Modification to How I Use My Gale Sail

Or, WHY I Keep Saying Practice is So Important

As I reported before, in my first entry about my Gale Sail, the instructions say to wrap the sheets only once around the sail before raising it.

Well, here's the rub: with my continuous-line roller furler, wrapping the sheets once isn't enough to keep it tightly furled, and if it isn't tightly furled the Gail Sale won't slide up the sail easily. Sometimes it won't slide up it at all.

The sheets also need to hang straight down, and not be secured by being led back to their cockpit-area cleats.

The solution came with the sail. The sail came with a sail tie, to tie up the folded sail and make it easier to slide it into its sail bag. You don't need it for that while the sail is deployed. It has a great advantage over line in that it's flat. I loop it through one of the sheets, counter-wrap the sail a couple of times, pulling tightly so it does not add bulk, tuck it through the sail tie and let it hang down straight.

That holds the sail tight long enough to get the sail up, which is all I need.

Several people have (quite correctly) pointed out to me that installing a second forestay close to the main one could be a great help in a storm. A small hank-on sail can be remarkably easy to deploy -- easier than a Gale Sail, certainly -- and is actually in a better position for storm sails, slightly closer to the mast.

I suddenly had an image in my mind of a boat with a Gale Sail on the roller furler AND a slightly larger storm sail on an inner stay, which with other options, such as a third reefing point, might reallly increase a skipper's options in foul weather.

I don't know if anyone has tried it, and since I'm a coastal cruiser, I would have very limited *real* need of an inner forestay. But if anyone knows of someone who has done this and actually used such a sail plan in foul weather, it would be interesting to hear about it.

We have exactly the weather I got that Gale Sail for in west central Florida right now. I would have taken the boat out in the rising conditions leading up to this if I could have, but I know I will have other opportunities before the winter is over. I'll report back how the sail performs.



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Too Much Sail Up!

I heard about a sailor the other day who, as they say, ended "up to his neck in alligators." I'll call him "Dick."

Dick had taken a several-day sailing trip with a couple of friends who had sailed some with him before but who didn't have a lot of experience yet.

Dick was the person at the helm. they were sailing with an asymmetrical spinnaker out. An asymmetrical spinnaker flies to either the port or starboard side of the boat, not out in front while running downwind, as a symmetrical spinnaker is used.

Asymmetrical spinnaker deployed on port side
Source for photo: http://www.yagersails.com/spinnaker.html

As you can see, that's a lot of sail. Now, there are some basic rules about sails.

• The heavier the weather for which the sail is designed, the heavier and stiffer the fabric will be. My ATN Gale Sail is only tricky to attach to the roller furler because the fabric is so stiff. But because it is stiff, I can make that sail completely flat, something you want in higher winds. 
• The higher the wind, the smaller you want your sails to be. This is why mainsails can be reefed. 
• The higher the wind, the stronger you want that sail fabric to be, so it can take the extra wind pressure without ripping.
• The higher the wind, the flatter you want the sail to be. A big belly in a sail catches a lot more wind than a hard, flat sail. Look at the belly in that picture above -- wowsa!

A spinnaker sail fails on all four points. Spinnaker cloth is just about the lightest-weight sail cloth made. When the winds pick up significantly, at some point it's time to take the spinnaker down, or "douse" it.

Well, Dick didn't pay full attention to what we call "rising conditions." Both the winds and the waves were picking up. All of a sudden his boat took off, racing on the overpowered spinnaker. The boat was out of control.

So now he had some decisions to make -- who does what? (Remember my article "Ten Minutes to Prepare?") Part of deciding who will do what is making sure that the person will know how to execute his or her designated task. Unfortunately, Dick is an optimist and did not anticipate this change in conditions. He also didn't assign tasks ahead of time, and he didn't train those people for their assignments.

But I know what the BIG thing is that went wrong for Dick -- he's a helm hog. He doesn't want to share the helm. Because of that, he did not have a skilled backup helmsman.

When he found himself overpowered, he had to go up to the bow in rough seas and douse that great big sail, keeping it under control and out of the water (having that sail go into the water would have been extremely dangerous. It could have pulled the boat over and then under like a submarine.) He had two relatively inexperienced people back in the cockpit, one of them on the helm. The person on the helm couldn't hold a steady course with the increased wind and waves, and who could blame him? You need to have someone else who can take the helm, but you have to teach that person and give him or her time to practice. Otherwise your backup helmsman is going to have a hard time. You have to share the helm if you're going to have an adequate backup helmsman in a pinch.

