STORM TACTICS

Setting the right amount of sail area begins the process of

handling heavy weather, but the point of sail is equally

important. As you might expect, it makes sense to choose a

heading that avoids the worst of the weather while also

keeping the vessel as far from beam-on to the approaching

seas as possible, thus avoiding capsize conditions.

(Navigating to avoid the worst of a storm is especially

important with tropical storms and hurricanes. As noted in

Chapter 10, a tropical storm system’s forward motion along

its track reinforces the rotational wind speed on the

dangerous side of the storm and lessens it on the more

navigable side.) Unfortunately, there is no fixed rule to find

the best heading to accommodate your vessel’s stability and

seaworthiness. The naval architect’s vision, the

boatbuilder’s hand, and the sea state you’re dealing with all

play key roles in the way you handle heavy weather.

When you have sufficient crew for effective

watchkeeping, it makes sense to carry on under reduced

sail, and eventually with storm sails, especially if you’re

progressing away from the worst of the weather. You could

reach a point, however, at which carrying on no longer

seems tenable. For example, an exhausted crew or

worsening seas may mean it’s time to take further measures.

A boat staggering under the assault of a storm—especially

when the weather forecasts predict more to come—might

also force assessment of your options.

Effective heavy-weather tactics include heaving-to/

forereaching, running off, running off with a drogue, lying

to a sea anchor, or lying ahull, described in the following

sections. While all are widely discussed, no single heavy-

weather tactic fits all situations or vessel designs (see

sidebar). Whatever tactic you choose, you need to devise a

plan to implement it after carefully considering the

decision. Timing is everything, so don’t wait too long to

deploy a drogue or sea anchor if that’s part of your “worst

weather” plan.

Trial and error, and practice help, too. Take your boat

out in a Force 6 breeze and practice setting your storm sails.

Try forereaching and heaving-to or running before the

breeze. Try deploying a drogue or sea anchor if you think

you might use that tactic in a storm at sea. See how your

boat—and you—perform.

AT THE HELM IN

HEAVY WEATHER AT NIGHT

Even on a moonless night, breaking wave faces can be

seen. Often it’s the bioluminescent plankton firing off

like a strobe in the tumult that mark the wave face. The

sound can be nerve wracking but is a helpful indicator of

trouble on the way. When running off at night, I am

always attentive to waves that are abnormal in both size

and direction. My strategy when deep reaching in the

dark is simple: I steer to avoid a wave on the beam. If I’m

going to get clobbered by a breaking crest, I want the

long axis of the boat as perpendicular as possible to it;

this makes a broach much less likely. Those sailing

heavy-displacement boats with a fine entry may also

have to contend with the boat’s tendency to root, or

bury the bow—a trait that can lead to a broach or

pitchpole in the worst of conditions. If my course is to

weather in the dark, I close reach under storm jib and

storm trysail, paying heed to how well the boat is

climbing wave faces. If “stall-out” or loss of way starts to

become an issue, I turn tail, run out the drogue, and

head downwind at slow speed. Those with a light boat

with a large volume aft may not find this technique

appropriate and may want to forereach into the tempest

or deploy a sea anchor (a tough task when conditions are

already violent and at night). Racing crews aboard

soundly built lightweight flyers often use boat speed as

an ally, harnessing maneuverability to steer clear of

wave-face dangers. However, it’s a hard tactic to

implement at night and requires a number of skilled,

adroit helmspersons ready to handle short, attentive

stints at the wheel.

In gales in the Southern Ocean, long-period swells interact with energy from a

secondary wave train to create a dangerous energy transfer from wave to boat. At

night, a peaking crest is difficult to avoid.

When you carry out various tactics, you’ll learn a great deal

about what might work for your boat and crew when it

counts.

Whatever your tactic, you don’t want to be on a wave

face when it becomes so vertical that gravity causes the crest,

and the boat with it, to drop into the trough. Such

destabilizing conditions occur only in violent storms at sea or

on breaking bars and shoals, and the storms that generate

such conditions are rare. As mentioned earlier, steer clear of

shoaling coastal areas and be cautious about conditions

where the wind confronts a strong current in heavy weather.

