Hands-On Training

When the winds pick up, pull in as much sail as possible to stay in control. Photo courtesy Marc Hughston

Most teachers or people in a training/instructing position will tell you that one of the best ways to learn something is by doing it. But even instructors start somewhere.

Marc Hughston founded Santana Sailing in 2003 in Long Beach, Calif., but he took his first sailing lesson at the age of 14 and has been on the water for most of his life. He is a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Master and an American National Standards Instructor/Assessor as well as a Mediterranean Sailing License and Credentials Instructor/Assessor.

In 2007, he was working as an instructor and had a crew out on a 42-foot Catalina sailboat heading from San Miguel Island to Santa Cruz when Hughston experienced his first 40-knot plus gale. “The blow we experienced was not forecast before we left,” he said. “Apps like Windy didn’t exist and there was no cell service for most of the northern channel islands.”

After the boat departed San Miguel, the winds started to pick up. The first step in keeping a boat under control is to keep yourself under control. Take a deep breath and think about the situation. Call on the training you’ve received. When the weather is trying to make you go too fast, the plan is to slow the boat.

Since the sails create speed, that meant taking in the mainsail to the first reefing point, which is about 30 percent of the mainsail area, and partially furling the headsail. When the wind speeds increased, the crew reduced the mainsail again to the second reef point and furled the genoa farther.

By this time, the boat had covered about 30 miles. “Things were fairly tough and I realized I needed to put into a cove, drop anchor and see if everyone was OK and if the boat was OK,” said Hughston. You can find footage of the trip on Hughston’s YouTube channel.

After pulling into an anchorage near Santa Cruz called Frys Harbor, Hughston realized that was not the prudent move. “The wind was creating a vortex off the end of the point and there was a waterspout,” he said. “I said, ‘We need to get out of here.’ From that point on, we only had maybe 10 feet of headsail showing with the genoa rolled up past the third reef point.”

Watching the true and apparent wind gauges, the crew saw steady winds at 40 knots and gusts touched 45. “I realized at that moment my only choice was to find another anchorage or keep going downwind,” said Hughston. “There was no choice to go upwind.”

He continued, “We found we could control things pretty well, but we had an extremely narrow groove. We couldn’t alter our course more than about 5 degrees because the rigging would start to groan and we were leaping off the waves.”

Boat speed maxed out at about 12.9 knots surfing down a swell. “I felt like we were pretty close to the edge,” said Hughston. “Worries about stuffing the bow entered my mind, but we were actively steering the boat, looking ahead. I don’t think we could have safely turned around and tried to go up wind.”

If conditions had gotten worse, he could have towed warps off the stern using the stern anchor rode to try to slow the boat. “I haven’t felt I had to do that yet,” said Hughston.

Fortunately, the helmsman did a good job of holding the boat on course and steered as close to downwind as possible. They found that the farther east they went, the wind strength lessened. At the east end of Santa Cruz island, the wind was more manageable and the boat headed into Smugglers Cove.

The one thing that Hughston recommends against is in a situation like this is taking down all the sails. Much in the same way that putting a powerboat in neutral takes away your control, continuing to try to sail a sailboat is paramount. “Continue to sail and sail actively, don’t lie ahull,” he said.

Then there’s the decision to forereach or run off. “We were on the point of sail known as a broad reach, rather than a run,” said Hughston. “The choice is based in part on where you’re intending to go. In the worst conditions, fore reaching seems to be the preferred method.”

That decision depends on a few things, one of which is the type of boat you’re on. A higher performance design will be more likely to do well in a forereach. Hughston said he can’t heave-to effectively in winds more than 30 knots and ends up forereaching. If you’re looking at winds of 40 knots or higher, either find safe harbor or plan to head downwind.

In a westerly gale in the northern Channel Islands, if you can head east, things should improve. Two years ago, Hughston was out at San Miguel, the headsail was flogging and the crew couldn’t straighten it. He knew he had to keep going or the sail would shred itself. “By 15 miles away, heading east, the wind had dropped to 19 mph,” he said.

On another trip in the northern Channel Islands, he was heading upwind from Long Beach to Santa Cruz and he stayed closer to shore and ran a forereach to comfort a seasick passenger. The course calmed the motion of the boat, the winds abated and he motorsailed with the reefed main. This will work in winds topping out in the upper 20-mph range, but nothing stronger.

Today, thanks to better forecasting, passage planning is easier because a captain and crew can see the winds coming a week in advance. “When a strong weather pattern can be recognized a week in advance, you can be pretty sure it’s going to happen,” said Hughston.

One of the courses he offers now is a Heavy Weather clinic. It’s based on a call list and people sign up and are notified of a departure within a 48-hour window.

On one trip, they had a two-day 30-knot blow and ran downwind to Pelican Bay on Santa Cruz and because of the forecast, they left early the next morning and ran 70 miles in 10 hours to Catalina.

“The best way to get comfortable with it is to be out there with someone who’s been through it and can guide you through it,” says Hughston.

By Eric Colby