Jib reaching. Aaaaaggghhh!!

I always found the most challenging point of sail to be jib reaching in strong winds. We proved this extensively yesterday with klaxons ablaze and an epic righting sequence where we both ended up under the boat clinging to the dolphin striker with both hands while the boat happily reached off with uncleated main but cleated jib. Quite an experience that one. No more salty seafood food for me the rest of the week, I have had my fill!

We sailed with the main traveller out and main sheeted reasonably. Mast was fully rotated and some downhaul. I released the main after we stuffed and I had to hold on to the rear beam to try to save it but I believe sheeting out doomed us as the apparent moved aft. Jib was sheeted off a bit but still not enough to fly properly.
Boat is set up for upwind/downwind with not enough sheet to sheet the jib out properly for this course. Waves was short and steep. Wind in the region of 20knots with fairly more in the gusts.

When transitioning from upwind to downwind we always have to pass through jib reaching and reaching before the spi can be set.

* Now, what are the latest tricks on an Infusion to avoid going down while jib reaching?

* Any new tips for how to handle the transitions?

*How the heck do you re-enter an Infusion with style from the water with all the rounded surfaces and nothing solid to hold on to. Our re-entry yesterday was.. interesting and left both of us with lactic acid sprouting from our ears.

It's a really tough point of sail on any of the F18s that are so refined specifically for upwind and downwind sailing. Here are some random (mostly unorganized) thoughts:

If it's windy enough that you are wondering how to depower, I over-ease the jib and focus on the main. We have a doubled up sheet take-up system in the main beam that gives us enough jib sheet to ease it in this case. If you can't ease the jib enough, you are choking off the bottom of the main and driving with the upper part of the rig - which also doesn't help your stability. If your crew can run the main, it really comes in handy here. Ease the traveler so you can sheet the main as hard as possible but if the traveler is all the way out, that's pretty much it. As you noted, the apparent wind can swing wildly as you accelerate and decelerate and if you have a lot of twist in the sail the top part of the rig will start to power up if you stuff it and slow down - making the tipping forces worse. Flatter is better. Downhaul on as much as needed. One of the biggest helps is to get the boards up in almost a downwind position - they'll help keep the boat from tripping so quickly. Talk before hand with your crew about what the emergency exit manuever is (steering up or down, easing the main, etc.) and we sometimes agree on a short word to announce the emergency depower move (usually an expletive).

You do all this and you will still be on the ragged edge. Waves make it tougher...staying at the back of the boat is really important but if you are double trapped, it requires a full commitment to survive there...there is no half way to go fast on this angle. However, you should be able to trust in one thing - you are moving so fast and the crash will be so sudden that you will probably be thrown safely clear.


...and consider a drag sock to clip to the forestay bridle and throw in the water if you flip to keep the boat from accelerating away leaving you body surfing after a capsize.

Should be an interesting thread. In big wind its one of the toughest points of sail for me as well. I shreaded the top half of mainsail last fall under similar circumstances. Its exhilarating but can be scary as hell.

I like your thought about sheeting-out putting the nail in the coffin. I think I remember some similar discussion after the AC72 went over.

It would be awesome if the jib reach (close reach) was brought back to the racing format for say windspeeds averaging over 18 or so knots. The reach was done away with due to the "parade" effect, which is totally valid in light winds, but when it's blowin' there is definitely a skill/cajones factor that makes this a valid point of sail on the race course.

sm

perhaps a related question. If you do stuff the bows, should you pretty much just give up and consider a safe exit, or is there some technique that could actually save the boat at that point...

Say, a stuff in the back of a wave during your windward mark turndown...?

I don't have more tips other than what Jake posted. Basically you have to stay ahead of the boat and it's tough when it's breezy. We wiped out hard due to rudder stall on the N20 Sunday so make sure your rudder setup is correct and your springs fresh.

As to avoiding a wipeout, at some point you have to drive down. My scariest moment last year was wire reaching with spin up on a F16, solo, and having to reach to gain ground to avoid rocks while driving down to douse the spinnaker. Fortunately I kept the boat upright and well clear of the impending doom.

As to getting back on, I always climb on board from the front beam. So far I've kept the Infusion upright so we'll see, that might get tougher as the front beam is a little higher than on the 20. Climbing on from the side is a no-no, that is how trap hooks punch the side of the hull. Don't ask me how I know that.

Mast fully rotated? some downhaul? I always thought you would decrease the rotation and be full on for the down haul to decease Depth(power) and open up the top of the sail.

I can't make it over the front beam of the Infusion and the minute the boat starts to accelerate, you're never going to make it. There's too much to get tangled in there too (jib). I go for a quick duck under the hull and pull myself up with a trap line feet first (grab trap, throw my feet on the deck, and pull up).