The likelihood of encountering such a storm increases in

high-latitude sailing, above 40 degrees north or south,

especially outside the more benign summer months.

Likewise, the seas generated by hurricanes and even some

tropical storms can become steep and unstable to the point

they can cause a capsize.

Heaving-To and Forereaching

Heaving-to is a heavy-weather tactic for some boats,

especially when using a storm trysail and storm jib. The

technique is to tack yet leave the jib backwinded

In a heave-to position, the backwinded headsail (1) tries to force

the bow away from the wind, while the wheel, turned hard to

windward (2), causes the rudder to attempt to force the bow into

the wind, opposing the back-winded jib. Meanwhile, the reefed

mainsail or storm trysail is eased to the point where it spills most

of the breeze (3), but does not flog and maintains enough

movement through the water to allow the rudder to function.

(Each sailboat behaves a little differently: longer keel boats are

less finicky about the sheet ease and traveler position, while

shorter lateral-plane keels often need more tweaking to behave while hove-to.) (Joe Comeau)

and ease either the triple-reefed mainsail or storm trysail so

it is feathered but not flogging. As the vessel settles onto the

new tack, the helm is turned as if to induce another tack, but

the backed headsail prevents the bow from turning through

the wind. The resulting movement is called forereaching—

meaning a combined sideways and forward motion. In this

case, the forward component of the vessel’s motion is

intentionally minimized by easing the main or storm trysail.

This causes the sideways movement (leeway) to increase.

(The forereaching tactic mentioned earlier on page 336

involves more drive and less leeway, and with both sails

trimmed close-hauled, the boat points higher.) In heave-to

trim, the keel stalls and leaves a vortex of disturbed water to

windward. Some believe that this turbulence helps prevent

breaking waves. Maybe. We do know for sure that heaving-

to provides easier motion, a feeling that someone has just

shut off the “storm switch.”

Many modern sloops with the mast stepped quite far

forward can heave-to under a deeply reefed mainsail alone.

(Because the main is so far forward, when eased, its drag

rather overwhelms its lift, allowing the bow to blow to

leeward. The rudder, lashed as if turning into another tack,

tries to turn the boat to windward, and when these forces are

equal the boat stays in a slightly forereaching, hove-to

position.) Some sailors find they can keep the bow closer to

the wind this way than when heaving-to under jib and main.

Boats with a modern, high-aspect spade rudder might not

need the helm hard over to heave-to. In fact, the significant

amount of lift that such a rudder generates may cause the

vessel even with a backed jib to turn its bow through the

wind. Discovering the ideal sail plan and rudder position for

heaving-to takes a bit of trial and error, but when well

executed, the tactic allows a crew to leave the helm

unattended and establishes a stable platform on which to

prepare a meal or get some essential rest.

When choosing the tack for heaving-to, give thought to

wind and wave geometry and pick the tack that best keeps

the swell from approaching beam-on. This will lessen the

possibility of a steep, short-period breaking wave inducing

a knockdown. Naturally, you also want to be on a tack that

affords ample sea room.

Running Before the Storm

The hardy fishermen who once sailed Gloucester schooners

to the Grand Banks used to speak of “squaring the sails and

scudding for Squam,” referring to running before an easterly

blow in order to reach the sheltered bays, coves, and fishing

ports that dot the New England coastline. The tactic is

equally

viable offshore when the desired route keeps a building

breeze on the stern.

The first question about this heavy-weather tactic

involves how much speed to carry. The glib—but honest—

answer is to carry as much as you and your vessel can

handle safely. For a shorthanded crew, the answer usually

is determined by how well the selfsteering gear behaves.

Most start to get squirrelly when hull speed is approached,

and the rolling motion of a deep reach or run further

influences steering dynamics. Larger race boats with an

abundance of skilled crew for the helm can avoid self-

steering limitations, but they must still contend with regular

transitions from displacement to planing mode. This ups the

ante, and those who plane down the faces of large, storm-

tossed seas must continuously make calls about wave-face

stability and the threat of burying the bow in the trough or

back of the wave ahead.

