Heavy Weather Sailing
by Alberto de Capitani

What is "heavy weather"? If you ask this question to a dozen of people,
you are likely to find that are as many definitions as there are sailors.

In the U.S., the Coast Guard generally issues a " small craft advisory"
whenever the sustained wind is around 17-21 knots (Force 5 in the Beaufort scale).
Whereas this seems a prudent definition for small boats in unprotected waters,
some experienced sailors find it too conservative. The reality is that heavy weather
is a relative concept: what is "heavy" for a small dinghy with an inexperienced crew
may be fine sailing for an ocean racer with old " salts" aboard.

When I sail my boat (a Beneteau 381), my own inclination is to take Force 6
(22-27 knots) as a sort of threshold - the point at which I start asking myself
whether I am in the right place and what I should do next.

What should one do when threatened by heavy weather?
The obvious answer ("run for cover") may not be the safest answer.
For instance, the closest harbor of refuge may be so far that you can reach it
only after dark: if the entrance is not well lit, the approach might be very
difficult at night. Or there may be a bar at the entrance where dangerous breakers
may form when the wind is piping up or the tide is ebbing.
Counterintuitive as it may sound, it is sometimes safer to head offshore and
stay there.

The first thing to do, I believe, is to assess the situation and your options as objectively
as you can:
- How far are you from the nearest port or protected anchorage?
- How dangerous is the navigation to get there (due to reefs, shallow waters, etc.)?
- How far are you from a lee shore?
- Given the speed of your boat and the likely speed and direction of the storm,
do you have the time (and the sea room) to maneuver to avoid it?
- How long is the storm likely to last (are you facing a summer squall, which may be
violent but may last only half an hour or is a gale brewing up which may linger on
two or three days)?

1. If your conclusion is that you should ride the storm at sea, there are several steps
   you may want to take in preparation for it:
   
2. close all portholes and hatches (even freighters are known to have sunk because
   cargo hatches were left open in a gale);
   
3. pump out any water that may have seeped into the bilges (you need all

the buoyancy you can have; besides, sloshing water can be quite destabilizing);

4. secure all movable objects below (they can become dangerous

projectiles in a seaway);

5. make sure that dinghy, raft, bimini, fuel jugs, anchors or any other

objects on deck are securely tied down;

6. set up jacklines on deck and prepare safety harnesses and life

jackets (nobody should be allowed to stay on deck in foul weather

without a safety harness);

7. prepare any storm sail you have aboard as well as reefing lines for

the mainsail;

8. check the location of your emergency equipment and/or abandon-ship bag;
9. check your position and the distance from land;
10. cook some hot food (this may be your last chance for a decent meal in
11. a while) and put some hot coffee or tea in a thermos bottle.

As the wind increases and the sea starts building up, you may decide to heave to.
In order to do so, after reefing the main and roller reefing your genoa to the size of
a working jib , back up your genoa by tacking into the wind and blocking the wheel
in that position (if you have a tiller lash it to leeward).

The forward propulsion of the main should be more or less offset by the backward
propulsion of the backed-up genoa, so that the boat will remain in balance approximately
in the same position, heading into the wind or at a slight angle to it. There is nothing else
to do and you can go below and have some rest, hoping that the storm will in the interim
blow itself out. The problem is that, in reality, most boats keep moving even when hove to,
albeit at very low speed ( 1 or 2 knots). Therefore, if you are close to land and the wind is
pushing you in that direction, heaving to may not be a very safe solution. In addition, if the
sea keeps building up and breakers start to appear, it may not be wise to stand still against
the force of the sea: a breaker can hurl against you tons of water at up to 30 knots, which is
a bit like being hit by a truck.

At some point, you need to resume your course.
If it is blowing really hard, it is unlikely that you can make much progress by beating your way against the wind and it would probably be quite dangerous to sail on a beam reach (exposing
your beam to the waves).
If you are not on a lee shore and you have sufficient sea room, the best alternative is therefore to sail on a broad reach or " run before the storm".

There are a few things you need to do (beside praying that the storm will end soon):

• Progressively reduce your sails as the wind strength increases: you may start by
  double reefing the main, then roller reef your genoa to the size of a storm jib.
  A further sail reduction may be obtained if you replace the mainsail with a storm
  trysail and then roller furl the genoa completely or ,alternatively, douse the main
  and sail with the jib only.
  Neither of these solutions is ideal, as the first one is likely to increase substantially
  the weather helm, while the latter one may create a dangerous lee helm.
  As long as you have the mainsail up, you would be well advised to keep a preventer (remember that you are sailing on a  broad reach and an uncontrolled jibe in heavy
  weather can be quite hazardous).

• Watch your speed: surfing on the slope of big swells can be fun, but can also destroy
  your rudder. In addition, excessive speed can result in "broaching" (loose control of
  the boat and turn beam to the waves) or even, in extreme conditions, in "pitchpoling "(somersault over the stem after burying the stem on the trough of a wave), with
  potentially disastrous consequences. For these reasons, many sailors running
  before a storm choose at some point to douse the sails completely or even to tow
  a "warp" (an anchor cable with both ends secured to the stern) or a  drogue in order
  to keep the boat speed to 4-5 knots.

• Steer carefully: you need to keep the boat at an angle with respect to the waves
  (which may be quite difficult in a following sea), avoid the breakers , but also
  manoeuver to evade the occasional big wave coming from an unexpected
  direction (this is fairly common at the start of the storm when the seas are still
  confused with waves coming from different directions). Somebody has described
  this as steering in the same way that surfers ride the waves. Steering in these
  conditions can be quite tiresome and it is therefore good practice to shorten the
  watches so that nobody should steer for more the one hour at a time.
  Needless to say, it is better to forget about the automatic pilot.

I suppose nobody in his right mind deliberately looks for storms just for the fun of it. In fact,
the best storm tactic of all is to avoid storms altogether.
However, it is reassuring to know that many sailors have gone through storms in small boats and come out unscathed by applying some well tested techniques of heavy weather sailing.

Learning these techniques is exciting and, touch wood, may even turn out to be useful.