So boat design has not improved since the Hobie 16.

At least it is easy to reboard.

Beam reaching is one of my favorite points of sail since you really have to be on your toes the whole time
Lots of downhaul, both travelers well out, double trapped, and raised boards depending on how much wind there is.
Just be glad you are on an Infusion instead of a Cap or a Wildcat

Getting onboard is not that hard.
You grab the trapeze that enters the frontbeam with both hands, put your leg on the hull and pull yourself up.

Have you installed a righting line "triangle" yet?
We have slid a 5mm line (with a knot at each end) into both sides of the front beam groove, it is held tight by some bungy so it doesnt drag in the water while sailing.

need more info on that "righting triangle"...sounds interesting...not familiar with it.

Jib reaching double trapped.. the horror!

That advice reminds me a lot of some advice I recieved when I started snowboarding. "Put most of your weight on the front leg Rolf, to get a good bite in the snow".. The result was spectuacular to say the least. Board standing vertically stuck in the snow, vibrating with a deep hum, with me 10 meters below it. Total separation from the board.

I must admit I recoil at the tought of double trapping in those conditions. How can that not end with a double Peter Pan. We probably weight in at a hefty 200kg when dressed up for arctic sailing this time of year and the chop/waves was nasty.. Well, the next time we have those conditions I'll motivate Frode to have a go at it. If we are able to type afterwards I will report back

Jake:
When diving under the hull after righting, do you have a special technique for that? Foot against the daggerboard or someting?
Doing this fast, before the boat starts to move have to be imperative?
Do you use a drag chute yourself? (if you answer yes to the last question, there will be follow up questions on type, rigging, deployment and retrieval )

Tony:
I was unable to reach the trapeze from what I remember. Do you go for the bungee while holding on to the mainbeam?
Righting triangle? A 5mm line going from the hull/mainbeam intersection tightened by a bungee to the rearbeam which is used for righting?

One last question. When I decied it was time to do the geromino move I pushed off to get clear of the boom and mainsail. After resurfacing I had to swim a couple of quick strokes to catch up with the boat again. With the Tornado it was easy to grap the lines holding the trampoline to the hulls. With the Infusion there is just nothing to hold on to and I had to risk swimming to the daggerboard and re-enter by grasping the mainbeam. Any tips there as well on how to hold on to the boat?

Not much technique - but I do make an effort to make sure I'm not tangled in anything before and try to get a foot on the daggerboard as I go under.

I came up with the drag chute idea a couple of years ago (I'm sure it's been done before that)....but I've never needed to use it. I had a pouch sewn into the bottom of my trampoline that stores a small chute. It has a piece of line and two cheap , different colored, aluminum carabiners. The carabiners are clipped through a grommet in the opening of the pouch to make sure they're accessible. Carbiner 1, which has the end of the line tied to it, gets clipped to the dolphin striker post. Carbiner 2, which just has the line flowing through it, gets clipped to the forstay bridle. Then throw the chute in the water. Clipping it to the dolphin striker should enable you to pull it up out of the water and let it dangle at the forestay if you need to do something else quickly (like go pick up your skipper that jumped of the back).

If you are jumping off the back, I imagine you were on the trapeze - either keep your trapeze ring with you or hold fast to the mainsheet and use that to stay connected to the boat.

Jake see the top picture here for a photo: http://www.microwindracing.com/boat.html

I'm still not sure where the ends of this tie into the front beam? Do they get compressed between the beam and the hull, i.e remove the beam to install, or are you tying to the dolphin striker-beam connection? Also I'm not familiar with how it's actually used, I guess just yank but that looses you a foot of righting moment compared with going over the top of the hull...might be fine for you >150kg boys but we're down at 138kg so need everything we can get to pull that beefy Infusion mast free.

Speak of pulling free, how do ya'll right the boat with the spinnaker up in a race situation? I.e if you wipeout downwind I've seen guys get the boat back upright without stuffing the chute back in the tube. I've never managed to get upright without stuffing the chute back in the tube, a time consuming process.

Thanks a bunch for the trap line trick to get back on the boat will give that a go next time we're upside down.

ahh...I thought he was talking about something used to climb back on the boat. My a-cat was rigged that way with the righting line...never really thought about rigging one up on the F18.

OH NO!!!!
Not again!!

I missed that...and another opportunity to use Stank's breasty modification of my moment diagram...I gotta find that.

You don't lose any righting moment with the line there. You, the line, the boat are one fixed assembly in the righting moment equation. You can attach the line to the mast base and still get the same righting moment if you can get your body in the same position as with the line over the hull....the lower the rope attachment point, the harder it is to hold on to but it won't affect the physics required to get the boat back to pointy side up.