Modern, light race boats behave much better at planing

speeds than older racers and cruisers; their flatter canoe

bodies, wide sterns, and big rudders make wave riding a

prolonged rather than intermittent capability. With speed

comes maneuverability, lower apparent wind, and great

progress toward wherever the bow is pointed. Many

modern, flatter-bottomed racing sailboats switch into

prolonged planing stints

When experiencing heavy weather offshore, be prepared for

breaking seas that are offset to the prevailing wave train. An alert

helmsperson can turn the boat just enough to avoid a beam-on

encounter. More often than not, a 30- or 40-degree approach angle

to the wave face is optimal. The same geometry holds true for

waves approaching the stern. The delicate balance is between

avoiding a beam-on boarding sea capsize versus burying the bow

and broaching by driving straight down a wave face. When there

are enough crew aboard to have a wave spotter on watch, surprise

wave bashings diminish and hailing “Wave!” lets everyone know

to hang on.

Both boats are sailing the same broad-reach wind angle while running off, but on opposite tacks. The vessel on the right is sailing

with the seas approaching from the stern quarter; the motion on board will be kinder and the potential for capsize lower. The vessel on

the left, though carrying an identical apparent wind angle, experiences nearly beam-on seas that aggravate the vessel’s roll motion and

potential for capsize. Plot the location of the weather system and its movement prior to choosing your course, which should carry you

away from the worst of the storm while keeping the seas astern. (Joe Comeau)

with great helm control and little or no tendency to root the

bow. With careful steering and attentive watchkeeping,

heavy-weather downwind sprints have led to 300-, 400-, and

even 500+-mile daily runs.

For a variety of reasons, this white-knuckled side of

sailing is for record breakers and should carry a “do not try

this at home” warning. The crew is just one bad turn away

from a violent broach. At that point the boat’s 20-knot

forward velocity can instantaneously become a 15- to 20-

knot increase in apparent wind speed just as the vessel and

crew are pinned in the trough of a breaking sea. At some

point, changes in wind strength and wave-face steepness

make most sailboats start to misbehave, so even the most avid

competitor must eventually slow down to survive.

Cruising sailors, in contrast, need to get to know certain

thresholds for their boat and themselves. One of the most

important pieces of information involves understanding how

fast your own boat should go when running in heavy weather.

The answer varies and often depends on keeping the vessel

easy to steer by autopilot, windvane, or attentive crew. A

dead downwind rhythmic roll is not the ideal course; rather,

put your boat on a deep reach that keeps wind and sea on the

quarter and avoids putting the bow on a perpendicular

descent into the trough of every wave.

Wave crests are seldom perpendicular to the wind vector,

because waves move much faster than weather systems. You

can be tormented by the winds of one low-pressure system

even as you are tossed about in waves created by another. For

example, sailors headed west across the Indian Ocean toward

Durban, South Africa, often learn what it’s like to be

propelled by 30-knot easterlies down the faces of trade-wind

generated swells, smack into the face of a diagonally moving

contradictory swell spawned deep in the Southern Ocean.

The feeling is like sailing downwind and beating at the same

time, and as torrents of indigo water roll from bow to stern,

all ports, hatches, and even Dorade vents must be plugged

and dogged.

Most of the time, the axis of the wave crests is offset no

more than 20 to 30 degrees from the perpendicular to the

prevailing wind vector. However, this modest offset is

significant when attempting to run before heavy wind and

seas. The diagram on page 339 illustrates how important it

is to pick the tack that allows a vessel to hold building seas

on the better stern quarter while running off. The port-tack

boat in the diagram is deriving full benefit from its fore-

andaft stability, while the starboard-tack boat, though

sailing an identical wind angle, meets the swells and

breaking waves almost beam-on. The starboard-tack boat is

more prone to capsize because of the reduced stability of a

vessel when beam-on the seas. At some point when running,

yaw increases (see Chapter 4 for a discussion of a boat’s

motion). Despite your best efforts (or those of the autopilot

or windvane) to prevent it, the bow begins oscillating from

side to side around your nominal heading. When that

happens, reefing and reducing the headsail area restores a

good degree of control while sacrificing only a little speed.

