Yesterday I was out on the Chesapeake Bay sailing my H14 solo. The winds as I found out today from the Stingray Point light were about 20ish gusting to 30. I was sailing in the lee of my island and had accidently gotten out of the lee into the main channel of wind on a tack taking me away from the island. It was blowing so hard I couldn’t make a tack with no jib, so I decided to carefully gybe. That was about one of the scariest experiences I have had on a sailboat to date. I came very close to pitching and didn’t know what I could have done to stop it. I’m still not quite sure how I saved it, I think I went through the wind to fast and steered back down further. So I was wondering what some tips for gybing in high wind are. Thanks all!

Fast in and fast out with total committment!

Essentially keep the speed up throughout, gybe through as small an angle as possible and try to judge your timing so that you are on the face of a wave so that you are, to a degree, surfing.

agreed with John. you must keep your speed up ..

what i do is:
when i am close to the gybe.. I feather the load (steer slightly down wind) so I can grab the sheets/block and guide it across the trav track.

this takes practice (in lighter air).

Build speed speed speed, Pull the traveler in, keep the main tight. Start the turn keeping your speed up, as the boom passes over your head give a quick flick in the other direction to slow down the boom impact and leaving the two hulls to take the hit, then head up releasing the traveler as you go along.

What you want to avoid is releasing everything traveler and main and having the main violently sweep over your head.

Scary maneuver on a H14. They don't have a lot of buoyancy up front.

But the best way is still to tack. You can tack a H14 in high wind, you just have to watch where you sit very carefully. You start at the back of corner of the trampoline. Build some speed then head up, sheeting in as you do so. Once the sail loose its power release the main sheet, quite a lot of it and use your built up speed to finish the turn. Don't move your butt yet: your weight is the anchor point for the turn and the other hull should be almost out of the water at this point. Wait, wait, wait until the boat is firmly on the new tack. You then jump quickly to the opposite front corner of the trampoline (toward the front) to flatten the hull down and block the boat on its new heading. Sheet in sloooowly to avoid going back into iron. Done.

H14 are so fun.

Brian,

Yes it was honking yesterday. The WRSC F16 fleet was also out in that stuff yesterday. When you make the leap to the F16, same rules will apply. You need to keep your speed up in & out so that the relative wind is less, requiring a gybe with full conviction. Having a chute and higher volume bows makes it MUCH easier .

Agreed with all of the above. Jake Kohl explained it to ne very well once. Basically you need the speed to lessen the carnage of the gybe. If you are traveling through the gybe at a speed equal to the wind the manuver would be equal to gybing in no wind so the faster the better. I have no experience with the H-14 so that may bring things into play that I am not considering.

Fixed it.

I swear mine ended at the front crossbar.

So what went wrong at 3:22 on this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz7qTdyduEQ&feature=related

nice vid

i like the boat hook just before that gybe

they seem to gybe through more than 90degrees....and rather than head down when it goes pear shaped keep heading across... both of them are still on the wrong side of the boat well after crossing head to wind.............the crew at least should have been through under the boom much quicker

so at a guess i would say these 2 highly experienced sailors were "racing" and not in "survival mode" and that the helm initiated the gybe before the crew was ready and then compounded the error by losing control of the rudder in the initial violent gybing action, might have been trying out the hero suit for the camera

???

That's just called doing the archepeligo raid, i think alot of us would do that after racing hard for 3 days,hitting alot of rocks ect..

Uhh, I don't need 3 days to hit stuff. I'm good enough now that I can do it right out of the gate.

that is another method of gybing (3:15)

slow down just enough to let a powerboat hit your sterns and push you through the gybe. this method does not require much skill but collision insurance is recommended

LOL, the 14 in conditions described, your weight will be so far back that unless you're 6'-2" you'll rarely see the tips of the bows.
Aptly described by someone, "the 14 DW in a blow is like sailing off a cliff!"

I wouldn't bring in the traveler - I made that mistake once and it cost Zander 2 fractured ribs. If the traveler is in when the main gybes and catches the wind hard, there's a good chance that it will overpower and stall the rudders when it pops over making the boat round up and capsize. If you gain just a little too much angle with the main in you capsize quickly.

Your best bet is to leave everything out but with the main firm enough that it has some shape to it. Accelerate and have a step by step plan in your head. Let the crew (if you have one) start their way across the boat...they're going to need to get to the back of the boat quickly but leave you enough room to maneuver. Once the crew has started their move, make your turn briskly (but not so fast that you stall the rudders and put on "the brakes"). As the boat turns, help the boom start across (the crew might be able to do this too). I grab the mainsheet between the blocks and pull it to the center. As soon as the main starts across the boat, reverse your turn slightly and turn a little further back downwind...you're making an "S" turn...go just high enough for the main to catch the wind on it's backside and then quickly and firmly turn back down...but not too far!

Sounds like my method on the H16 is NOT recommended...

I just let everything out (traveller and every inch of the mainsheet), then have my crew and I lay down and kiss the tramp as I steer (slowly) through the wind.

I've often wondered how the rig stays intact when I do this...

Mike

i was doing this when i first purchased my mystere. i was not aware i needed to have speed, and was going as slow as i could because i was getting overpowered with my new bigger sailplan and a few times the travler slammed onto the other side during a gybe (risking ripping a beam bolt head off).. so i started to travel in .... 2 gybs later i found myself flying through my window on my mainsail...

i no longer sheet in my travler and have learned how to manually travel my main across (hands on sheets).

just takes practice and a few extra set of skivvies

sounds scary. have you ever heard your crew praying during this "laying down" time?

Not over mine...

Andrew - make sure to have a stopper knot on your traveler line so you're not relying on the plastic stops on the beam...the stopper knot will hit the cleat fairlead and stop the traveler. The stoppers don't really take much of a joke.

Excellent point, for all boats. The H16, especially with the integrated track, has an extremely robust traveler, but not if you let it slam into the "stops" (actually, the corner castings) in high-speed gybes.

Mike