Must have missed that thread. Probably doesn't matter one bit where the righting line attaches. Much more concerned with the other questions I asked...

aha! found it...

from this thread

My a-cat just had eye straps riveted under the beam and the line passed through those with a big knot on the end. To right the boat, you grab the knot at the top of the beam and pull the line through the eye strap until it bottoms out on the other eye strap on the other (now the lower side) of the beam.

I haven't been able to right the boat with the kite out either - I usually uncleat it and pull the dousing line where it's accessible on the bottom of the tramp to just get the ball of the spinnaker at the hoop.

Thanks Jake. Only thing that matters are longer legs and more weight, I can't do anything about the former.

You can use the slot on the front beam where the tramp's boltrope slides into, take a 5mm line and put a knot on the end so it
doesn't pop out of the slot when you are righting the boat (it takes a while to get it in though, I used some pliers to pull it through).
We dont capsize often, but being able to right it quickly is the difference of losing a few places instead of becoming DFL

Dont see how you could right with a wet spinnaker hanging from the mast, doesnt sound like a good idea either (imagine swimming after a boat with the spin still up LOL!)

I've never been able to snuff the spin while the boat it's on it's side. I pop the halyard and normally it will right

Totally agree that this is the scariest point of sail, and double trapping in such conditions is really asking for trouble. A couple of years ago we were heading back to the beach, a few hundred meters out, aiming for a narrow opening in rocks that protect the landing area. A wave knocked us both off our feet and deposited us banging and floundering into the hull and each other (I think there was a similar movie here a couple of years back from the Tybee). Skipper lost the tiller, main fully released and the boat just hurtling along towards the rocks. I managed to get aboard somehow, unclipped to go back and got washed overboard again! Managed to hold on to the trap handle, clamber aboard and crawl astern to the rudder crossbar. Succeeded in heading into the wind about 50 meters before the rocks ... At 20 knots that's about 5 seconds to total destruction!!
We rarely double trap jib reach anymore, forfeiting some righting moment for a bit of safety, especially those 20 degrees where there is nothing you can do to depower - steering up or down are equally useless, dumping the main possibly even harms... That leaves praying, and if I thought that would help I'd probably spend Saturday morning in synagogue instead of jib reaching.
We also try to sheet in and travel out, and I like the idea of sheeting out the jib. Still not sure what to do with the main when you stuff it...

We use a drogue routinely when we go over. It is stored in the tramp with the righting line, and attached to the righting line close to the bitter end, just where it enters the bag. Pull it out and drop it in the water, within a few seconds it slows the boat, still abeam the wind. Crawl forward with the line and tie off on bridle, and the boat swings head to wind (I don't use the carabiner as it is liable to snag over time in the tramp). Now you have a nice tame cat, head to wind, drifting at 1 knot, ready to be organized for righting, righted, boarded and organized for sailing, all calmly and as risk free as it gets.
We also board with the trap lines, feet first, easiest way. But, if the boat is trying to escape drogueless, getting there is dangerous. So, before the drogue we would head back between the hulls, holding on either to the tramp lacing or a dedicated line some guys have for that purpose under the tramp. Reach the rudders, steer up into the wind and clamber over the rear beam.

There is the technique of boarding a cat after capsize-
WHILE it's righting!

A technique I learned from Chris Green- never actully practised it with him however.

When you are at the point when the mast comes off the water, and the boat starts to right-
you throw a leg/ body, arms, whatenver is easier for you onto the formally bottom hull and begin to get on the tramp on that gront corner as the tramp goes from vertical to horizontal.

It takes a bit of practice, and oh, you gotta be fast, faster than that!

It works though, and when timed right is the quickest and easiet way to get back on a cat the is being righted.
Really only works for one person though, then the other does the outside trap handle thing, or is helped back on by the crew on the boat.

I do a modified version of what Jake mentioned. While hanging on to the crossbeam, I find the dagger board with my foot and get my leg to the outside of it and duck under the boat. The board ends up between my legs. My opposite leg now is wrapped around it with my knee bent as I pop up on the other side. I reach up with one hand, find the shroud, then find a trap handle. Then I throw one leg on the hull and pull myself with the trap handle up on the boat. When you have a full camelback and a pfd with a radio and other safety gear, it can be a bit more added weight that you realize that you have to pull up but this worked many times for my 280 pound butt (which is 53 pounds lighter now).

The jib reaching technique I've come to like is this:

Driver sitting on the hull, far aft at rear beam, traveler line in hand.

Crew on the wire, chicken line attached, in downwind position in footstrap, mainsheet in hand.

Make sure the jib is eased plenty.

