Epic Sail and a question

Great weekend at Bear Lake Utah. Lots of rain and thunder storms which lead to an epic sailing experience. I will be brief. Went out with my son in law, an experienced hobie guy. We were flying back and forth about 16-18 knots and having a blast. Traded places with him on the helm and myself crewing. Winds picked up and then it got dark and we got blasted. Don't know exactly what the winds were, but I have been sailing for over 40 years and have been out in a few blows. My guess is the first gust was about 40 and then it settled in around the upper 20s. Anyway, we survived and probably set some personal bests for speeds and time on one hull. We were soaked and grinning from ear to ear. The only problem was that we could not tack around. We eventually ran out of lake and when it got into the shallows jumped off the boat and pushed it around in the breakers. Hairy stuff. We would get some speed on and start into the tack and the waves would always knock us back. We tried looking for lulls in the waves, but being the shallow end of the lake the waves were very high frequency. Several times we just about made it around. Tried jibeing a time or two, but that was obviously a pitchpole waiting to happen. How do you get around in survival type conditions and big waves? It was quite the sail. Try a firehose in the face for about 60 minutes with 70 degree water. It was EPIC.

At the RRR I suppose the winds were in the 20s, and when I (solo) was just cruising around I jibed a lot. It was just a lot easier. Maybe there's just that much less risk with only one person's weight on the boat, but while it was pretty dramatic it worked well without ever approaching a capsize or pitchpole. I did it pretty quickly; sail all the way out and stuff the helm over; and by the time I jibed the sail was barely filling on the other tack. No time to even build much speed.

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'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages

You really have to jibe in that stuff, you should both move back as far as possible and bring her around. I'll grab the all of the main sheet just below the top block while turning and cross the boom over, under control as best possible, rather than letting it just whip over. I sail on Erie in PA and half the time it's under those conditions. I had a really hard time tacking so I had to learn to jibe it right.

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Buxton
18' T16 Silent Lightning (16' T2 Hybrid)
11' H16 White Lightning
79' H16 Green Lightning

Tacking in high wind and big waves is just plain hard to do. I try to sail close hauled and tack off the back of a wave hoping the bows will swing around before the next wave hits. I stay on the low side as long as possible to keep the bows in the air to aid the turn. You can't keep your weight back for too long though or you'll turn over backwards in big swells. Make sure you sheet out a good bit so the mainsail doesn't cause you to stall (weathervane) in the middle of the turn. I also backwind the jib as long as possible. Sometimes in heavy weather nothing seems to work.

When gybing in heavy air. Try centering the traveler and sheet in as you start the gybe. The boom will come across when the boat is pointed deeper into the wind, the sail will travel less distance making the transition less violent, and the sail will be stalled effectively depowering the boat.

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www.thehobiewayoflife.com

Thanks all. Keep the suggestions coming as I would have tried them all that day. I was watching some video that I took of my son in law and youngest son out the next day. Winds were in the mid teens and perfect. I noticed that they did not let the main sheet go when tacking and they would make it around, but just barely. Wish I had noticed it while it was all happening, but I was busy at the time. When I tack, even in light air, I let the main out a bit. So we were probably stalling the main. Also they seemed to crank the rudders pretty hard and fast. I tend to carve the turns and start out pretty gentle to not stall the rudders too.
The 2 times we started to jibe we barely got off a close reach and the bows were going under. Maybe we could have gotten the timing just right and sheeted hard in to take the wind out of the main, but with just a 5 to 1 homemade seaway it was very difficult to get any mainsheet in, let alone all of it quickly. Guess I'd better start practicing my jibes.

Well... If it really was blowing like that you wouldn't have been able to transition from a close to a Broad reach to gybe without easing the Jib and the main first. You would have a tough time gybing from a close reach You want to accelerate and have as much boat speed as possible. This will also make the gybe more manageable as all that pressure won't hit the sail as hard when you come around. What I do is often sheet in and 'heat' the boat up a bit to build a little extra speed, then sheet out to help the boat turn. Once the point is nearly pointed dead down wind with the sails out sheet and travel in as you continue to carve out the turn. This centers the boom and doesn't give it the punch it has if let the wind take it across. (you can also grab the boom/mainsheet b/t the blocks and throw it over. Then don't forget when the wind fill that main on the new tack it is going to want to round the boat up.. So unless you are ready for it be ready to pull it back down.



When tacking... Don't let out the main or jib sheet until the boat is head to wind. In fact sheet that sucker in as tight as you can when you start your turn. The leech of the main will help you turn.. Once head to wind THEN ease the main and let the jib pull the boat around. If it won't IMO the first thing to do is drop the main a bit further and pull the jib clew into the wind backwinding it. If you have blown the tack be mindful you might already be moving backwards. So pop them rudders over... and if it still won't go push the main all the way out backwinding it..

Once you figure out the "Y" turn you will find you don't even need to make it totally head to wind to get through.

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www.thehobiewayoflife.com

I have frequently used the backing down on the rudder technique, but as I said I was not on the helm at the time. The biggest obstacle to the tack was the waves. They were about 3-4 feet high and very steep and frequent. The South end of the lake is pretty shallow. We would just about get around and a couple of waves would slap us right back around. I guess I just need to go out and practice some more. After all, I've only been sailing these things for 44 years or so. You'd think I would have it down by now.

gybe in high winds and tall waves is the way to go keep the main sheet tight or bad things could happen like turning over and or a traveler car exploding neither is a good thing when just trying to get home. Did you check the weather and do you carry a vhf radio
Former Hobie Admiral Gary

Yeah. watching the weather all day. Forcast was for max winds at 16 mph. As for a radio, who was I going to call. My daughter was watching us through her telephoto lens the whole time. We were at most a quarter mile off the beach. This is a mountain lake that is 24x 9 miles. We both had our pfd's on and way too busy to call someone on the radio to tell them we were having a blast and would be a little late for lunch. Even if it had gotten worse and we had gone over, all we had to do was ride the boat to the beach and get it up on the shore before any damage was done. Maybe if I was going offshore somewhere or overnight sailing would I have a radio. Not poopoohing your suggestion as you didn't have an understanding of the situation. There are definitley times when you need to carry a radio. This was not one of them.