Bigger Wind

lava

lava

Member
Well, Today was the most wind (above 20 mph) I have sailed in since getting my SF at the begging of this year. After I stopped peeing my pants for the first hour (due to almost flipping every few mins and having to hike the whole time) I kept runnung into irons at every turn. It happend when I turned fast or slow. Can anyone give me a quick lesson? I'd like to go out again tommorow, wind is looking like 15-25 mph. Thanks,MIke
 
Hard to say without seeing what your doing, but maybe when you turn you are not letting the sail swing free while turning and are pulling in the sail before completing the turn (too early).

When you turn and the sail goes into irons, try letting the sail free (the sheet line) by not pulling it tight, keep control of the sheet but no tension but don't let it go free.

Now the sail will stay in irons while the boat continues to turn. Don't pull in the sail until the boat is turned the way you want to go. Once boat is pointing the right way, you can pull in the sail.

Think of the sheet line like a throttle, and while turning you can't give it full throttle, so you ease off and turn, and when done you step on the gas by pulling in the sheet.

also perhaps you are trying to go upwind too much, so practice in a heavy wind by going back and forth across the wind, and once you have it mastered you can trying going up wind more.
 
This question has come up before; for instance, here is a link:

http://www.sunfishforum.com/tacking-17-25-knots-t3801.html?t=3801

PS:
1. It's important to have decent speed before the tack and to be going as close to windward as possible under the circumstances. Or, in other words, if you start the tack from a reach, you may end up in irons.
2. Leaning the boat to leeward a bit before the tack should help getting through the eye of the wind.
3. The position of the gooseneck plays a major role in how 'easy' the boat will tack.
 
I agree with other responders that you are not carrying enough speed through the tack. Try this: Before you tack, ease the sail a bit, bear off and get the boat up to full speed. Then time your tack so you are going down a wave not up a wave, ease the sail and put the tiller over hard, move to the windward side and re-trim the sail. After a while, you can make less gross moves, and fine tune the tacking process but when learning, you need to get fully from one tack to the other with the minimum amount of head-to-wind time. Good luck.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
Thanks for all the help. Today I was still having the same problem. I noticed, as the sail came around it would stop dead into the wind, No matter how fast I was going at the begining of the turn. So I tried turning away from the wind instead of into it. when I changed turning direction, all your advice started making sence to me. After that it really wasn't a problem anymore....Thanks, Mike
 
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