Hello Beethovens,
We picked up and delivered Elise back "home" last Thursday. We are now thinking about everything that's missing to make her ready for a trip across the ocean. Yes, there are a few differences between a boat geared up for coastal sailing and one fitted for an ocean passage.
What drives most of the differences is the fact that when you are out in the ocean for a few days, you need to make do with everything you have on board. You can't go back and get what you need. So it's important to pack well. Also, it will be a sustained effort for both the crew and the boat. We need to make sure that the lines are in good shape, the sails are solid, the rigging is strong and maybe reinforced in some places.
There are several areas which need to be buffed up a bit. Let's take a look at the main ones over the course of the next few posts.
1) Rig and sails.
When you set out for a passage, you don't really know what the weather conditions will be like. It is a good idea to take a sail for every kind of condition you might encounter. Granted, if you end up in the middle of a tornado, it is a problem at sea just as it is on land. Tsunamis, on the other hand, are not a problem at all on the water.
- Making sure that your main sail can be reefed eg. the area of the sail can be shortened by not hoisting the sail all the way up the mast. Carrying a trysail (imagine a tiny little triangle of a sail) is also a good idea.
- Taking the entire collection of head sails. a #1 is a big one for really light winds, you may need a #2, just a bit bigger. It's rare to need it and the additional weight of that sail may not be worth it. A #3 is the typical windy weather head sail. But if it gets REALLY windy, we will have a #4 even smaller, and a storm jib - imagine a tiny little triangle of a sail.
- You want to take spare spinnakers. If anything happens to the one you have up, you want to be able to hoist another one while you are doing the repairs. No need to slow the boat! We will also be taking "France", a spinnaker that is designed to handle heavier weather, eg heavier load on a sustained basis.
- A spinnaker net, built to suit Elise's fore triangle and rig can prevent spinnaker wraps (my specialty), especially for us as we will be short-handed.
- A spinnaker sock helps us douse the spinnaker easily and quickly, as you can with a sock. If you want to take the spinnaker down, you pull the sock over it, it "kills" it, and then lower the sock, take the spinnaker out and put the sock back up for the next time. So you can do this in much heavier weather.
The spinnaker can also be sailed with double-lines (and super light lines which we have if the wind is SO light that the weight of a typical guy will prevent the spinnaker from flying). Double lines means that at any one time you have a lazy line for your sheet. If you are jibing, you will deal with a line that feels absolutely no pressure (the definition of a lazy line...it's waiting to be used). Once everything's hooked up on the other side, the lazy line switches place with the working line. It's a bit more work at the back though as you have to find a place for all these lines AND make sure the boat is not going where it wants to go. For once that someone has thought about making the foredeck person job easy!
Lastly, even with two people, we won't be able to drive at all time. By driving I mean hand-helm. Not even necessarily because you are tired. The best reasons I can think of for you to leave the helm are
- you need to trim the headsail for maximum performance. The main requires much less "subtle" trim after it is set for a given point of sail. That is, a small change won't contribute dramatically to an increase in speed. This is true of you changing the main trim or the wind shifting a little bit.
- you need to help your other half on a manoeuvre (say a jibe or a change of sail). If it is faster, safer and easier to do with two people, it is better to do it with two people.
- make yourself a cup of hot tea in the middle of the night to prevent the frost from completely invading your privacy.
- check the charts eg take a "fix" and make sure that we are going in the right direction. If we sail off the course we want to sail for a long time, that's unnecessary distance we need to cover and precious minutes (or hours) wasted!
- sleep. What? no sleep? Oh, OK then, I'll sleep when I am off watch
- taking a reef (eg, wrapping the bottom of the main around the boom to reduce the sail area). Elise has only one reef point but bigger boats will have more than one.
- change clothes. It is important to be as comfortable as possible at all times. It prevents seasickness and allows you to concentrate better on your job. The weather shouldn't change dramatically in a heartbeat during the Pacific Cup but if during your shift it goes from day to night, you may have to add a few layers, and you should do so without having to wait for the lazy crew (just like lines, the lazy crew is the one that's not being used at a given time, but waiting for its turn)
Having spare lines, a spare spinnaker pole, a sewing set just in case, loads of sail tape is also critical. Making sure that all the sails are marked with your sail number. It makes it easy for people to recognize you. That could be competitors, but also rescuers in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately, sometimes, it helps whales locate the boat they want to take down.
The idea is to be SAFE and FAST all the time. Being safe means being in control of the boat, and not pushing past what it can endure (you don't want a mast to collapse because you don't have the right size sail upfront). It's a pretty expensive mistake and doesn't do any good to your chances of winning. Fast means a) the appropriate sail for the wind speed, b) a fabulous trimming job and Nat at the helm. The good thing is that switching to smaller sails in heavy weather actually makes the boat faster. It is controllable, so you don't waste time recovering from an endless series of round ups - and it's faster to tack :) The ratio between the force applied by the wind on the sail and the weight of the boat that it powers is closer to being constant. That ratio by design is pretty good in the first place. Obviously, the hard bit is when you are just at the edge of a wind range. Keeping a bigger sail until the very last minute makes you go faster. However, if you have to change sail in heavy winds, it is likely to take you much more time than in calm waters. So it depends on how long you think you can carry the big sail.
Compare to the #1 (big genoa), #3 (intermediate head sail), 2 light spinnaker and a main sail, this is heavy weaponry :)
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