Sand Bags

[Boblee]

Matt you can't really go by the discolouration as it tends to even out eg your boat would not sit that low in the water unless it was terribly loaded, from what I can see it looks even on the waterline but without ballast it would be at least 3" under.

[ROAD Soldier]

I have also ran into this problem a few times on my once was right at the half way point for the Cheseapeake Bay bridge Tunnel that connects the eastern shore to the mainland, I had to go over eight miles in that big following sea. It was getting dark to and I was heading for the eatern shore end (where I had never been before) my arms got a real workout. Ballast was full, Sails Down and Rudders up, 50HP Honda giving it all it had (about 10mph) 4 US Army Soldiers on Board ranging from 170lbs to my 220lbs plus 30 gallons of fresh water on board and about 3 gallons of beer. I tried moving people forward, backwards, to the high side, low side, and Center Board up all the way and partial down. End result my arms got a work out in all situations. However CB down 2 inches did help.

I wonder if an Auto Pilot would be able to handle that situation? I use my for fishing all the time and I do have a drift anchor that I love. It instantly makes rough water smoother when drift fishing and allows me to steer my boat where I want to go somewhat. I wonder if I bought or made a real small one thus making one into a tiny drag shoot that you wouldnt be able to use it under sail in a follown sea and get better steerage way.

[Boblee]

The Auto pilot wouldn't have much chance IMHO as it would be too slow to react.

[bastonjock]

i dont think that an auto pilot on its own would work,but with hydraulic steering it might,i was speaking to a buddy who has a 35ft heavy sailboat,he told me that even on his much heavier boat,he disconnects his auto pilot in a following sea as it just cannot keep up.

[baldbaby2000]

1. Wouldn't the added weight in the stern immerse more transom, thus increase turbulence in the water trying to leave the transom, thus add drag ,and thus reduce sailing speed?

Putting more weight aft would slow things down in the sailing I do becasue of that transom sucking effect. I'm not sure about Leon's situation where he's actually looking for more stability and not necessarity a speed advantage. I have a fairly light engine and my waterline normally shows the boat slightly bow down.

I've found when the boat gets hard to handle while motoring that I'm better off with a little sail up.

[Kelly Hanson East]

I've found when the boat gets hard to handle while motoring that I'm better off with a little sail up.

I observed this too, and 5 years later figured out that sails act as a damper on side-to-side sway which you feel the most.

Education is a terrible thing to waste on the feeble-minded.....

[Boblee]

We found in the Whitsundays with the big stinkboats trying give us wash and a bit of swell it was way better to use some headsail even if only 4' to dampen the sway.

[Currie]

1. Wouldn't the added weight in the stern immerse more transom, thus increase turbulence in the water trying to leave the transom, thus add drag ,and thus reduce sailing speed?

Putting more weight aft would slow things down in the sailing I do becasue of that transom sucking effect. I'm not sure about Leon's situation where he's actually looking for more stability and not necessarity a speed advantage. I have a fairly light engine and my waterline normally shows the boat slightly bow down.

I totally agree here. That's why I only wanted to bring my boat back more to it's original balance and no more. Light wind sailing really suffers (IMO) because of the transom suction. Once you really get moving, the suction drops, so not as much a deal. I really noticed a difference when I sailed a J24 a few weeks ago - light wind but it still picks up speed almost effortlessly. That's the compromise with macs, though - no use in fighting it

~Bob

[Oskar 26M]

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried a drogue, warps or other such devices to keep the boat's direction under better control when dealing with a troublesome quartering sea.

Some time ago I asked if anyone had experience with a Seabrake . Nobody had, but I got a few other useful responses.

I bought one, but must admit I haven't tried deploying it yet. At the time, I was thinking of a situation where I got caught in a major storm, but now I'm wondering if it would be useful to deploy something like this in more moderate conditions.

BTW, their home page link wouldn't work for me just now, but a description of it is also found here, along with some commentary.

[ROAD Soldier]

Oskar I use a Drift Contrlol brand drift sock I like it alot for drift fishing. The sock really smooth things out and slows you down big time in drift sittuations. However I would not use it while sailing or motoring because of it size which is for a 26ft boat drifting it is to big for use as a drouge shoot. I think there would be way to much tension back there that it would rip a cleat right out. Now maybe if you get a real small one or make one which I am most likely going to try in the spring I think that will work for sailing but still would never use for motoring at least not anything over 4mph.

[Oskar 26M]

Thanks ROAD Soldier. I was thinking I'd need to keep the speed right down, but slower speed might be okay if you can maintain better directional stability.
I'll give it a try in light conditions and see what happens.

[Clemo]

This thread has split into water ballast and following seas.

Following or confused seas suck, never scared but very uncomfortable. Just got to tough it out.

Reassuring to hear that it isn't just me.

On balast. If you are going to the trouble, take a leaf out of the big boat book.

Run two poly pipes, one on each side, and as far off the centre line as you can get.

Both filled with water they balance each other.

But, empty one and you have transferrable water ballast, just like "Speedboat".

Tks
C ya.

Clemo

[Oskar 26M]

I know this post has drifted seriously off topic, but I just want to recoord my thanks the delevi and others who provided advice on Mac 26M configuration for a following/quartering sea.

Today I encountered very similar wind and wave conditions to those I described in my earlier post on this thread. According to shore monitoring, the wind was stronger, 25 knots gusting to 30, the sea was consistent with the wind but not quite as disturbed by back swell as it was in my previous post. Nonetheless seas were significant, although not formidable.

I opted for motoring at around 6 knots, with rudders down BUT, after reading the posts on this thread, I substantially reduced the daggerboard depth. I had ONLY about 3-4 inches instead of my usual foot or more. So I had a slight daggerboard skeg-keel effect for tracking, but much reduced daggerboard lift and greatly reduced daggerboard pivot.

The effect was an amazing improvement to Oskar's handling. He still rolled a fair bit as seas hit the starboard stern quarter, but rolled much less alarmingly than he had when the daggerboard was extended further and in truth seemed to ride the waves like a bird. However, the most significant change to handling was that there was striking reduction in yaw. There was hardly any yaw at all! Maintaining my course was a lot less work and the comfort of the ride was greatly improved.

I'll experiment more ( these wind-wave conditions are common during our summer) but I am truly grateful for the advice to reduce keel depth under such conditions.

[delevi]

Oskar,
Good to hear. Try it uner sail next time. You'll enjoy the ride. As for me, I decided against adding any more ballast and to follow my own advice in navigating throgh these conditions

Fair winds,
L.