heavy weather sailing

i am new to sailing the morgan 38. i have cut my teeth with a 27' cape dory sailing off cape may. this weekend's weather was not for the faint of heart, but the cape dory handles the winds well with a reefed main alone and sometimes with some help from a self tending jib.
my question goes out to the morgan sailors: any suggestions for sailing the 38 under similar conditions?

Steve

There are so many options depending on how you have your boat set up. How the main is reefed, roller vs hanked on headsail, size of the headsail, etc. It also depends on how you as the skipper are comfortable with the conditions. The boat is a headsail boat. It likes to have a balanced rig. It will sail with just the main but not well. We reef the main first, then roll in some jib. Continue like that until the 130% has to come down to be replaced by the working jib. After 3 reefs in the main and the small jib partly rolled in it's time to find a safe harbor. The boat is strong, with a tree trunk mast, which we find that it is able to take a lot more then we can. There are a number of owners on the board with much more ocean experience then me. They should have good advice for you.

Jim

My experience is like Jim's. I was triple reefed for much of my journey when outside sailing down the East coast and in the Gulf, and as the trip proceeded, I went to 3 reefs more and more. I have a deep 3rd reef which I intended for "storm sail" conditions, however it was very useful often. As Jim said, "the boat is a headsail boat". My jib was always out but certainly roller furled when the main was on its third reef and I only have a 100% jib as my working foresail. I am currently about 75% complete on installing a staysail, and look forward to working out the implications of that configuration.

We had a hair-raising experience in the Bahamas in spring 2016. Gorda Cay to Spanish Wells...

Anchored in a marginal spot with a storm coming in, we stayed the night, but were bumping on the bottom due to the waves. So, we decided to leave at first light. Winds were
blowing 35+ all night and into the morning. With a double reef in the main, we motor-sailed through the cut and headed into the weather. So far so good. Then a breaking wave crashed
on us and swamped the cockpit. Holy shit! What have we gotten ourselves into! Knowing that we would be heading downwind, I figured once we got turned, and pulled some jib out, it should
be good. Once we cleared the cut, still motor sailing, we turned to port to get on course.

This is when the magic happened. We pulled a small triangle of jib out, pushed the reefed main out for down winding and tied off a preventer. Then we cut the engine and put her on auto-pilot.
What occurred for the next 3-4 hours was truly amazing. Our boat sailed and surfed like a dream. Sailed down 15' waves making 11kts at times and stayed on course the whole time! With my wife
and dog down below, my 16 yr-old daughter and I sat in the cockpit. We didn't say much. I think we were both in complete awe of what was happening around us. Here we were sailing in some
serious wind and seas and loving it. Our Morgan 384 passed the test with flying colors. I kept thinking "this is why we bought this boat!" Never felt like the boat was being pushed. Mostly felt
like she was in her element. Three hours went by and things started to calm down. We made great time across and were soon celebrating our accomplishment on the other side.

A storm sail like this one would be a nice addition:

http://www.atninc.com/atn-gale-sail-sailing-equipment.shtml

Jason

In the 1991 Marion/Bermuda race we had hurricane conditions for about 6 hours. This was not a named storm but freak conditions. My W/S pegs at 60 Kts, it was there for this time frame. The 1993 brochure for the race said in 1991 we had hurricane winds(75)kts. and 40 ft. seas. We sailed on a broad reach. Had about 1/3 of a 100% jib only, we could not change to storm jib in those conditions. I would only allow myself and another Morgan 38-2 owner in the cockpit, and handle the boat. My wife, 25 year old daughter 22 year old son stayed below. When the W/S got down to 45kts, all were in the cockpit having a snack. We finished the race, the boat was fine. Others were not, lost rudders, towed in, pretzel booms, Nunsuch 33 mast off the base, etc. Morgan is a tough boat, and as others have said needs a head sail to perform.
Enjoy the Morgan, take care of her Steve, she will do the same for you.

Dick

a collective 'thanks' for your advices. i know my own limitations, but not the boat. and i appreciate the well grounded common sense approach you have taken. i was looking for the approach to sail mix that you have used. i have the good fortune of purchasing a boat that was set up for safe sailing: everything comes back to the cockpit, roller furled 130 genoa and double reefed (not triple) main.
steve

What wind conditions did you see at Rock Hall? The wind graph for thomas point light shows 15 kts. or less gustings to 20, except for a gust of 30 at 8pm on Friday. I used to sail out of Rock Hall. I often sailed under Jib alone, although I think the boat liked some main if I wasn't lazy. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php?station=tplm2&meas=wdpr&uom=E&time_diff=-4&time_label=EDT Or go to station tplm2

i was sailing off cape may last weekend, in my cape dory 27, which got me to wondering how the morgan would handle under similar conditions. how did the morgan sail under jib alone?