Dick called out instructions, but the new helmsman either didn't understand the instructions or couldn't execute them. It could have been a combination of both. In any case, they ended up with a line in the water AND wrapped around the rudder. When the people in the cockpit realized they couldn't steer, they started the engine. That is only a good choice if the helmsman and crew are certain that there are ... no lines in the water. The line then very efficiently wrapped itself around the propeller as well.

Again, this is a problem resulting from poor crew training and lack of time doing important things on the boat, what a friend of mine calls "time over water" (and not just as a passenger). There are extremely directive skippers out there, who give so many detailed instructions that the crewmember is just an extension of the skipper, doing no thinking for himself (picking a sex). The more prompts you give as a skipper, the less your crew member will actually learn.

Your crew has to practice these things under calm conditions, and "checking for lines in the water" needs to be drilled into everyone's head before they go *anywhere* near that engine -- in fact, all the time. That line wrapped itself around the rudder without any help from the engine. If you're going to take beginners out on your boat, you have a responsibility to teach them those basic things. If something happens, starting the engine is a very reasonable thing to do. They need to know how to do it safely.

He had to cut the spinnaker lines and let it drift away, but all's well that ends well. The skipper also had to go over the side to untangle that line from the rudder and propeller. That's not so good; he had to leave his boat for the water with crew on board who were already struggling. Again, all's well that ends well.

BUT:

You can avoid a lot of this by discouraging a casual attitude toward sailing on your boat. Make sure that your crew knows that it can be a little dangerous. Make sure they truly know how to perform the tasks you're going to assign them. Teach them patiently and give them a chance to practice.

I was on the sail school's safety boat one day when the students were learning to dock (those of us on the safety boat call that "target practice.") Each student boat made pass after pass, and we could hear the instructors giving tips and encouragement to their students. If the students were doing the docking, they should have been giving the directions to the teacher and other student, but each time, it was the teacher speaking.

Then one of the boats approached. I looked at the instructor, and she had her hands over her mouth! One student was in charge of the docking with the other student crewing. The student did a great job. Then they made another pass, and the other student executed the "mock dock." He did a great job too, and the teacher still had her hands over her mouth.

Hats off to her. She knows that unless those students can dock the boat without any prompting from her, they can't dock the boat. That's what you should do, too. If you want your crew to be able to tack the boat without your help, put one of them on the helm and one of them on the sheets -- and then zip your lips.

And for heaven's sake, don't be a helm hog. One day it could be your life on the line.

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My Current Storm Strategy

"Climbing (sailing) is like fun, only different."
     Tom Pattey, Scottish ice climber

When I first started sailing, I had a storm strategy. That’s good; everyone who sails should have a storm strategy.

My first plan (just avoid storms) was completely unrealistic (in two ways). That’s bad. See my three-part entry, “Out of the Bathtub!” That wasn’t even a storm – just more wind and waves than typical. We were in 5’ waves, and I was completely unprepared. I noticed on the news tonight that 8’ waves are predicted on the Gulf tonight. There’s nothing in the visible observation of local weather to suggest this. Locally, it’s cloudy with occasional light drizzle. However, to the north of us a cold front is moving south. I’m guessing now, but wondering if maybe north of here, weather is just pushing waves southward. The weather report didn’t give wave direction, and I haven’t checked yet.

It doesn’t really matter, because both weather and weather-related events, such as waves, can’t always be predicted (see my entry “Storm!”, where a significant storm seemingly came out of nowhere.)

In my first wind-and-wave event, I was woefully unprepared, particularly because of my reefing system that was so inadequate and dangerous that it couldn’t be safely used. That led to a cascade of ever-worsening events.

My second storm strategy was “just drop all the sails and motor.” That is also a significantly flawed strategy in my opinion.

First, my first sailboat had an outboard engine. In the waves we had it would have been impossible to run the engine because the engine would have kept coming out of the water, denying it cooling. On my next boat, the engine proved to be completely undependable. Now, with a dependable engine, I need to protect it. I don’t want to operate it if the boat heels more than 10º, because after 10º the oil pump cannot adequately pump oil through the engine.

The reality is that a sail plan in a really significant storm can’t and won’t be that simple, and it partly depends on your individual boat as well as your experience, and your experience with that boat.

