Storm sails

USING YOU STORM SAILS

 

Whether we like it or not, on occasions the sport of yachting can be dangerous, anyone who has ventured into or been caught in extreme conditions can vouch for this. We always talk in yachting circles of the value of practice and preparation, yet one area that we tend to ignore is the art of survival in extreme conditions.

Several years ago it became quite common for a lot of ocean race organizing committees to insist that prior to the start of the race the competitors sailed through a set of buoys with their storm sails set and drawing. This is a great initiative as I am sure that on a lot of race boats this would be the only time that these sails are brought out of the bag. Even so; I am always amazed at the bungled and botched attempts that ensue when the setting up of the storm sails is done on these occasions. I have even been on a boat where the trysail has been set upside down in broad daylight and light winds, imagine the confusion if that happened in the middle of the night in a howling gale.

 

Storm sails

The various yachting authorities have several uniform decrees that cover storm sails, they must be made of orange cloth for superior visibility, they must not be over a certain size and be built in a suitably robust manner, storm jibs designed to go on headfoil must have an alternative method of connection to the forestay and all storm sails must have their sheets permanently connected.

Storm sails have a completely different set of criteria from other sails when being made; they are to be used in the most violent of conditions and must be constructed accordingly. Over sized corner patches, multiple rows of stitching, extra reinforcement under the hanks and webbed rings in all corners are mandatory.

Storm sails not only have to endure high winds but also spend a lot of time flapping as the boat is thrown around and can have several tonnes of water dumped into them in a knockdown. So they need to be tough.

 

Storm Jibs

The profile should be relatively high cut and have very little foot round to enable as much water as possible to pass under the sail when waves break over the yacht. It is even wise to sometimes use a small tack strop to raise the sail a little of the deck as well. The ideal setting for a storm jib is on an inside forestay or baby stay as often found on the older masthead IOR style of racer. It is far more accessible and safer to work at this location setting a storm jib than at the bow as it is plunging into waves and once set provides a snug controlled position with the centre of effort much closer to the middle of the boat. However on most racing yachts it will need to be set on the headfoil and whilst not ideal is still OK. It is very important to have your luff tape running nearly full hoist on a long head strop, this stops a potential problem with the luff tape getting damaged with the halyard snapping wildly during the hoist and creating a hinging point at the head of the sail, it also makes it a lot easier for the person feeding the sail into the head foil, there is also a very real chance that a long length of exposed halyard could damage the foil itself in the high winds.

 

The Sleeved Storm Jib

On a lot of shorthanded racing yachts or simply some vessels that partake in a more sedentary style of racing it is common to see the headsail being used on a roller furling system. For these boats the best storm jib (if they don’t have an inner forestay) is a “Gale Sail” style storm jib. This sail has a long sleeve running up the luff which wraps around the furled sail and connects back onto itself. This system has several desirable properties, it stops the need to remove the genoa to set the storm jib, which can be a very dangerous practice, you simply roll it up and set the sleeved storm jib over the top of the furled sail and it also stops the headsail from unfurling in the event of the furling line breaking or the furling drum failing.

The Trysail

A trysail needs to be designed and manufactured along the same lines as a storm jib; it needs to be tough and rugged. Unlike a storm jib it must carry the yacht’s sail number on it for identification purposes. The trysail needs to be set above the tied down mainsail, so it should have a short tack strop to raise it to this point. Being set in this way over the top of the mainsail can be a bit tricky, if the mainsail has luff cars or slides that cannot be removed from the mast we will find the stack height of the sail lashed to the boom can be quite high, we obviously need to have an entry point for the trysail luff to be fed into the mast track above the stack height, so the feeder point for the trysail can be difficult to get to as a result. As well if this feeding point protrudes it can hinder the raising and lowering of the mainsail so it will need to be set quite flush to the sail track on most occasions. So we need to look at a couple of issues, firstly it is much better if possible to have slides on the luff of the trysail, they are much easier to fit into the track without a proper feeder rather than feeding a boltrope whilst the sail is being slowly hoisted in gale force winds, secondly we need to work out a safe way to gain access to the slide entry point, it may even necessitate a step or something for the crew to stand on. Try it out and see if it will be a problem and remember it is a lot easier in a marina pen than in the teeth of a Hobart Sou’wester. I have seen some of the larger boats wool up their trysails so they can be hoisted first and then broken open.

 

The trysail can be sheeted in two ways, in most cases the sheets will run through the spinnaker blocks aft, so set up the tack strop height for this sheeting position. When trying to get to weather with the trysail set you will need to keep some sheet tension on the windward sheet as well, if only sheeted conventionally off the leeward sheet, the angle will not be great and the best you can hope for is a close reach. The other way is to use one of the reefing lines in the boom attached to the clew of the trysail, wind it in and sheet home using the mainsheet; I am not a big fan of this method as I think it is far preferable to have the boom lashed solidly down.

On some real solid blue water cruisers it is not uncommon to see a separate track running alongside the mainsail track for the trysail. If you are not too fussed about extra weight and intend to do a lot of ocean miles then this is worth considering.

One more point about trysails concerns their effect on the rig, some older style long keeled boats will have no problem sailing with just a storm jib, but with a lot of the lighter fin keeled boats you will find they handle a lot better with a trysail set balancing the boat. With a lot of the new lightweight rigs with sweptback spreaders, the trysail being set behind the mast will help keep the rig in column, I have seen boats with just a headsail set break their mast as the gust strikes and with all the sail area on the forestay it sags under the load and twists the rig snapping it.

 

General tips

It is absolutely imperative that you set up for storm sailing and cover all the bases well before you actually need them. Make sure all the sail corners are marked clearly and the sheets are securely attached. Set them up in the dock and make sure the sheets lead correctly with no chafing points, make sure the trysail sheets are away from the steering position and the storm jib sheets do not rub on the shrouds.

When you do set up your storm sails for a dry run, take a mental picture of how it will be in gale force conditions. What is relatively easy on the dock can be a nightmare offshore.

So make sure it all works well, someday your life may depend on it.