Tramps in gusty winds

Sailing 101. In high winds always sail with the mainsheet in your hand. If you feel a capsize coming release the mainsheet and the boat will stabilize. Also as mentioned in an earlier post heading into the wind will stop that action as well. On a normal sailing vessel it is nearly impossible to capsize because as the boat heals over the sail will eventually fall out of the wind. It depends on the physics of the design and to a degree the skills of the helmsman or the size of his or her testicles.

Just so no newbies misunderstand, "sail with the mainsheet in your hand" does NOT mean "out of the cleat".

Going upwind in any strong wind, I need >both< hands to pull in my mainsheet, and there is just no way I could hold that tension with one hand. So the idea is that having the (loose) mainsheet tsil in your hand, you will be able to quickly lift it out of the cleat if necessary.

This might sound obvious, but I have seen a newbie trying to sail uncleated in strong winds, and progress was almost non-existent.

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Tony Stott
2012 Tandem Island "SIC EM" with Hobie spinnaker

Good points. Holding the mainsheet is critical but knowing when to 'dump' i.e. uncleat the sail is the challenge. I'll share my experience in the hopes that no one repeats it. I was sailing upwind with my 7 year old son on the windward tramp beside me. We were on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. I had the mainsheet in my hand and a gust of wind came and the leeward ama dove about six inches under water but I thought once the gust passed, we would stabilize. The gust quickly passed as expected, but then a second,more powerful gust came and lifted us about 45 degrees. This lasted about 2 seconds. I dumped the sail but the wind caught the tramp and before we knew it, we were in the water under the tramp. Righting the kayak in rough conditions was very difficult and luckily we had a VHF radio and were in a group.

When the tramps catch the wind you will often find that, even with the main sheet in hand, you can't act fast enough. Been there. Still keep it in hand. My point- roll those tramps up when confronted with heavy gusts. Anticipate stronger gusts than you are currently experiencing. I have found that disorganized waves on lakes are a bigger risk than the more organized wave action offshore during gusts.

Vetgam

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Greg

2016 AI - Spinn & Jib

“Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him.”
– Charles G. Davis

I think all small dingy's and cats have a tendency to possibly flip when hit by gusts, including the islands, I think it's the nature of the beast. Even though the chances are less on an island, it's still there, and it's important that we all know what to do if the inevitable does happen. It's probably a good idea for all of us to at the very least be familiar with and know how to right our boats, and if needed actually practice capsizing and righting in controlled conditions. I have never capsized on my TI but have came really close and recovered many times. At least in my case this usually means releasing the lines and diving out of the seat onto the tramp, I have also averted capsize by turning hard into the wind. Fortunately with the TI we get a little time usually to make corrections before the boat goes completely over.
Just thinking out loud I wonder if it would help to cut a slit in the center of the tramp from front to back about 3 ft long, or maybe two slits each about 15 inches long to help spill wind. I wouldn't think the slits would effect the function of the tramps much, but would make them safer in high wind conditions. I wouldn't be too difficult to make the slits, you would only need some 2 inch wide black PVC tape where you place it above and below the tramp material, iron it down to the tramp with a cloths iron thru a piece of paper, then slit up the center to create the slit. Melting the edges and the ends of the slit to prevent them from fraying.
I don't think I'm going to do it, but only because my days of rough and extreme sailing are over, I only go out in winds under 7 mph and flat water anymore (which is pretty much what my boat is rigged for (winds 0 to 7 mph)) and I'm very happy with what I have (with all my mods my boat averages 8-10 mph in those conditions).
Just an idea....

Bob

It seems this thread has gone beyond just the tramps, but is very interesting for a TI newbie. I have lots of experience in dinghies and hobie 16s and can say I always cleated the main, regardless of wind. But I also always had one hand on the main and could uncleat in a second. If a gust was coming up I would pop the main out to be ready.
This boat has a huge advantage over any other of my previous boats, furling the main while underway is huge. From my limited experience it is easier and faster to over furl and pedal than to carry full sail and try to maintain speed.
Cleating or uncleating is a personal preference. But if you have problems holding the main get gloves, and start lifting weights to get in shape.

quattroguy :
I suspect they meant if it's gusty, to have the main line in your hand ready to uncleat in a second. I don't think it would be practical to keep the TI main uncleated (especially when sitting in the seat), I for one would not be able to hold that line (even if I had Popeye arms) especially on a close reach with the full sail pulled very tight in higher winds. With just a 2 to 1 purchase on the main line on the TI it takes a lot of force to pull it tight (two hands for me). I have heard some guys converting to a 3 to 1 purchase on the main line, but you can only control the boat from one seat or the other (but not both) once you make that conversion.
Though I have a few times while hiked way out on my tramps and using a hiking stick for steering, been able to keep the main uncleated by having the line come out of the cleat and taking a sharp bend holding the main line tight almost 90 degrees to the cleat, actually at that angle it's pretty tough to get the line down into the cleat anyway, so you pretty much have to just hold it. I plant my feet to the outside of the main hull and lean out holding the main line in one hand and the hiking stick in the other balancing the boat to try to keep both AMA's out of the water. I think I mentioned earlier that I sometime rig a crude trap line to the top of the mast that I lean on to prevent the mast from bending too much. But then again I have way more sail area on mine than most so I have to do all that anyway just to keep from capsizing in higher winds (over 12 mph winds). What I do doesn't necessarily apply to most people but I sure have a lot of fun (LOL). I don't think I would be able to hike out the way I do without my tramps on the boat.
Bob