For instance, my boat is particularly sensitive to being in balance -- that is, having the size of the headsail and the size of the mainsail matched so they work well together without allowing the boat to become overpowered (too much sail up for the conditions). I discussed this today with someone who has the same boat I do but vastly more experience, and he agrees.

For my boat, the hull shape is important. Its fat stern tapering to skinny bow makes the boat “bow tender.” In other words, the bow is particularly sensitive to wind and waves compared to some other boats.

Now, my friend already knows what I’m going to mention next. I’m still sorting it out because I haven’t been in a storm in this boat in some time and have learned a lot about how she handles since then. The first step for me would be to see where the coast is. If it’s close (I’m largely a coastal cruiser), getting away from or staying away from the coast has to be a top priority. You have to look at the chart closely and account for all possible obstacles, not just the shore itself.

The next concern will be how the hull goes through the biggest and most common waves. Unfortunately, waves don’t march like well-disciplined little sailors. While most may come from one direction, there will be contrary ones, and size will also vary. They are the concern of the helmsman. Right now, the current trend should be studied. In shallower water, the waves will be more confused and harder or impossible to predict. But you’re going to get out of shallow water as fast as you can.  :)

Once a tentative point of sail has been chosen (based on conditions, not destination – destination sailing is over for now) – it’s time to set the sails to help the boat through those waves as smoothly as possible. Wind direction has to be considered. You should have a good idea of where to put your sails, but try tweaking them for best result. “Harden them up” – that is, do things to take as much belly out as possible, such as tightening your outhaul (pulls the sail back toward the end of the boom) and the leech line (tightens the leech of the sail and helps take curve out of it). Why do that? Because a curved sail catches more wind than a flat one.

If you have a traveler, check its position. You probably won’t want to be on a close reach (often called “beating” with good reason), but you probably don’t want to be broadside to the winds either. Someplace in between will probably be best for the winds, but it may have to be a compromise between the wind and the hull, as the waves may not be from the same direction as the wind. You may want your traveler halfway between center and the end of the lee side. That gives you the option of using the traveler to quickly spill wind out of the mainsail in a gust. Simply release the upwind traveler line and let the traveler move all the way to the end. The sail will instantly become less efficient, and that’s exactly what you want.

Tweak your headsail as well. If this sail has height to it (my ATN Gale Sail is fairly short), you might want to use the position of the sheet leads to “twist” the top of the headsail. While sometimes undesirable, it is one strategy for depowering the headsail, because wind will spill ineffectively out of that twisted top.

The headsail can also be hardened up, by pulling the working sheet as tightly as possible. Many headsails have leech lines. Try to get forward to tighten that before any significant wind hits your boat.

All of this is a matter of judgment and balance. You will have your hardest time with it in your first storm, because you will have to test everything as you go, and make a number of adjustments. In subsequent storms you’ll know much more about what works on your boat. 

Is this my final storm strategy? Of course not.

Should you copy it? Don't be silly -- I haven't tried it yet. I'm absolutely certain it won't all work equally well. I have done all these things, but not all at the same time in a storm.

I'll post when I've done that. It's Florida. Inevitably, it will be tested. 

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Ten Minutes to Prepare

     Or, This makes a good case for practicing!

See the last article titled "Storm!" It describes a fast-growing and fast-moving storm that lasted for hours. Such a situation requires quick action to get through the weather safely and as comfortably as possible.

Suppose you only have ten minutes to prepare for a storm? Here are some things you can do, in no particular order. Some of them won't be appropriate for you and your boat. There may be things you would add to the list. The point is that you must have a plan for how to handle storms. When it's bearing down on you, that's too late to be thinking about it for the first time.

So pick and choose from what I've listed. Think creatively, put them in the right order of importance for you (you may not get through it all) and add ideas as necessary.


* Make sure you have a knife, on a tether, tied to your clothes. Everyone who has a knife should do this.

* Set your marine radio to the weather channel.

* Put EVERYONE in PFD's.

* Encourage all crew to put on gloves. Wet lines will be harder to get a good grip on.

* Offer seasickness medication to everyone and encourage them to take it.

* Secure any pets. Put them in their carriers and tie the carrier down.

* Consider whether sailing or anchoring might be your best plan. 

* Assign specific adults to see to the safety of any children aboard.

* Put one or more reefs in your mainsail.