If you’ve changed down to storm sails but still find yourself

hauling along faster than hull speed, it’s time to consider

other options in case conditions worsen. You could sail with

bare poles (running before the storm with no sail set), and

you might further enhance this tactic and prevent

pitchpoling by towing a drogue astern. Note, however, that

many ocean-voyaging veterans are unwilling to strike their

storm sails because of the violent motion that prevails when

no sail is set.

Running before the storm assumes there is abundant

sea room to leeward and progress is away from the worst of

the weather. Companionway washboards, aft-facing ports,

cockpit lockers, and sliding hatches must be ruggedly

constructed, positively dogged, and able to withstand

breaking seas.

Towing a Drogue A drogue is towed from the stern to slow the vessel and add

directional stability. A drogue is not a sea anchor (see

below) and is designed for bare-poles or off-the-wind

sailing. The loads on the rode are significant, and in

addition to using a bridle and providing plenty of antichafe

With a Galerider drogue set, the boat is deep reaching or running off before the storm under greatly reduced sail or bare poles. Check

regularly for chafe at the quarters, and pick the tack that keeps waves more perpendicular to the vessel’s centerline. (Joe Comeau)

padding, the strength of the drogue rode must be equal to

your primary anchor cable.

This setup is usually one of the last-ditch efforts of a

crew caught in especially violent weather. A drogue

dampens the violent yawing motion associated with high-

speed running and it keeps the long axis of the boat better

aligned with the wave energy, thus increasing the boat’s

stability and its resistance to broaching and capsize.

The Galerider drogue produced by Hathaway, Reiser,

and Raymond is a clever web basket with a circular

stainless steel wire clamped around its open mouth. The

towline attaches to a swivel whose opposite end gathers the

smaller lines from the drogue’s individual pieces of

webbing. When towed, water passes through the device as

if through a perforated funnel, creating a significant drag.

When properly sized for a given vessel, the drogue can cut a

hullspeed run under bare poles down to a more sedate 3 or 4

knots.

The Jordan series drogue accomplishes a similar feat

using multiple small cones lined up along the rode to induce

a cumulative drag. The manufacturer believes this

configuration makes it less likely a breaking wave face will

destabilized the drogue, while increasing its ability to load

and unload gradually and smoothly as seas overtake the

vessel. A series drogue is also more likely to remain

submerged, even when the vessel accelerates in extreme

wind gusts and seas.

The logic behind this series drogue design involves spreading frictional contact with the sea over the entire length of the warp. The

assumption is that by doing so, there’s less likelihood of complete loss of drag if and when some part of the drogue encounters an aerated

breaking wave face. The down side is the chance of snagging one of the mini cones as the drogue is deployed and the inability to winch in

the last 200 feet of rode when the storm abates. (Joe Comeau)

Turbulent flow through the

conical webbing of a Galerider

drogue causes significant drag,

slows the boat down, and adds

considerable directional stability to

a vessel running before heavy seas.

heavy weather offshore, drogue users generally praise both

configurations, the series and the Galerider. With either

system or a homemade equivalent, the real challenge occurs

when you attempt to get the gear overboard in storm-tossed

conditions. When the wind is strong enough to propel a

vessel under bare poles at 4 to 5 knots or more, attempting

to launch a high-resistance towable device tethered to the

end of a 300-foot rode can have some unintended

consequences. This is true even when you set up a proper

bridle, carefully fake (lay out) the warp, and attempt to slow

the vessel as much as possible first. If a hockle or snag

occurs during deployment, the drogue goes into action and

hundreds of pounds of pull are felt in the line and on

whatever inadvertent fitting, stanchion, or human hand the

line has snagged.

Every crewmember should practice a drogue launch on

a flat calm day, using the engine to maintain 2-knot speed.

During this exercise, try laying out all the tackle so that it

runs cleanly from a faked figure-eight line or layout of the

rode on a side deck. Be sure there’s no snafu over or under

a pulpit. But if you do encounter a problem during the

process, all it takes is a shift to neutral to eliminate the load.

