Motor sailing to windward


Motorsailing to windward


Another method for keeping a boat more end-on than beam-on to the waves is to sail to windward. This was a conclusion drawn by the SNAME/USYRU committee considering lessons from the great storm of the 1979 Fastnet Race. Clearly, this option will depend on weatherliness, but it can certainly work for powerful craft in a moderate gale.


However, many of today’s cruisers do not have a storm jib or perform erratically under main and deep-reefed headsail because of their hull characteristics. Boats with poorly balanced hull lines may experience sudden weather helm problems as they heel. This sorry state of affairs is usually dealt with by easing the mainsheet or allowing the mainsheet traveller car to slide to leeward, but once the seas build, steering to windward is a different matter altogether. In something less than storm-force heavy weather, given a blow not expected to last beyond the range of fuel in the tank, a better survival option for any of these craft can be to motorsail very slowly upwind with no headsail set. The main is deep-reefed, sheeted hard in and generally flattened as much as possible; a mizzen may prove even better where available. The technique is more


or less the same as ‘dodging’, (page 89). The trick is to adjust speed so as to maintain steerage way and no more, because the last thing you want is to go leaping off wave-tops and tumbling into the trough behind at speed. Motorsailing may be useless for yachts in colossal seas on prolonged passages, but for coastal craft caught out beyond their normal comfort zone, it can literally be a life-saver.


Heaving to


Heaving to is a traditional method for taking off way and leaving a boat lying well up towards the wind. It has fallen out of general use with the arrival of yachts with a cutaway forefoot. A traditional gaff cutter heaves to phenomenally well because of her deep forefoot and her rig, whose centre of effort moves forward very little as she reefs. She is able to use this ability to survive any gale in which it is possible for her to carry canvas. Traditional Bermudan yachts can heave to after a fashion, but for yachts with flat underbodies and salient keels this old save-all is not a survival option. It does, nonetheless, have its uses for them in easier conditions, allowing them to lie-to at sea without having to steer.


106 | MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP


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