* Furl or partially furl your roller furler, or,

* Put a smaller hank-on headsail up (check that you led your sheets correctly. You don't want them to malfunction in a storm!) Or,

* Put up your Gale Sail if you have one. Or,

* Douse your headsail and put up your staysail.

* Check your chart and chart plotter. Is there any chance of being caught on a lee shore? (Remember, wind direction can change dramatically during a significant storm.) Move the boat to deeper water before it's a battle (or impossible) to do so.

* Use the head.

* Put something to eat and drink in the cockpit.

* Make sure all hatches and portholes are securely closed.

* Close the companionway securely.

* Set up the most comfortable arrangement you can for yourself at the helm.

* Put on foul weather gear.

* Get a swim mask handy in case the rain is intense, so you can see better.

* Police the deck and make sure it's clear of obstacles. Anything left on deck will be harder to see in a storm and be a much greater tripping hazard.

* Police the cockpit. Get lines coming into the cockpit neat and ready for easy use. Clear it of anything unnecessary, but think twice before putting useful things below.

* Enter your lat and long in your log, and keep it updated. If possible, have someone mark it on the chart so you have a visual representation of how the boat is moving.

* Check the perimeter of the boat for loose lines, and start the engine. You can keep it in neutral. Turn it off if the boat is consistently heeling more than 10º because after that point the engine can't move protective oil reliably.

* Suspend "destination" sailing. Your plan now should be to get your boat and your crew through the storm as safely and comfortably as possible.


Gee, that's a lot to do in ten, or even twenty, minutes. Plan with your crew ahead of time who will do what. Issuing expected reminders are much easier for people to follow when things get tense than brand new instructions they didn't expect.

Practice ahead of time, especially things like changing sails, reefing sails, and doing things like raising Gale sails.

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Gale Sails!

      Or, The Inventor is One Clever Dude!

One important strategy if you get caught in a storm is to have less sail up. It makes sense – if the wind is pushing and pulling your boat harder, it will take less sail area to move the boat when the wind is strong. If you have too much sail up for the weather conditions, we say that your boat is “over-powered.” The boat will heel too much, travel sideways as well as forward, and, if the situation becomes serious, become significantly unstable. It could even tip over a full 90 degrees (called a "knockdown"), possibly damaging the rig and with the real risk of injury to you and your crew. The bow can swing around wildly with the boat rocking forward and backward as well as side to side, an unpleasant ride. It’s important to reduce the amount of sail you have up if you’re in a significant storm – and to me, “significant” means any storm where your standard sail plan overpowers your boat.

In addition to reducing sail surface, reducing the size of both sails helps to keep the boat in balance. When the boat is in balance, the amount of sail up matches the weather conditions, and the headsail and mainsail are working well together. Neither one is too big. A boat that is in balance will respond more reliably to the helm and give the people on the boat a more comfortable ride. You might not think that is important, but some storms last a long time (we had a big storm here about seven weeks ago that lasted for hours), and seasickness is more than nausea – it can make you dizzy and even disoriented. It can seriously incapacitate you or valued crew members. I know a skipper who actually tied a crew member to the mast for her own safety once when she became so seasick, and so disoriented, that the rest of the crew was afraid she might not be able to keep herself on the boat.

On most boats, it should be easy to reduce the size of your mainsail with a good reefing system. The headsail, however, can be more problematical. If you have a hank-on sail, it means going forward, taking the old sail off, and raising the new sail. That’s going to be tricky if you’re by yourself, and best done before the wind picks up (which may happen before the full storm hits you.)

If you have a roller furler, you have different choices. It can be tricky to change sails. You can usually partially furl your headsail, but if you do that often, it is likely to deform your headsail in a significant way, stretching it out and making a pouch in it where there should not be one. Sail fabric near the clew is very stretchy because it’s on the bias, and it will stretch out, especially in a strong wind.

On my boat (and many other boats of that era), it’s more complicated. My roller furler cannot be partially furled. Even if I wanted to take that step, I could not. No matter how you secure the lines, it will fully deploy, a bad thing to have happen in a storm.

But in addition, on boats where the headsail can be partially furled, one has to use the furling line to keep it partially deployed, and that line takes a lot of strain in a storm. Unfortunately, one has to use small-diameter line for the furling line because it all has to fit on the drum. It’s not as strong as thicker line. Sometimes that line breaks, and then you will have an uncontrolled headsail in a storm, not a good situation.