Driver plays the traveler and crew plays the mainsheet. Its probably not as fast as twin wire but a lot safer.

The other important thing to know is whether its up or down for the "escape", i.e. is it closer to sail upwind to depower or downwind to depower. When jib reaching its important to know this and for both driver and crew to know which way the driver is going to turn in a last ditch effort to depower if the boat really loads up. Usually we just say "up escape" or "down escape". And if it gets really bad, turn up hard and let everything go, cause if you're eased out a lot already, a "down escape" will still be pretty powered up (as others have mentioned) and you won't be able to keep the bows above the water.

It's all great in theory. What do you do when you can't go up (non-movable mark, i.e a lighthouse) and you can't go down (30 footer below you). I can say you don't seem to have a long enough main sheet in those conditions...

In that case, close your mouth, go twin wire and hang on. According to the badasses here that is the route to go (and what we will practice)

Traveler all the way down. Both skipper and crew all the way at the back of the bus. We are talking about jib reaching not spin reaching.

Both on the wire, sitting in or a combination?

whatever keeps the bow from stuffing

Soooo we went for a swim on the Infusion yesterday. Mostly broken crew, broken egos, and a few chips out of the dagger board trailing edge. We flipped going downwind with the spinnaker up, it's my fault I loosened the foot straps too much and my crew went flying forward as the bow stuffed a bit.

There really is no place to climb back on. We got lucky, really lucky. While I was holding the boat down with the dolphin striker, my crew was trying to get back on the boat. She is strong but not tall enough, there is a lot of volume! She ended up getting separated from the boat (never good), I had to duck under the hull, hold the dolphin striker with one hand, get my body outside the boat, briefly let go of the dolphin striker than find the side stay and start climbing aboard. Then go rescue my crew single handed in breeze and short chop. It wasn't a pretty rescue, hence the broken crew.

In hindsight we should have stayed on the boat and gone deep. Not as fast per se but upside down isn't fast either. Talking with some of the other teams, sitting on the back of the bus may be faster than getting on the wire if you don't have a lot of butt out there. Flat is fast but flat also powers up the main more, driving the bows down more? Thoughts? My personal opinion is the wave state and crew experience level matter most. You don't gain much fore and aft moment getting the crew on the wire but it is faster if the wave state is safe and the crew is comfortable on the wire.

I'll also add that single wire jib reaching deep down in big breeze is generally much safer and faster than spinnaker reaching in said conditions, even if the big boys are carrying the spinnaker they might not be for too long. It's hard to douse once it's up!

Depends on the conditions and ability of crew. I remember on MKL where I was on the wire with my front foot braced against the rear cross bar and the crew halfway behind me. 44 miles never tacked, never came off the wire. If trapped and big waves it helps to have a chicken line.

+1 on the chicken line has saved many a crew. Not very practical in a buoy race situation though.

Ok. Can we try to quantify that for racing around the cans (no chicken wire):

1: Wind strength (should be easy).
Up to 8m/s sit in.
9-12 single trap.
13 and above double trap?
*add pucker factor as needed and inversely proportional to gust factor.
2: Seastate:
Flat -> Go for it
Chop -> keep the bows a bit up
Short waves (messy) -> Double trap
Rolling houses - single trap or sit in

I think it is a lot faster when you are on the wire and the chicken line we use you just pull out and hook on the cleat on your harness.

The rolling houses don't bother be as much as the short steep stuff. I seem to stuff more often in the short/steep.

Just to give another view on the subject of jib reaching, I enclose a little vid I made this afternoon when reaching on my northsea-spot.
Extra problem was a little biassed swell direction which made the outgoing course a little slower. And the returning ingoing course a bit more tricky because of pushing waves from behind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eogpeZjMnc&feature=youtu.be

On the outgoing course, I was ofcourse on the wire, in my footstrap, but ingoing was too tricky for that.

I love the reach, we had a good swell with steep chop and were wave jumping on the reach at Last Sundays Rum race here in South Aus here's a bit of the reach and the transition to downwind goes well with the ACDC song
http://youtu.be/la-z17VsV6E

This inspired me, but I don't think I did the same thing you've described. I like using the track, though, and 5mm is perfect. I basically made long soft shackles with a couple 12mm nylon spacers to hold them in the track, with a few modifications to allow for a couple extra attachments.

Don't know the infusion, but for all boats I sailed so far:
If the nose dives (by then you did make already an error, right? But some errors are not avoidable) push the tiller *hard* to
a) turn the nose into the wind and reduce the angle of attack of the sail's
b) pull the stern down/ nose up (if you have sufficient heel angle)
In some cases you have to drop the main too.

The trick is to use sufficient rudder

Cheers,

Klaus