28 Multihulls Quarterly Volume 10, summer
As I came up on deck I could see the
wide-eyed look in everyone’s faces. The catamaran
was going too fast, and no one fully understood what
to do. The speed had crept up on the crew, so I could
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building and the apparent wind angle moving to a
close reach, more speed could mean more trouble
than anyone wanted to face. It would be a good
opportunity to demonstrate the “miracle” of trailing
warps off the stern.
On sailboats most of us spend the vast majority
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go faster. Easing or trimming, a little less helm or a
little more sail help create a vast array of tweaks and
tricks to speed up the boat and shorten the passage.
We’re seldom interested in slowing the boat down.
When those rare occasions happen, however, slowing
the boat down can seem like a Godsend. Assumed
imminent disaster suddenly fades into a pleasant after-
noon or an opportunity to focus more fully on what else
needs to be done.
Of course, we’re all familiar with shortening sails and
the general procedures for doing that. Generally, I like
to reduce power forward prior to reducing sail area in
the main. As a broad concept, the main can help to
support the back of the mast, especially when on the
wind. The value of storm sails can’t be overestimated in
my opinion when heavy weather comes into play. That
applies to both mono and multihulls. The difference
between the two, however, is that the storm sails on a
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length. Being generally lighter without a lead keel, mul-
tihulls usually require less sail area to make them move,
and in storm conditions you want to slow the boat to
a manageable speed. If the same formula is applied
to sizing a storm jib for a high tech catamaran as theStorm tactics require a bag of
tricks that will let you slow the
boat and prevent capsize
Heavy
Weather
Tactics by Bill Biewenga
boatcat
@MAHINA EXPEDITIONS