Friends, I need some more advice. I am in Hawaii, having just arrived from the Marquesas. I have a monitor wind vane, which has worked well so far. Yesterday, I had circumstances I don't want to repeat and I seek advice. We were running dead down wind, with a triple reefed main and a partially furled Genoa. Normally, the monitor handles this well, but the wind was gusty, growing from 14 to 20, maybe higher. We were running at 6.5 knots, osmetimes higher. I could not get the boat to,balance, in the lulls she would head down and go to the lee, in the gusts she would round up. Twice I jibed the main, only the preventer forestalling catastrophe. Several times we rounded up and lost control. I finally took in the jib altogether and relegated us to 4.2 knots under triple reef d main. What did I do wrong? Under similar conditions in Mexico, I was sure I had achieved balance and steering control. Should I have dropped the main altogether. I have never failed utterly to balance the boat and it was discouraging, usually in such conditions the monitor steers better than a human being. I need to figure out the balance issue before I run home to Portland.

I'm not sure I had the same issue, but similar. I have a hydrovane, and found that I would get overpowered and round up on a very (150+ degree) downwind run. I triple reefed my main on a similar day but with less wind and this worked well, but I still have yet to work it out in 20-25+ kts. I expect it will mean dropping the main altogether and letting out my 100% jib all the way to keep the speed up.

I am very impressed with your journey, congratulations! Are you alone or with others? I have a Panama-Galapagos-Marques-Hawaii-SE Alaska trip on my sofa sailing bucket list, I would be very interested in the things you have done to your boat to prepare for this, as well as your reaction to this trip - is it one of many, or a first time, and how did and is it going?

Terry

Aloha! When the wind was that gusty, was the wind direction constant? How big were the seas at the time? If the boat was dropping from crest into the trough it's hard to find the balance point. Would tacking downwind have helped instead of running dead downwind?

Jim

Congrats on your passage to paradise, Terry.
I've had good results DDW with a poled out genoa (admittedly on Lake Ontario) in blustery winds. Course favoring to slightly windward to keep the genny full. Not sure if that strategy would have worked for you. As a former Laser dinghy sailor, DDW conjours up all sorts of exciting memories. i.e. "Laser death roll". The mainsail exasperates the tendency to round up so I try to avoid that at all costs with the big boat. Including course changes / tacking DDW that Jim mentions.
We've all read about cruisers using a double headsail rig, (with no main) for DDW blissful cruising. Is that an option for you? Not sure if you'd need running backstays to do that with the strong Morgan mast.
Dave

If lulls are troughs, and increases are on wave hi's I would suggest head sail only, possibly with a pole if possible. This should keep you more balanced on dead downwind or very broad reaching conditions. As Jim C. said earlier in this posting, these boats like head sails. Also they are easier to reef.

Dick

thanks all. I am set up to run two headsails on two poles. The Genoa and a working jib on a Solent stay. I have never done it yet, but I expect that would deal with the problem. As I think about it, the difficulties we are probably caused by the circuMstances: we were at the end of a long day, well into the night time hours. We were two or three hours to our destination and tired and I was putting off reconfiguring the boat. Those are bad conditions to make good decisions.
Otherwise, that is, other than for seamanship errors, the Morgan has performed very well on the ocean passages. She goes so well in even fairly light airs. We had doldrums s and light wind most of the way to polynesia and still averaged about 5 knots. We averaged a little over 5 knots to Hawaii from the Marquesas and we are conservative sailors, by inclination and by the need to keep the boat well balanced and controlled for the Monitor. When we pushed it earlier in the trip, we made three to five sail changes each night. I got lazy and now sometimes reef down a bit at night so we can run the night without much work, then put out more sail as daylight arrives. After this trip I am even more impressed by those of you who ocean race, changing headsails or spinnakers constantly with wind changes. Lots of work in that life.

Terry,
Are you doing a blog where we can all follow your journey?

Nope, sorry. Lazy, I guess.

Terry

At least let the board know where you are and how your doing every once in a while. We all love to follow your progress.

Jim

We have been to the sea of Cortez, then sailed down to,Puerto Vallarta. Tired of Mexico, so crossed to the Marquesas, we are now in Hawaii for at least a month, with family coming in to visit. When (we hope) the Pacific High builds for the summer, we will sail home to Portland. I am touched that you want to know. I am going to post a separate thread for some more advice.

I've always been curious about where there is to keep your boat while in Hawaii - can you fill us in? We've spent some time there via the airlines visiting our son, he's been on Oahu so far. We loved it, Haliewa on the North Shore, a month sounds dreamy.

We have reciprocal privileges at Waikiki yacht club, at $1.50 ft/day. Spendy,but a great place. There are some public marinas--one across from us at Ali Wai; no security, but only 50 cents/foot a day, I am told. There are some public marinas on some other islands, but there are not well maintained. (E.g.,although federal rules on overboard discharge apply, no pump out stations seem to work. (I have a LectraSan.). I have to leave Waikiki when the Transpac fleet arrives in early July .

Some folks question the quality of cruising in Hawaii. We haven't tried it yet,but may in July. the cruising guide Noodle's Notes seems the best available.

Thanks Terry. I visited the Waikiki YC once, they let us walk around a bit, it was a nice place. I'm not sureI even had the Morgan at that time. I'm still dreaming . . .

I've seen some cruisers in the Harbor at Haleiwa but I hear it's not really available, with a 20 year waiting list and nothing for transients. I've see boats anchored briefly in Waimea Bay, and others anchored off Waianae, but only in fairly calm conditions. I don't know the other islands. I looked at Bill Leary's guide and it looks like the best way to start. Good luck, have fun, and keep us posted on your experiences!