Once you have perfected the process in flat water, perform

a sea trial in 25 – 30 knot conditions and you’ll develop a

feel for the vessels surge and the wind force.

TOWING WARPS AND

IMPROVISED DROGUES

The principle behind any towable drogue device is to increase

drag. In addition to the Galerider and the Jordan series drogue,

trailing warps (usually lines, sometimes even an anchor as

weight) is another way to a similar outcome. But it doesn’t take

complicated mathematics to see that it would take much more

line to create the same amount of drag as commercial drogues.

Still, towing warps delivers a bit more directional stability and

helps lessen yawing. Some sailors stow a homemade drogue

device, such as an automobile tire on the end of a long warp.

The tire scoops water to increase drag and is tough, making it a

valid candidate for a homemade drogue. Weight is usually

added to keep the tire from skimming over the surface. Though

inelegant on a yacht, an automobile tire can double as a

towable drogue as well as a makeshift fender against a

concrete quay. Drill a few large holes to drain water when

stowed, add a good quality swivel for attaching it to a warp, and

perhaps even wrap the tire with nylon webbing or rope to

prevent smudging the topsides when used as a fender.

to use a sea anchor, be sure the hardware attaching it is up to

the job

Some crews find it necessary to weight the

drogue with a shot of chain to keep it from pulling

free from the water as the vessel surges. A short

shot (20 feet) of heavy ½-inch chain usually does

the job, placed between the drogue’s swivel and

the thimble of the eye splice at the end of the rode,

attached using shackles.

The bridle and rode are best set up in a three-way

junction. You can use three bowlines, but this

causes considerable chafe. A hardware connection

is better; ideally, three thimbled rope ends are

connected to a--

A vessel that behaves as shown in A, retaining a bow-on attitude toward the wind and sea, is a prime candidate for a

sea anchor. However, if the boat yaws back and forth while sailing under bare poles (boats B and C), there’s a good

chance it may be hit broadside by a breaking wave and suffer a knockdown or damage when tethered to a sea anchor.

(Joe Comeau)

Seldom is a capsize and 360-degree rollover caught on camera, but the crew of the USCG cutter Alert filmed the rolling and

dismasting of this small schooner while they launched a RIB to rescue the singlehanded skipper. The rescue crew of the RIB used boat

speed and maneuverability to avoid the breaking crests and adroitly recovered the sailor, who had swum clear of the capsized schooner.

Note the schooner’s beam-on orientation to the seas, which contributed to the rollover. (Courtesy USCG)

common ring via shackles, forming a Y-junction at

the bridle’s apex. This arrangement minimizes line

chafe, and because the two bridle legs are trimmed

independently, the crew can load one quarter more

than the other, thereby optimizing the stern’s

orientation to the overtaking seas.

Retrieving a Drogue As the effects of the storm abate, the wind settles

down, and the seas dissipate, it’s time to retrieve the

drogue, a fairly straightforward process. At this

point you’re usually undercanvassed and it’s easy to

heave-to, easing most of the tension on the drogue.

The crew then hauls in the line slowly, usually

taking figure-eight coils in the cockpit or on the

afterdeck. The manageable size of the drogue itself

and the fact that it sheds all water makes the

Galerider easy to recover. A simple twist of the

mouth decreases its diameter and makes it easy to fit

it in its pack.

Sea Anchors

There are many sea stories both for and against the

use of a sea anchor. This piece of gear that looks like

a nylon parachute is set from the bow, tethered to a

lengthy rode. Its effectiveness depends on the design

of the vessel, making it a good heavy-weather

survival technique for some boats but not for others.

Streaming to a sea anchor in storm-force seas is

like a boxer trading blows toe to toe with his opponent

rather than bobbing and weaving to duck and deflect

blows. Ideally, the sea anchor holds a vessel head-to

the seas, and like the boxer, the vessel must be strong

enough to take the impact. When it works, this tactic

aligns the boat’s long centerline axis with the storm,

providing the most stable and least capsize-prone

angle of attack while offering the least resistance to a

breaking sea.

