Island Storm Tactics

I use both my Outback and the TI for fishing and kayaking the Baltic Sea prefering the TI for longer trips and windier conditions. But if the forecast says that there will be more than 20 mph I wouldn't go offshore with none of them.
Unpredicted strong storms and currents are very rare events here. Therefore I'm perfectly happy with my evolve as backup engine. In stronger conditions it helps you keeping the bow in the waves; pedaling alone can be very exhausting.

I missed this thread earlier, but here are my thoughts on the subject. You can have motors on your Islands, but if things really go south, you need more than that.

WaterTribe requirements for safety equipment are strictly enforced for anyone competing in a WaterTribe event, like the Everglades challenge. Below are the requirements and recommended equipment. WaterTribers are seldom more than 2-3 miles off shore, but may be as much as 5-10 mi as they sail/paddle point to point. The two items I always carry are a SPOT and a fully charged, submersible VHF radio. SPOT is a locating device, but not considered as reliable as a personal locating beacon (PLB, EPIRB). These locating devices should be carried on your person (tethered to your PFD.) As we say, it doesn't do much good if your SPOT or PLB helps locate your boat, if you are not in it. Much preferred that your rescuers locate you.





BTW, you can read about my experience in verifiable winds on the order of 40 mph at http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=165 Scroll down until you come to The Storm: AI/TI in 40 knot winds, shark encounter, tethered under a capsized boat.

Keith

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2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Wow. Really says a lot about being able to instantly roll up the tramps and sails. I would not want to out on the water in a Weta when surprised by a storm. Love to have one though. I could see one in my future.

Still, I would rather braving an offshore storm in an Island (having been there once) than most of the other boats in those videos.

Vetgam

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I have twice experienced 30+ Knot winds.

The first was in Jan this year in Anderson Inlet on the south coast of Vic (opening into Bass Strait).
My wife and I were about 4nm down the eastern end of the inlet when the wind started to build. When it hit about 20kts we decided we would start for home knowing it would take some time as the wind was westerly and with the tide out the channel - even for a TI - was not very wide.
To get back to our camp we had to sail back to almost the ocean bar before turning East into the northerly channel.
Approaching the ocean the wind had picked up even more and the waves were breaking very short and steep ~1m.
I had reefed to about 50% and we peddled hard when tacking but the wind and waves made this a challenge. My wife got a real work out that day - one min out on the tramp, then into the boat to peddle and then back out on the other side.
As the wind increased further and with the channel so narrow we were making very little headway. We decided to land on the sandbar separating us from our "home" beach and wheel the TI back to the other channel. We put the cart with the beach wheels in and packed everything down - amas in, mast and drives laid flat and tied down on top and set off.
We'd only got about 10m when the real change hit - the weather bureau reported 50+ kts nearby in Bass Strait.
The wind flipped the entire TI (which was broadside to the wind) about 270 degrees - which probably saved the rudder.
I'm so lucky my wife stays calm in these sort of situations. We just held onto the boat with our backs to the wind to avoid the sandblasting and after about 10mins the gusts abated slightly so we pulled the boat's bow into the wind and put everything back together. When we set off, this time my wife was pushing down on the leeward side.
Back at the other channel there was minimal wave action and we were able to peddle the few meters across to the camp beach.
Motto of the Story - always take the cart.

The most recent was in Oct this year when a wind change with winds gusting to over 30knts came through when we were ~ 3nm from shore.
Here's my log that I pasted onto the Vic Hobie Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/240154692833236/...
Sea Log - 12-10-14
Went out again at Sorrento [VIC AUS] today. It looked like a great day for it with the forecast for ~10kts rising to strong winds in the early evening.
Started off with 13 degree air temp at 10:00am and fog which burnt off by about 10:30 to reveal a beautiful blue sky and warm sun. Very light wind ~ 5kts. Meandered West hugging the coast to Portsea for a coffee before setting off out to Chinaman's hat. Plenty of playful seals and this time no big tourist boat.
The wind picked up slightly, so decided to visit Mud Island.
After a short stop we were off again towards the Sth Channel Island. When we got to the Sth Eastern tip of Mud Island the wind picked up again and we flew across the flat water. About half way across, the wind had increased to around 20kts and the chop about 1m and quite steep. By the time we were close to the Fort, I decided it was better to head for home rather than extend our time out there. Tried to close reach towards Sorrento but the wind had picked up to around 25kts and we had to fall away heading more towards Portsea. As the wind reached around 30kts we were often covered by water so reefed about 50% reducing the speed but also the number of times the bow looked like a submarine (I was a bit worried about water getting in under the forward hatch but later found we had only shipped about 1 a litre). We closed the shore closer to Portsea than Sorrento and then had to tack a few times to get back to our starting point. We were starting to get quite cold by now - in spite of the dry pants etc so having Sorrento sailing club to starboard and being able to make a single reach into the beach was very welcome. Never the less, all in all a great day out.
The map of our journey is shown on this google map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zFOj4dHGLT2Q.kKknJSA6r-yo
The wind shift can be easily seen on this graph.

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Dune Tandem Island owner as of June 2013

Yes Ian, a very good barometer (sorry!) of the wind getting too strong is when you cannot pedal hard enough to get through a tack. I don't know what the wind speed is at that point, but I know my heartrate gets way up there (and with 3 heart diseases, I don't keep it up for very long). Fortunately the rudder is effective enough that if you stop pedalling and apply opposite rudder, the stern will swing you round onto the next tack as the wind blows you backwards. Not elegant, but effective.

(BTW, I once experienced a full 56 knots (as recorded at the local airport control tower) while sailintg a quarter tonner off Adelaide, and the airborne spray was coming like bullets, so I had to steer by looking back at my wake. Then a crew member grabbed the tiller to stop us running into the falling mast of a sister ship. Fortunately the blast didn't last too long, so we were able to continue the (very exciting) race.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Hi Tony
That's a really interesting idea. - definitely keep that trick in mind. My only concern - maybe misplaced - is that sliding back down a wave may put so much pressure on the rudder that it could break.

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Dune Tandem Island owner as of June 2013

That is a reasonable concern Ian! However, the time needed to slide back onto the new tack is very brief, so forces on the rudder don't have enough time to build up.

I first became convinced after paddling backwards off a beach (BTW, my TI tracks much straighter when going backwards!). By far the quickest and easiest way to swing the bow through 180 degrees was to use the rudder while reversing. Pedalling forwards required a much much bigger turning radius.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Posted in error.

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I began using Tony's reverse rudder trick this year on the AI and it works well. Learned about it in a sailing course. I often sail without the mirage drive using the plug to fill the well. I'm sitting back on a quarterdeck and use TI amas so this setup occasionally means a stalled tack. The trick almost always works for me. When it doesn't, I settle for a jibe. I never experienced damage to the rudder pin or rudder doing it.

Greg

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

Thanks guys. I'm definitely going to try this.

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Dune Tandem Island owner as of June 2013