CHAPTER 9


Making life easier Running Off As described on the previous page, running off is a great way of defusing a windy situation. If a headsail is to be changed on an upwind passage and searoom is plentiful, it is far better to run off and let the sail collapse ‘behind’ the main than to keep plugging in to weather. Even where searoom is an issue, it is often worth running off just for a brief period to let the crew get up to the foredeck and douse the sail safely. The boat can then be sailed slowly to windward under main alone while they are changing it for the next one.


Running off is also the best way of taking the sting out of a big reefing genoa that is proving a struggle to roll. If you just let go the sheet, especially with the breeze well forward, the flogging sail will create enough drag to give you a hard time even though it isn’t full and driving. Kill it behind the main on a run and it will come in like a lamb to the fold. Heaving to (pages 106-107 for a description of this manoeuvre). For the right boat, heaving to can be another useful method of taking off way to tackle any job on deck. It is often the best method for defusing a sail-shortening exercise. For many modern yachts with a cut-away forefoot, however, the equilibrium of the hove-to state is too radically disturbed when one or more sails are adjusted. Letting off the mainsheet to reef the sail, for example, can allow the boat’s head to pay off, filling the half-reefed canvas in a most undesirable way. If the boat is sufficiently stable hove-to, however, your crew will relish the prospect of going forward in greater safety than can otherwise be achieved.


The loads on headsail roller reefing gears can be greatly reduced by running off the wind.


MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP | 95


Heavy Weather


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