My solution is the ATN Gale Sail. To use a Gale Sail, you completely furl your roller furler, wrapping it only once and letting the sheets hang straight down. The Gale Sail has a leading edge that wraps around the roller furler and is secured with stout barrel clasps. A pendant attaches it at the bottom (I use stainless steel hardware through a hole already drilled into the anchor roller). Five barrel clasps (on my sail) wrap the orange leading edge securely around the roller furler. A spare halyard or spinnaker halyard is used at the top.

 The ATN Gale sail, with its trademark orange

wrap-around luff, deployed

I tested mine last week when we were having a lot of wind. I had an injured back, so although my main was reefed, I did not raise it. While waiting for a bridge to open I was in a wide, deep space, and I sailed the boat around using just the 60 sq ft Gale Sail, the size recommended for my boat.

I was impressed with two things. First of all, it was remarkably easy to handle the sail in the 25 mph winds I was experiencing. My 135% headsail by comparison is a real handful under those conditions and takes considerable strength to manage, even with self-tailing winches and a good winch handle.

More impressively, that very small sail moved my boat at up to 4 knots. What this means is that the sail can pull its weight and really help keep the boat balanced in higher winds.

The Gale Sail does have one drawback: it isn’t a piece of cake to put up (the advertising suggests otherwise). You had better pay attention to the weather and give yourself time to get it deployed, and practice using it before you need to. The more wind a sail is designed to take, the heavier the fabric used is, and the Gale Sail fabric is stout and extremely stiff. It’s tricky to learn how to maneuver the barrel bolts and it won’t go up quickly the first time you use it.

I suggest you use snatch blocks if you can to guide your sheets back to the cockpit. If your boat has rear blocks, as mine does, make sure the sheets you put on your Gale Sail are long enough to use them, because that rear block assures that whatever line you’re using will come to the winch at the proper angle, helping to avoid winch wraps. A winch wrap would be a dangerous complication in a significant storm, another reason to practice how you’re going to handle this sail.

My Gale Sail folds easily and easily fits in its storage bag.

I go a little for the overkill when it comes to safety, and I will keep the Gale Sail on deck, lashed to the starboard lifelines (I keep all obstacles, including spare rope, fenders, etc., on the starboard side, and then know I can always go up the port side unimpeded.) I don’t want to have to use precious time going below and digging it out from under a settee.

I am going to practice with it more and will post an update about how fast I can reasonably expect to get the sail up by myself. Even sailing with someone else, that person would be on the helm while I was putting this sail up. Unless three people are on the boat, I could not be certain I would have help with it.

I am not unequivocally recommending the Gale Sail over other solutions. Most people won’t practice putting it up and might not have enough time to get it up, especially if they haven’t been paying attention to the weather (and unfortunately, many people do not).

A quicker solution is to use a staysail on a second forestay between the mast and the bow, but this is also complicated. That second forestay has to be installed properly, and the added stresses on the mast have to be accounted for. You can’t just put another stay on your boat, then put a sail on it in storm conditions, and not look at the effect on your overall rigging.

However, if you choose this option, you can then have a hank-on sail already latched on to the stay and held over to the side with a bungee (it would be the starboard side on my boat to keep the port side clear) if you anticipate possible bad weather. In a sudden storm, you can get a hank-on sail up faster than you can get a Gale Sail over your roller furler. There’s absolutely no doubt about it.

A staysail has another advantage because its position, slightly closer to the mast, can be a more effective spot for a storm sail than one deployed from your forestay or attached to your roller furler. However, that advantage may be a small one, important if you are a racer but less significant if your goal is simply to get through a storm as comfortably and safely as possible.

If you don’t have a roller furler, the Gale Sail is not suitable for you. But you can have a smaller headsail secured and ready by your forestay. You may even have room enough on the forestay to have that smaller headsail at least partially hanked on before you leave the dock. That depends on the cut of the headsail you use most of the time.

Before making a choice, educate yourself fully regarding how you want to modify your sails in a storm. Don’t just take someone’s word that you “have” to have a staysail, or that hank on headsails are “best,” or that the ATN Gale Sail is the right answer for everyone.

The important thing is to have a storm plan. If it’s warm enough for most people to be sailing, there will often be at least a small chance of a storm. See my soon-to-be-finished entry titled “Storm!” Only a 30% chance of storms was forecasted for that day. It wasn’t typically a time of year where we experience strong storms here. But we experienced a very significant storm that lasted for hours with very little warning. Storms happen, so have a well-thought-out plan.

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