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Scott, by luff here, do you mean it was basically flogging violently at the
leech? if so, and from your other descriptions, I suspect (as you do) that
its from too little leech tension, and some blocks forward would go a long
way towards getting a better lead angle.
> Looking back what we did next was downright stupid. The wind had died a
> bit more, and we were making no way at all with just the main, so we
> decided to again try the genoa. About this time the wind again increased
> and the same extreme luffing occured. We were literally in irons due to
> the luffing. Again we managed to furl the genoa only this time, the genoa
> became a mess and rolled up with a large section about 8' up that was
> unfurled.
That seems to be a common problem with furlers - you really ought to add a
few extra wraps around the drum cuz when you curl it up in high winds the
sail wraps tighter and requires more wraps. Last winter I crewed on a 42'
westsail and we had this problem in the middle of the night. That monster
jib took us hours to get under control.
>When the wind hit this mess, it forced the bow very quickly
> around and were forced to sail on a broad reach which put us
> between a rock
> (Seward Park) and a hard place (Mercer Island).
One thing you could have done there was to head downwind to reduce the
apparent wind and buy you time.
> We then lowered the main, fired up the motor and headed straight for the
> marina which was dead into the wind.
Which marina are you at? I'm currently at the westlake marina, but theres
been some talk on the NW list of several of us moving to Kenmore Air Harbor.
>However there were several
> times when
> the wind was so strong and the genoa luffing so badly that we could not
> make way with our Honda 5!
I have a pet theory that most 5-hp motors have too much pitch to really wind
up to get full power with our heavy (relative to what most 5hps are attached
to) P19s. I just picked up a portable tach today I intend to use to test
that theory, but I digress...
> On one strong gail we were blown downwind
> almost instantly. The way the motor was shuddering was not at all a
> comfortable sight. This was when I began to wonder if I would be
> making it
> back that night. No sails up, cannot sail if we did, and the motor is not
> capable of getting us back. Great.
>
> I made the decision to head towards the lee side of the hills surrounding
> lake where it was calmer, which meant falling off and taking the wind, but
> atleast we were moving and in the right general direction.
That was a good move and showed good judgment - get out of the wind and buy
yourself time to think. Also, learn to heave-to, its a very handy technique
to have in a blow.
> Lessons we learned. Our boat has a Harken furler with a genoa. It hasn't
> worked right from day one, especially furling. Seems like the
> furling line
> isn't wrapped enough to fully furl the genoa. When it screws up, there
> isn't much you can do on the water.
On the westsail, i basically had to lash down the drum with extra line, take
off the furling line, and wrap it a few extra times around the drum. When I
released the lashing, i then had enough turns on the drum to roll up the jib
the rest of the way. Fortunately though, we were tied to the Port Townsend
marina! It was still blowing 30+ knots - i had earlier measured 36k with a
kestrel windmeter. it would have been very interesting to do on the water,
indeed!
>It's also clear that whomever setup
> this system never sailed in heavier weather, as the only fairlead for the
> jib sheet is parallel to the front of the cockpit sole. The angle of the
> sheet is much too flat and doesn't tension the luff, even in
> light winds it
> will luff.
I had some fixed blocks on the side decks about where you describe. I took
them out because people kept stepping on them and grinding them into the
gelcoat, and I now exclusively use the tracks to the outside of my toerail,
where I adjust the leads depending on which headsail I am using.
> Lastly the furler is just that, and not made to reef. From
> what I have seen reefing-furlers have a stiff/solid forestay. We are also
> very glad we didn't get less than a 5 horse for our P-19, as at times this
> was not enough to counter the wind, waves and sail action of the genoa.
>
> >From what we can determine we would do better with either a traditional
> working/jib/genoa sail set with traditional forestay AND tracks/cars to
> properly trim. Or we need a REEFING-furler AND tracks/cars to properly
> trim the furler. The question that I have is where those tracks
> should be?
There's a lot of discussion about that around here. Judy has been getting
favorable comments on her cabintop arrangement - but she's in windy SF bay.
They wouldn't really work here in the NW most of the time since you'd be
normally running the big genoa. For a while HMS was putting tracks on the
outside of the toerail. They are out of the way there, but there's a variety
of good reasons to NOT have them there too. I hope to experiment with
placement a bit myself - I think tracks mounted on the cabin and cockpit
coaming sides near the deck would be out of the way, get good lead angles,
and be versatile enough for all headsails... but I have not yet rigged my
boat that way.
> So to all you mighty Potter people, dissect this account and
> please tell me
> what you think. There were a number of rookie mistakes, I am confident
> however that should we have been able to properly reef and trim the genoa
> none of this would have happened.
Well, if you were out the day i think you were, you were probably
overpowered with the genoa for starters, and without a way to change sails
or reef, it must have been a heck of a ride. I think a reefing furler would
help. I'm pretty happy with my traditional hanked-on headsails and a simple
downhaul, but a reefing genoa would be very convenient too.
Sailing today on Lake Union was awesome, for what its worth :)
If you decide to experiment with track placement, drop me a line and I'd
love to get together and trade a few ideas and give you a hand.