Death Roll Cause

L

LarsenCanvas

Guest
Well I just got back from sailing, and did three death rolls. After the third one, I was cold, and tired, so I decided it was time to retire for the day. I have read about how to get out of a death roll, although I have yet to perfect that. So I'm wondering what steps can I take to keep it from happening in heavy air. Do I move back in the boat? Pull in on the sail some so it isn't at a 90? Sail by the lee more? Scarry thought! Does having the board down help? More outhaul? Any tips would be better than just getting rolled everytime the wind comes up and I head down wind.
 
all depends on your personal style of sailing, when the winds up I tend to sail more conservativly, if the waves are kicking up hard, I'll keep my board as high as I feel comfertable with, and keep my weight centered in the boat, this still permits me to move and catch the wave, but less risk of getting launched out. you can try to flatten the sail, and I'm sure that will help some, but keeping some of your board down will be a massive help. the best way to judge how much board you really have out is to mark it on the trailing edge of the blade. I have marks denoting full up, 1/4 down, 1/2 down and 3/4 down, this helps to quantify the amount of board I have up or down and allows me to have a better gauge for the conditions and what worked best. Hope this helps -skip
 
Hi,

I was given the following advice at my local club after bearing away around the mark and promptly death rolling into the water in around 20 - 25 knots:

1. Stay towards the back of the boat to keep nose up
2. Ease downhaul to some extent which stops top of sail being open and pushing the top sideways into a death roll
3. Some vang but eased a bit
4. If you start to roll pull the sail in a bit and point up to stabilise

I managed to keep the boat upright in for the remainder of the day and on subsequent windier days have been in more control.

Hope this helps
 
LarsenCanvas said:
So I'm wondering what steps can I take to keep it from happening in heavy air. Do I move back in the boat? Pull in on the sail some so it isn't at a 90? Sail by the lee more? Scarry thought! Does having the board down help? More outhaul? Any tips would be better than just getting rolled everytime the wind comes up and I head down wind.
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Move back, sail in, centerboard down some, maybe more outhaul if it is really screaming, and bear away, pulling the tiller toward you, if the boat starts to roll.
 
if you are going downwind on a starboard tack what i like to do is have one foot against the front of the cockpit, and the other towards the back, hooked around the hiking strap. This locks me into the boat and makes it easy to force the boat onto a wave. Also, if i start to roll i pull in my sail, stand up, and lean to the leeward side (The one that will be tipping up)

Remember, sailing by the lee is far more stable than dead downwind
 
odinsvitskjaldr said:
Some of the best advice and step-by-stepped is at http://www.roostersailing.com/articles/4TH%20DIM%20WEB%20ARTICLE.HTML
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The Rooster Sailing article is great. Take the time to download and watch the videos. Note how aggressive the body movements are: once the boat starts to deathroll, don't write it off as a foregone conclusion and just sit there letting it happen. Leap across the boat and use your upper body weight and arm strength to shove that leeward rail back down where it belongs.

The bit about bearing off when the boat starts to deathroll seemed completely bass-ackwards to me, but on the strength of Steve Cockerell's recommendation I tried it and it seems to work. I still haven't yet figured out why, though, and that really bugs me.
 
I was deathrolling a lot on the way out to the course and then I figured that I didn't have my vang on enough, I sheeted it in and I got a nice ride out to the course. Also, after the seminar yesterday, If you start heeling to windward, you want to pop in, let out the mainsheet a little bit and sail be the lee.

Tim
 
Chris123 said:
The Rooster Sailing article is great. Take the time to download and watch the videos. Note how aggressive the body movements are: once the boat starts to deathroll, don't write it off as a foregone conclusion and just sit there letting it happen. Leap across the boat and use your upper body weight and arm strength to shove that leeward rail back down where it belongs.

The bit about bearing off when the boat starts to deathroll seemed completely bass-ackwards to me, but on the strength of Steve Cockerell's recommendation I tried it and it seems to work. I still haven't yet figured out why, though, and that really bugs me.
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Steve did a nice job explaining the why's for us last night, using a full hull model with a rudder, it became really easy to understand once you could see the hull and the angle of the rudder not just in relation to the hull, but in relation to the water. By bearing off hard, the rudder is not only a directional control, but also helping to keep the stern firmly planted in the water. If you were to do a quick jab to head the boat up, the angle of the rudder relative to the water is actually helping to kick the stern up and away from the sail even more and make the boat want to heel to to windward more.

He also explained his theory of the sail wanting to be stable at 90 degrees to the wind when running, which ties into why bearing away saves the deathroll and makes the hull stable again. If you picture the hull running 90 degrees to the wind, but the sail is out at 95 degrees, the boat becomes unstable. In order to stabilize, the sail needs to get to 90 degrees, so by bearing off, the effect is bring the sail back to a stable position relative to the wind.

When he showed those two forces working together, it made it pretty clear to understand why bearing away is so effective in saving the deathroll.
 
49208 said:
[...]By bearing off hard, the rudder is not only a directional control, but also helping to keep the stern firmly planted in the water. If you were to do a quick jab to head the boat up, the angle of the rudder relative to the water is actually helping to kick the stern up and away from the sail even more and make the boat want to heel to to windward more.
Click to expand...

Thanks.. that cleared up something that had been bugging me for a while, but of course it makes perfect sense. I wish one of the "boat whisperer" talks had been closer to me geographically, I hear they are quite good.
 
They are good, but if you get the videos, which I did before the talk, they will help a lot too. Just pay close attention to what he is saying because it will make a big difference once you start remembering the stuff.

Tim
 
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