The tactic works best with heavy, long-keel

vessels and catamarans that have good directional

stability and tend to remain where they have been

pointed. In contrast, light, lively fin-keelers yaw back

and forth like a puppy tethered to a stake; streaming

from a sea anchor can cause the vessel to swing nearly

beam-on to breaking seas. The vessel then suffers the

worst of both worlds: maximum exposure to the sea,

but minimum stability. The load of the sea anchor

adds another force as breaking waves accelerate the

boat. Adding in the “lull effect” of wave troughs and

the regular velocity changes in gusty storm-force

conditions, many light vessels streaming a sea anchor

be-

MANEUVERING A SEA ANCHOR

Adding a breast line to the sea anchor’s rode, hauled on

a primary winch, shifts the load from the stem to the

forward quarter. The result is increased load on the rode

and the centerline of the boat no longer being head to

wind. In essence, the boat takes on more of a hove-to

angle of attack. This may be desirable on some long-keel

heavy vessels or in conditions where the wind and waves

are not aligned. Skewing the bow to face the wave

energy makes sense. But this technique doesn’t work

well with boats prone to “sailing at anchor.” Such boats

can be accelerated by a gust, come to the end of the

yaw, and tack over with the breasting line now under the

forefoot of the boat. A good way to test how well your

boat would behave with a breasted sea anchor is to rig

up a breasting line on rope anchor rode with a 10:1

scope, and note how the boat behaves in a windy

anchorage. Make sure it’s a big anchor and the holding

ground is good, because breasting the boat exposes

more surface area and with more windage comes more

load.

have like a yo-yo on a string. If your boat yaws back

and forth on its mooring or anchor, it won’t ride well

to a sea anchor either.

Multihull sailors find the sea anchor a valuable

tool, and using it can help keep a catamaran or

trimaran right side up in survival conditions.

Multihull sailors still debate whether to stream the sea

anchor from a bridle at the bow or stern. Those

advocating streaming from the stern argue that less

stress is put on the rudders. However, too many

multihulls have huge sliding “patio” doors and a

vulnerable hardtop at the stern, and facing such

structures into breaking seas simply asks for trouble

and is a much bigger gamble than keeping the bow

facing the seas and risking more rudder loading.

Deploying a Sea Anchor Despite the challenges in survival conditions, a sea

anchor can prove helpful for traditional long-keel

boats and multihulls. However, getting a sea anchor

into position is even tougher than launching a drogue.

Slipping a parachute-like device over the side and

keeping all the lines from twisting into a big snafu is

no minor accomplishment. In 50 knots of wind, the

sea anchor can behave like an unbagged spinnaker

caught by a gust. Indeed, when you finally need a sea

anchor, the conditions make simply being on deck a

challenge.

Think about setting a conventional anchor with

your vessel hauling along at 3 knots or more. When

the anchor sets, the vessel puts serious tension in the

rode—and the same is true when deploying a sea

anchor. When the canopy opens, the rode comes

under terrific tension and the vessel pivots head to

wind and stops dead.

Getting a sea anchor safely over the side in

heavy weather generally requires steering onto a

more beam-on position. Although you’d find better

protection on the leeward side of your boat, that is a

poor option because of the likelihood of running over

anything deployed from the leeward side. That

means you must launch the sea anchor from the

windward rail, somehow managing to get it over the

side without twists or hockles that prevent the canopy

from opening.

You begin deploying a sea anchor by dousing

storm sails and lashing down or eliminating deck

clutter. Clear deck space to fake out the nylon rode,

making sure it can run clear and free. Most

manufacturers describe the next step with phrases

like “head into the weather” or “slow the vessel to a

stop.” However, these feats become more and more

difficult as wind and seas increase. In 40- to 50-knot

conditions, turning into the seaway often results in

waves sweeping over the vessel, carrying away

anything not well secured, including crewmembers

and the sea anchor. Clearly, deploying a trip line

(used to recover the sea anchor after the blow), sea

anchor, and rode on the windward side of your boat

is easier said than done, especially if you’ve followed

a logical heavy-weather strategy. That means you’ve

downshifted from reefed sails to storm sails before

opting for the sea anchor in still-worsening

conditions. One manufacturer bluntly states that a

crew should deploy the sea anchor early and not wait

for the onset of storm-force conditions—a tough call

when you’re trying to sail away from the worst of the

storm.

