Thursday, November 10, 2016

Adventures and a misadventure

Well, I had a great weekend of sailing and one very close call. 
Sailing up to the San Juan’s and back was very educational with lots of different wind strengths from every direction. I went there to sail with boats competing in the Round the County race. It is a two day race completely around the San Juan’s, but I was planning to chase the fleet on Saturday and return home Sunday. 
Photos by Sean Trew

I started well behind the last starters for the beat down Rosario Straight. Despite having to avoid the boats racing, I was able to work my way through quite a bit of the fleet. Near the southern end of Lopez Island, the wind really started to blow.
I had been sailing with the reefed mainsail only, but had to keep reefing it deeper as the wind built. 

The boat was comfortable and felt good despite the conditions getting pretty wild (wind around 25 knots and opposing current causing breaking waves). 
The turning point was a large marker on an exposed reef called Davidson Rock. 

I had over stood the tack and had some room from the reef. Once I was able to crack off onto a reach, I slacked the leeward running backstay and rolled out the jib.
There was a loud bang and the boat capsized very quickly. 

It took a while to get a complete picture of what happened, but it was this: The windward running backstay had let go, allowing the mast to pitch way forward.* The mainsail was the only thing limiting the forward movement of the mast and was pulled very tight as a result. The jib stay went slack causing the jib to be very full, like a spinnaker and the combination of the two (and a gust) caused an immediate capsize.

The amazing thing is that the boat didn’t go upside down, even with the masthead float somewhere out over the bows.

The reef (with breaking waves on it) was just downwind and I didn’t know what had happened to the rig. I thought something had broken, but I got the sails mostly furled and found the running backstays to be in working order. 
I was able to right the boat in a few minutes, get the rig back upright and roll out a bit of jib and ease away from the reef.
photo by Sean Trew
What caused the running backstay to release? The line came out of the cleat. Not because it wasn’t fully cleated, but because the plate that the cleat was mounted to deformed under load and caused the lead angle to the cleat to change enough for the line to pull out of the cleat (see photo below). 
This is new hardware, one size bigger than what came with the boat. It’s a six part tackle with a working load of 900 lbs and a breaking load of 1800 lbs.

The tackle that most G-32’s use has a 600 lb working load (this boat has a tiny rig), so why mine failed is a mystery that I’d like to solve.
I am planning changes to the running back stay system and I’m glad that I now know what happens when when there’s a failure in that system. If it ever happens again, I just hope it’s not near a breaking reef.

Short video  HERE.
Note that the plate that the cleat is attached to is bent
Did I get wet? No I didn't. Only your feet and ankles get wet when righting a G-32. I was wearing an ancient, but well maintained Kokatat drysuit that has kept me dry for almost two decades.

*For those that don’t know, the G-32 has fixed shrouds, but instead of being swept back, they are in line with the mast to allow the mast to raise up and down easily when trailering.

I'm building a new rig for my G-32, which I will post about in this blog. I was planning to make it 3' longer than the stock rig, but that is being reconsidered after my wild weekend.

Text video link if above link fails: https://youtu.be/912H94--Xas


7 comments:

  1. Nice posting and good information. Thanks.

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  2. Good video. The boat seemed to handle the waves well close hauled and looked dryer than I had expected. Noticed your front head sail has a very high cut foot. What is the reason? The backstay took some serious load! Glad to hear you got it back sailing with no injury. My F31 is in the back yard looking very lonely.
    Bob
    Comox


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  3. Bet that was a shocker, glad you're OK. So the runner is taking all the headstay load? It does need to have serious power. I wonder if what happened was, since you were going upwind, you'd pulled the mainsheet on hard which gave you headstay tension then pulled the runner on hard. Releasing the mainsheet as you bore off transferred that load to the runner. Still surprising that at the end of a 6 to 1 tackle, so the cleat is seeing 1/6 of the shackle load ,that you'd bend the mounting plate. Though maybe better than blowing up the shackle. Maybe a little too much value engineering on the manufacturers part.
    Sure have to give the Gougeons a lot of credit for developing the self rescue system.

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  4. Russell, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on how different the G32 is from Jzerro. For many years I've followed your evolutionary development of pacific proas, and I've long been scribbling designs for my own use. Although there is constant vigilance required to prevent pacific proas from getting in trouble when caught aback, your designs seem extremely capable of handling tough conditions if a sensible and alert person is on the helm. I imagine the G32 is far more comfortable for most use.

    I was glad to read that the gear failure capsize event was resolved on the water without outside assistance. Were you alone, or was Ashlyn with you? Your rebuild of the G32 was spectacular - I wish I lived within visiting range of PT and was able to really see your G32 in person.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Muy buen post y te lo pasa en grande navegando.
    ¿Conoces ya el alquier catamaran? Para que pases una geniales vacaciones en Canarias

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  7. If that is all that is keeping the rig upright I would advise not just cleating but also tieing it off.

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Comments and questions are welcome.