After spending a wonderful weekend with a bunch of great folks, Manon and I sailed back to Havre de Grace under the strongest conditions we have been in yet. We usually stay put if the forecast is over 20. The forecast was 20s with gusts to 30+. I was looking forward to testing my new rig, especially since Josh allowed me to use his Loos gauge to check my rig job. Turns out my tune was quite true. We had been out before, but only at a max of about 20. We set sail at the yellow mark outside Nap with 2 reefs in the main and a full 100 jib. Everything was going well, a nice beam reach, until north of the bridge when the swells got larger and the gusts stronger. The gusts would push us over to the rails in the water and last for a good 30 seconds, then a swell would push us a little further. A few times we lost depth indication, a tell that the transducer was out of the water, or nearly so. Reefing the jib to 50% made things much more comfortable. We sailed the whole way back under these conditions. Entering HdG channel was challenging, putting us close hauled and tacking up the channel to where it ran abeam again. Thankfully my new sonar allowed for greater tacks outside of the channel, which freaked out the Admiral. I decided to tack instead of motoring and dropping sail to avoid turning the sails into rags in the 25 knot winds ( mine are of unknown age). So now the question, when do you reef? How much wind is too much? We usually do the first reef at 15, the second at 20, then the jib at 25. I am thinking 35 sustained would be my limit. But I havent been out in that yet.
S/V La Neige 1993 C&C 37/40 XL Havre de Grace , MD FB blog : thenext14years Brian and Manon
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