Once the sea anchor goes over the side, the next

challenge lies in paying out rode quickly enough to

avoid full tension on the line. Any hockles, snarls, or

snags can lead to injury or gear damage. You’re

dealing with multiple, cyclical forces. At their peak,

these forces result in loads much greater than what

an anchor rode endures in a sheltered cove under

similar wind velocities. The dynamic loads caused

by the seaway are added to the baseline wind-

pressure loads. When the breaking face of a 20-foot

wave cascades over the boat, the shock-absorbing

effect of the nylon rode helps dissipate the energy,

but ports, hatches, and gear attached to the deck, as

well as the hull and deck itself, must be able to

sustain repeated assaults. Because movement to

leeward is constrained by the pull of the sea anchor,

more of the wave energy will be dissipated through

the vessel’s structure itself.

To put adequate distance between the sea anchor

and the boat, use a minimum of 300 feet of shock-

absorbing nylon rode, preferably 10 to 15 times the

length of the vessel. The rode should be secured to a

very robust set of cleats or other means of

attachment, such as secondary lines forward from

the primary winches. Each surge of the vessel causes

a tug on the sea anchor; the more violent the

conditions, the greater the rode tension generated.

Once the rode has been carefully paid out, add

antichafe protection.

Pay attention to the slingshot effect, which is

greater with smaller-diameter rodes with more

stretch. Not only might the vessel be accelerated into

a beam-on position during a momentary lull, but a

light-displacement, fin-keel, spade-rudder boat

could move over the rode and catch it with the prop

shaft or rudder. Some mariners suggest setting a tiny

backstay-hanked riding sail to keep the bow from

falling off the wind, but others see the extra windage

and the complication of a riding sail as more

hindrance than help. But if a tiny scrap of sail keeps

a vessel headed to the wind and minimizes yawing,

it’s a complication worth having.

Once you’ve set up the sea anchor with

appropriate scope and antichafe gear and you’ve

secured all sails and gear, lash the rudder amidships,

preferably with a well-secured emergency tiller

rather than by locking the wheel. As the vessel

accelerates sternward, the rudder blade is subject to

significant force; securing it in place with a lashed

emergency tiller prevents these loads from

damaging the vulnerable steering linkage and

cables.

In the midst of a gale, a sea anchor cannot easily

be hauled back in and redeployed, so if it fouls

during the initial deployment, you’ll likely have a

major fire drill. For this reason, practice setting the

sea anchor in more modest conditions when you can

develop a sense how and where lines should be run.

Practice also provides your crew with a sense for

how long you can wait to set the device in

deteriorating weather.

A shorthanded crew needs a more cautious

approach. When caught in gale-force conditions that

are forecast to become worse overnight, it’s usually

best to deploy the sea anchor in daylight. Otherwise,

you risk having to deploy it at 0300 with seas and

rain blowing sideways—conditions that increase the

chances of encountering problems.

Recovering a Sea Anchor Recovering a sea anchor can be a serious challenge.

More often than not, the wind lets off after a serious

storm more quickly than the waves subside. As

described, the functionality of the sea anchor

depends on the wind’s pressure on the hull and rig to

keep the vessel’s centerline streaming with the wind

and sea.

Seeing the approach of a Gulf Stream squall or any line

squall, skippers weigh the threat, have a measure of their

crew, and prepare to reef deeply or sail the fine edge

between full speed and being knocked flat

When the wind lightens or stops completely, the sea

anchor and its rode are more of an impediment than

an advantage, and the lack of wind does not mean that

recovery of the tackle is a walk in the park. The

process can be complicated by large waves and even

breaking seas. Many sailors have noted the most

dangerous sea state conditions sometimes occur just

after the wind abates. Determining the right time to

haul in a sea anchor is as important as knowing when

to deploy it in the first place.

