Handling Gusty Conditions

[Capndar]

Great time had by all at 2011 NA's! Congratulations to all the participants. Terrific wind on day 1 (10-20!) - day 2 was a washout

Technical question for the participants....in gusty, shifty conditions with short legs and short tacks, what method did you use most to keep the boat on her feet? I heard people say that they:

1. played the traveler A LOT
2. played the backstay
3. played the mainsheet

I understand it is a combination....but which method did you find most effective?

[Capndar]

and I'll put myself out there first - we had mixed results - as high as a 2nd on one race and a 12 in one race....because of the really shifty conditions (and need to tack very quickly some times) we played the main sheet a lot and the backstay a little....left the traveler alone

Mike R
#1694 Ragtop

[branin]

Mike, it was nice meeting you this weekend. Thank you for making the trip. Wish we could have sailed Saturday, but oh well. My .02, we used the traveler almost exclusively on the upward legs, reading the puffs. We typically have our rig pre set for the conditions, so we had or rig pretty tight. Any backstay tight for the upwind legs and off downwind.

Thought we had good speed.

Branin thorn
No Quarter #2361

[Black Jack]

Branin,
As a followup to your post I had the rig set for what I thought was going to be the average for the day. Basically would trim the main in relation to the tell tails and work the traveller very aggressively through the puffy upwind legs. When I first started sailing SJ 21's I would trim the vang hard and play the main, but found I would still loose the main leach too quickly and then loose my ability to point effectively with boats near me. I started using the traveller and was able to maintain pointing ability through the puffs. I would then use the backstay as a secondary trim. If the wind lightened Up for longer periods I would quickly ease it, but would then need to change jib and main trim accordingly. Also quickly adding backstay tension for a building breeze. You still need to have the main sheet ready to ease so if you do loose it, you can ease the main and get going again. I have miss judged puffs and basically wiped out going up wind and not been able to recover until the main is eased.
For friday's races at the NA's I had my rig at 30 on the lower shrouds and 25 on the upper shrouds with the headstay at 24'4". In the last race when the wind built to near twenty knots I came off the start holding my own with the boats on my lee bow but struggled to stay there. We moved the lead aft slightly on the first tack and the boat felt much better and we hit our stride rounding the weather mark first. I was amazed at the difference it made.

Dan Bornarth
Black Jack #2403

[Capt. Woogy]

Dan, Branin and Mike, plus the other 17 skippers at the NAs, it was great to finally meet and put faces to what up until last weekend, were only names on the internet. What a fun group of sailors! It's great to see how that energy translates into fleet building, especially with the direction fleet 8 is heading. Good stuff.
For me this question is merely hypothetical, since during most of the gusty racing we were watching from the marina.... but had we been out there in "Wooglin" I probably would have played it as I do when we have those types of conditions here in the NW. I normally go to the backstay first just to open up the upper leach a little, then travel down as needed, and lastly dumping the main just enough to luff the front 1/4 a little while keeping the boat driving. When it really start honkin it's travel down, crank on the backstay and play the main like crazy... after that we just head in before we start breaking things.
For those conditions on Saturday we make three big mistakes... no swim trunks, not enough sunscreen and not enough beer!
- Chris

[San Juan Sailboats]

I think a lot of this depends on the type of traveler you have.
My previous traveler was a rope style mounted on the transom. It had a wire bridal that was as flat as I could make it. Only about 6" of rise from the transom to the middle. I have seen lots of others that have much more rise. Most of these types tend to pull the boom down when moved to leeward as the bridal is not flat. Also the range is limited.
My current traveler is a track style mounted in the cockpit just in front of the tiller. this makes a huge difference in it's effectiveness. I can drop the boom to leeward far more than the transom mounted unit. Enough to completely luff the main. In gusty conditions I only play the traveler. When a puff comes, it's easy to keep the boat on it's feet.
I set the main for the conditions, Flat for high winds, powered up for moderate winds etc, and then use the traveler for the puffs.
If it gets really bad, then twisting off the main is a good idea but still use the traveler for the puffs.

[bluepearl]

You guys probably won't like my answer to this question. I don't have a a traveler, and I don't think they are really necessary on this boat. The Blue Pearl just has a rope bridle with a fixed block in the middle. This bridle can be adjusted slightly to suit the wind conditions, but not much. My primary adjustments are the vang, sheet, and backstay. In gusty conditions I pull the vang down hard. It has an 8:1 so you can really crank it on. I fully expect that my boom is going to explode someday. I set the sheet pretty snug and let the crew hold it in case we really need to let it out in a guyts. I hold onto the backstay adjuster (16:1) and I play it with every gust. Seems to work pretty good.

[Mark Sailmaker]

On Joyride in these conditions we usually have the backstay set for general wind strength with the traveller midships or slightly to weather to keep the boom on center and sufficient twist in the top. Big puff, traveller down, more backstay if necessary, blow the sheet next and be ready to blow the jib sheet. We've had several times that the boat was pinned with just the jib trimmed...I think Bob is right about the boat not needing the traveller - in anything over about 10 - 12 true. The real advantage I see to a full width traveller is in light air. Vang sheeting can work well in big breeze but being able to pull the traveller car all the way to weather and twist the top of the main with the boom on center is a real advantage in light air.

[bluepearl]

Actually Mark I've found that the bridle setup that I'm using works extremely well in very light air as well. The bridle is adjustable on both sides using a simple sliding splice so in really light air I can raise the middle block all the way up to the boom or even higher. This allows me to pull the main almost to centerline with very little downward force on the boom, pretty similar to having the main traveler all the way up. You can't get the main quite all the way to centerline like that, but in the really light stuff the SJ doesn't point really well anyway so pulling the main to centeline isn't ideal in those conditions.

[Mark Sailmaker]

Bob - I'd like to see how the bridle with the "sliding splice" actually works. Probably won't change my boat, but I am a gear head that collects solutions...