Heavy Air

Friday afternoon was sunny but the wind was up.  My family was envisioning a relaxing, quiet, spring sail but that was not to be.  It was certainly a success but there was not much relaxing.

I was pretty happy I got to try out my storm jib.  I picked up a storm jib for a 24’ boat on eBay for cheap.  It was very small but clearly well made.  I was looking for something tiny to fly on the babystay in really heavy weather.  Something that would move the center-of-effort way inboard.

The babystay attaches to the deck on a track which allows the stay to bend the middle part of the mast.  The horizontal distance from the mast to the stay is only about four feet.  The stay is about 17 feet long.  Pretty odd geometry from which to fly a jib.

The jib I got off of eBay has an extremely high tack – like any good storm jib should.  It really sets pretty good and tacks through that narrow slot with no problems.  The main needs to be down at least to the second reef for the two sails to have any semblance of balance but that’s the idea anyway.  I’ve set the sails this way in the slip, with no wind, and it kind of looks like a fractional rig on a 22’ boat.

We sailed a bit with just the main, with one reef in the main and just a bit of the genoa unfurled, and with one reef in the main and the storm jib.  On an old IOR-type boat like the C&C the main is a pretty high-aspect proposition but sailing with just the main was pretty reasonable.  The wind was holding 20 knots and gusting to 25 (I can know now thanks to going up the mast two weeks ago). 

In really heavy weather with big waves I think the extra power from a slot is necessary.  That’s where the little, odd storm jib works pretty well.  It was like sailing a real boat upwind.  There was room for a bit of slop in the relative angle to the wind, nothing flogged about, and there was plenty of power.  Now I need to get out in a real gale off a lee shore and see how it really works!