similar to an aircraft’s stall warning buzzer was used.) Driving was
intense enough we stood ½ hour tricks rotating through the positions.
This technique allowed us to sail fast, diving deep to ride the best
waves and limit the spin outs to mostly gentle low impact events.
Until it doesn’t. At the end of our watch (+-2AM) the new watch gains
the deck and includes the “hired gun” rock star sailmaker helmsman.
The rock star guy total ignored my recommendations on how we got
through the last 4 hours. He steps behind the wheel (a very large
diameter wheel popular with IOR boats) and starts sailing like he was
in charge. Shortly there after he drives into a leeward broach that
lays the boat flat enough that the mast head was hitting the top of
waves and most of the deck crew was left hanging by safety harnesses.
I imagine it was exciting down below. The rock star lost his footing
and rotated “ass over tea kettle” into the leeward corner of the
cockpit. (Still holding the wheel.) The mainsail attempted to cross
to leeward but was trapped by a line wrapped around a coffee grinder
winch handle.
As I was in the mid/crew cockpit and closest to the line trapping the
mainsail I pulled out my trusty sailing knife and cut the line (line
was part of a failed preventer). As soon as my knife blade touched
the highly loaded line the mainsail violently crossed to leeward
splashing into the water. Now that the boat was freed of the tangled
mainsail load it stood up straight (ish), the spinnaker popped full,
and the boat took off downwind. Unfortunately the rock star was
totally disoriented, the rudder still hard over and the boat went into
another broach therefore completing the coveted “banana split”.
Once we got the boat sorted and back on its feet the owner stuck his
head up from down below and said “OK boys we can take the spinnaker
down now”. We spent the next day or so under twin headsails still
making speeds in the low teens but under much better control.
Martin DeYoung
Calypso
1971 C&C 43
Port Ludlow/Seattle
Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
Windows
*From: *dwight veinot via CnC-List <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>
*Sent: *Sunday, February 26, 2023 12:54 PM
*To: *Stus-List <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com>
*Cc: *dwight veinot <mailto:dwight...@gmail.com>
*Subject: *Stus-List Re: Racing at night
A masthead wind instrument works at night. Learn your sail trim vs
wind speed and wind angle in the daylight. Should be the same in the dark
On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 1:01 PM David Knecht via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
I just read an interesting article in Practical Sailor on red vs.
white lights and night vision. It reminded me to ask a question
of those more experienced about night racing. I have only done
this a few times and found upwind steering at night to be a real
challenge. I normally steer by the genoa telltales. In light,
shifting winds which we inevitably encounter at the darkest hours,
it is especially important to steer well to keep the boat moving,
but it is hard. We used a hand held spotlight to periodically
check the telltales, but that destroys night vision. Are there
better solutions? Thanks- Dave
S/V Aries
1990 C&C 34+
New London, CT
Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album
site and help me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at:
https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.paypal.me%2Fstumurray&data=05%7C01%7C%7C722a601eeb6f45417d9d08db183b96c0%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638130416425300367%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=M6HofoOU5ePuv5sgXI3uHonE3uQJrO5qiiiX1tzGAIY%3D&reserved=0>
Thanks for your help.
Stu
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile
Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and help
me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at:
https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
Thanks for your help.
Stu
Please show your appreciation for this list and the Photo Album site and help
me pay the associated bills. Make a contribution at:
https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
Thanks for your help.
Stu