During recovery the load on the rode should be as

little as possible, and it’s critical to always know the

location of the rode relative to the propeller(s). The

initial rode recovery is the easy part. Slowly motor

toward the sea anchor, putting the shift lever in neutral

whenever there is a threat of overriding the pendant

line. Most modern sea anchors have a recovery line

that allows the nylon chute to be pulled in its opposite

side with a collapsed rather than open mouth. At the

last stage in this process large swells and breaking

waves can be a significant hazard. Be ready to quickly

put turns of the rode on a cleat or let go if a lift of the

bow threatens to load the sea anchor. Once the sea

anchor’s recovery line has been tensioned, the anchor

should no longer be open, but careful boat handling is

still needed to keep breaking waves from shoving the

boat over the sea anchor.

Sea anchor recovery can fail, and as a last resort

it may become necessary to cut the anchor free

Lying Ahull

When a sailboat or power vessel is left to survive or

founder on its own after the crew has been rescued, a

surprising number of abandoned boats weather the

blow. Some sailboats have found their own way to

Bermuda, for example, and a few crewless cruisers

manage to make it all the way across the Atlantic.

Indeed, an abandoned boat’s prospects for remaining

afloat are so good that search-and-rescue teams often

ensure a through-hull is open to sink the abandoned

vessel before it becomes a navigation hazard.

When a vessel lies ahull—that is, tiller lashed,

with sails down—abandoned or not—it usually

assumes a beam-on attitude to wind and sea—the least

stable orientation. Some offshore sailors, such as

experienced ocean voyager and sailboat designer

Steve Dashew, see advantages in this orientation for

shoal-draft vessels with high freeboard. Dashew

believes that a shoal-draft hull will skid to leeward, a

highly underrated attribute of seaworthiness. On the

other hand, vessels with deep fin keels can “trip” on

their keels and be rolled. High freeboard adds

buoyancy and a positive righting moment, though the

windage it creates has a countervailing negative

effect. Tank tests addressing the seaworthiness of a

shoal-draft, high-freeboard hull have had ambiguous

results. Many wide, shallow-draft vessels have

survived brutal conditions, but capsize data show a

direct correlation between a low limit of positive

stability and a significant increase in capsizes (see

Chapter 12).

There are several major problems with lying

ahull, the first being the horrific motion of the vessel

whiplashing its crew as it is buffeted by wind and sea.

Abrupt changes in wave face angles alter the center of

buoyancy and fling the boat about. Despite the

sideways skid referenced by Dashew and others, there

remains an increased likelihood of a capsize

substantial enough to dismast the vessel. Following a

dismasting, remnants of the spar connected to the

rigging can hole the boat or damage the prop shaft and

rudder. Most experienced voyagers prefer to keep the

long axis of their vessels more or less aligned with the

seas.

STAY ONE STEP AHEAD

Boats, like their crews, have a wide range of aptitudes

and agility. Some vessels run well before building

seas, happily planing down wave faces and generating

enough lift in the forward sections to keep the bow

from rooting in the wave troughs or burying in the

swell just ahead. A surfer understands the

consequence of running directly down the face of a

steep wave and burying the surfboard’s nose; as

undesirable as that experience is on a 15-pound

surfboard, it’s far worse for a sailor aboard a 15-ton

sloop. A plunge like that can cause the boat to broach

in the trough, leaving it beam-on just as the overtaking

wave may be starting to break. Much of the art of big-

boat surfing involves gauging how much to angle

away from a direct descent to avoid burying the bow

in the trough or being caught beam-on to a big sea.

A controlled high-speed broad reach works best

in daylight, when unstable wave faces are easier to

spot and speed and maneuverability let you steer out

of harm’s way. On dark, stormy nights, the same

strategy is like driving down a mountain road with

your headlights off. There are times to slow down, and

feedback from the boat and the crew can tell you when

you’ve reached your limits.

Whether you’re sailing coastal waters or crossing

an ocean, keep alert to wind and sea conditions. The

art of staying one step ahead of the next vicious squall

can help you avoid at least some encounters with

heavy weather.