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Storm Handling

The first step is of course to avoid the storm altogether. For this, it is crucial to receive frequently weather reports. For offshore situations where 3G is no more available, we have an Iridium Certus 100 Skylink system, which is capable of receiving weather GRIB files over satelite at much faster speeds than the well known Iridium Go.

 

If we do get caught in bad weather, we have a storm jib that hoists easily around the furled jib. A third reef was added to the mainsail, over the two which where originally available. But as this proved ineffective in winds over 35 knots, now a fourth reef has been added which gives to the mainsail dimensions similar to a trysail but much easier to setup than the latter.

 

If the weather continues to deteriorate and sailing becomes difficult/ dangerous, we will follow a special approach that is described in detail in Lin & Larry Pardey’s well respected “Storm Tactics Handbook”. This has proven to work with 70kn of wind and breaking waves.

 

This is essentially a “heave-to” method involving a large sea anchor (ours is 3m wide), a Long 100+ meter line with a strong swivel at the end and two strong blocks near the bow that allow to control the sea anchor from the cockpit and to keep a steady angle to the wind of around 50 degrees with the boat not moving forward or backwards. In this setup it appears that breaking waves loose their energy in the 100m corridor and only spray reaches the boat. The book is highly recommended to understand the advantages of this method compared to others (bare poles etc), and the setup.

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