Dinghy sailing - was I over-powered or just not sailing properly?

cfitz

I went sailing today (Saturday) in Dun Laoighaire between around 12-3pm. I was with a small group and we were all sailing Laser Picos. We stayed inside the harbour - I'm not sure what the wind was but windguru.cz predicted it at 11 knots with gusts of 17 knots. The wind was off-shore so the surface was lovely and flat.

I'm 5'7 and weigh between 8.5 - 9 stone. I'm a very keen middle-distance runner so I am very skinny with no much upper body strength. I've been sailing since last summer, getting out once every few weeks. Up until now I thought that I was easily as good as the other people I was sailing with, but none of them had to reef and they all enjoyed the windy conditions.

Anyway, I found the winds and gusts very difficult to deal with today and I'm trying to pinpoint why. On a reach with the sail let out almost fully I'd still be flying along. If a hard gust hit while beating I would find it difficult to keep the tiller steady while hiking. After a little while I got the instructor to help me put 2 reefs in. This helped but it wasn't until the wind died down slightly that I felt in control and was able to start enjoying it.

So, to those of you with more experience than me - what do you think was the likely reason(s):

1. I'm just too nervous, I could have coped with the full sail in if I'd stuck with it.
2. I'm not yet experienced enough to deal with winds that strong but it will come with time.
3. I'm just rubbish at sailing.
4. I was over-powered because of my light weight and almost all sailors my size would reef in those conditions.
5. Some other reason...


Thanks for your help!

murphym7

I don't think that your weight is a problem here. To me it is down to sail trim and your observation skills. In gusty weather you need to keep a very good look out for where the gusts are. When you see a gust approaching then it is important to be ready and to anticpate your next action. Dumping the main is always my first choice, but you have other options available too. You can point up into the wind a bit while dumping the main, this will de-power the boat even faster (not ideal if you are racing though, you lose a lot of speed). You might also look at your hiking technique, making sure the straps are set up for your height and also that you are getting far enough out over the gunnel. See does this make any difference next time.

Ferris

You should be able to hold a Pico in that wind with your weight. They don't have much sail area.

However there are things you can do to further control the boat.

1) Whack on the kicker and outhaul, Picos have quite a deep main which pushes the boat over if the sail is not as flat as possible. If the sail is old the 'belly' will be bigger and push you over more.

2) Hike harder, you sound like you keep youself in good shape. Hiking with your toes in the footstraps, arse well over the water, knees slightly bent and stomach flat will make a big difference. If you cannot control the boat in this position then examine why this is the case. Is the tiller extension too short for example.

3) Be smooth on the tiller/sail. Being erratic with these will keep on dunking you and make you less inclined to hike.

4) 'Pinching' or sailing closer to the wind will depower the main. Its hard to do in a pico i'd imagine however, more likely you wil keep dunking yourself as you sail to close to the wind. The aim is to have the first third of the sail flapping slightly.

As with most things experience has a big part to play so stick with it.

cfitz

Thanks very much for the advice guys.

Regarding my observation skills - have you any tips? I've been told to watch out for dark dirty patches on the water as a sign of oncoming gusts but I haven't really been able to put that into practice - maybe it's that I don't recognise the signs and probably I don't really concentrate when it's windy coz I'm trying to do so many other things. Sometimes I can predict a gust when I see a boat ahead of me heeling severely.

The sail I was using was probably a bit old and I might not have had the outhaul as tight as it should have been - I'll know to watch out for that in future.

I'm not sure what my hiking technique is like. And I'm not sure how the hiking straps should be set. One problem that I found on Saturday was that when I hiked out fully for a while it was a problem to get back in the boat when the gust died - I'd end up yanking on the mainsheet to get my weight back in and that had kind of unpredictable effects.

Thanks again for the help.

Pigeon Reaper

Give yourself time. Sat was pretty gusty and you don't have much experience so you'll find it hard going. You'll learn to read the water for gusts with a little practice. Keep looking for dark patches to windward. The kicker will work but once the wind really picks up flatten the sail with outhaul and cunningham and let the kicker off. The kicker off will allow the boom to lift a little in gusts and cause it to spill a little wind. gives you a split second more to dump the main. It will take practice to get the technique so don't rush too much. since you're just beginning it's best to reef early. Unless you're racing keeping the boat flat has many advantages and i've never heard anyone complain about reefing in too early but have seen alot of incidents due to late reefing.

Ferris

cfitz wrote: »

I'm not sure what my hiking technique is like. And I'm not sure how the hiking straps should be set. One problem that I found on Saturday was that when I hiked out fully for a while it was a problem to get back in the boat when the gust died - I'd end up yanking on the mainsheet to get my weight back in and that had kind of unpredictable effects.

Did you find that you were geting a lot of weather helm i.e. you pulling the tiller towards you to stop the boat rounding up head to wind. This is because the centre of effort (draft) was too far back. Its not as complicated as it sounds and pulling the outhall and kicker tight on will help.

Toe straps can be set tighter which will help you getting into the boat in a lull. Too tight however and you won't be able to hike out effectively, again practice will help.

When I had a laser 1 the secret to depowering the sail was to have the outhall and kicker tight on ut to let off the downhall to keep the draft forward. Old baggy sails do not help at all.

Steve

cfitz wrote: »

2. I'm not yet experienced enough to deal with winds that strong but it will come with time.

That's pretty much it but don't worry, it'll come with time.

It doesn't matter what kind of boat it is, you need to be able to anticipate gusts and de-power the main as they hit.
Pre-empt by flattening the sail as mush as you can with outhaul and halyard tension and then it's just a matter of reacting in time by letting off sheet and pinching as the wind hits.
Another thing to remember is that if you are getting a lot of weather helm (pulling the stick towards you and feeling lots of power) whether its upwind or on a reach, then it's actually acting as a brake and slowing you down. If your sail trim is correct then steering will not be a problem - all too often with beginners is that wind hits before they can anticipate, understand, or react to it and that causes the boat to spin out. Again, this only comes with experience. 40 years, still learning, don't regret a minute of it...

Alfreado

I can only echo the above, if your feeling you cant control the boat or you think your over power flatten the sail as much as you can, or as much as you need too. I race a laser radial and in "survival" conditions I have the kicker racked on so hard I really have to duck to get under the boom theres so much curve in it.

Ramming on your kicker in heavy weather makes a huge difference when you need to sheet out in a gust, as when you ease the sheet instead of the boom going up it until the kicker tightens it goes outboard so you spill wind STRAIGHT away.

Heres a great article written by Clay Johnston, he's gunning for gold in the 2012 olympics in the laser. http://www.laser.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=30&Itemid=278 , it seems you need to register to view it now, I havent tried to reg so I don't know if you'll be able. Great article though I should have copied it

check out http://www.laserforum.org/ aswell, there might be some good tips