Ep 10 Single-handed sailing to Azores: Embarrassing Lesson re sail, engine or both?

The wind continues to back on me until nearly head-on at 20+ kts with high seas. I search for a solution to make headway (with some embarrassing results). Sail, engine, or both? I learn a novel way to furl the genoa if the furler breaks.

[@TopolskiOpinion]

Patrick, thank you for your videos. It is the best sailing series on KZbin. It’s raw, honest, lacks EDM music and high school drama. This is pure honest sailing and I’ve learned a lot from your videos and you’ve reignited my passion for sailing. Looking forward to seeing your journeys in 2019!

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks so much Matt ---- though I'd love to have a bikini aboard. :-) Fair winds as you get back to sea.

[@mikesearle7077]

Here, here! Inspiring and very informative.

[@StevenJQuinlan]

Again I love the honest and unvarnished look at sailing you provide, both the awesome (the dolphins in clear blue waters) and the not so awesome, such as the wind shifting and slowing your passage, and the weather. It's a real look at a sailing life.

[@robcoulson6897]

Great to see the realities of true sailing. Appreciated...

[@patricklaine6958]

Many thanks Rob. I made many mistakes on that trip --- but the learnings made future challenging passages much easier and drama free.

[@OrangeParrotProductions]

Fantastic video Patrick, love your channel ⛵️👍

[@adrianpage3333]

Patrick, refreshing to watch a humble sailor, and really quite addictive. If you sail past SW England give Mr Blue Sky a shout out, I’d like to buy you a beer. Wishing you fair winds and kind seas, keep on sailing.

[@patricklaine6958]

With pleasure Adrian. Thanks for watching.

[@ReZipped]

I love your videos because they are real, thoughtful, and teach in an unassuming way. At the last of this video when you are searching for the positive, I would offer this: 1) you are doing what you want and it continually reinforces that you are living instead of sitting behind a desk, 2) you are healthy enough to sail alone, and 3) you worked your butt off to get a great boat to stay with you wherever you choose to roam. I would love to hear a video of your initial motivation to sail single-handed, why you bought the boat you did, and what decisions played into your outfitting choices (such as going weather blind.) Good stuff Patrick.

[@patricklaine6958]

You are absolutely right ReZipped. I have a lot to be thankful for. Your suggested topics for additional information are on-target as well. In fact, I did go over some of this in the very first episode I filmed, but did not publish on the website. It was the first time I ever used the GoPro camera outside of my living room, and I made the mistake of filming it in the open cockpit. The wind makes 90% of the commentary inaudible. I'll give some more thought on how to recapture some of these topics, which may be of help to others as they make their own sailing decisions. Thanks for commenting.

[@JohnnyHallSocietyDining]

Rock and roll indeed!

[@neptunesfancy]

Go navy! I will check out the Viking.

[@j121212100]

Learning from a true disciplined sailor.

[@patricklaine6958]

Learning from my mistakes. :-)

[@richardbohlingsr3490]

Learning from your mistakes is called experience.

[@richardbohlingsr3490]

Sometimes sail choices are limited and you have to do the best you can till favorable winds arrive.

[@stoerenungeheuer543]

Hello there! Somehow I missed the part when you mentioned the black cone for motoring with sails up. 🤔 😄 Maybe a few words on this? Anyhow: Happy new year, take care!

[@patricklaine6958]

Many thanks. To be completely honest, the inverted triangle is a technical, 'legal' requirement when motoring with a sail up, but I have rarely seen it employed except in heavy-traffic harbors. It needs to be mentioned that going forward to put up the triangle in heavy weather is not without risk. In sailing schools they will teach its use, but in the real world, you just don't see it used much. Fair winds to you in '24.

[@Cptstokes]

I know I caught your videos late in the game but I do enjoy them as I am an Eastern Pacific delivery captain. 400+ miles close hauled? Try being close hauled for 2800 miles! French Polynesia to Oahu! 33 days with some tacking. No wonder I always get deliveries going in the crap direction! :) Boat owners always the champagne sailing. Looking forward to watching more as I have never sailed in the Atlantic and have always wanted to visit the Azores. Thank you for doing these. Lynn A. Stokes Eastern Pacific Yacht Delivery Service

[@patricklaine6958]

I am honored that someone of your experience would watch my videos Lynn. Much appreciated. I was very fortunate to be invited by a Pro Delivery Captain to take a boat from Portugal to France (600 NM), and am doing that passage as I write this. (We were forced to make a brief stop midway for a minor repair.) You delivery captains are a special breed. When I choose a departure date, I am always thinking 'comfort first'. My delivery captain puts safety first, but then it is always a choice of the 'least bad' time to leave. Time is money! Our first 200 NM of this passage were close hauled in 24 kts of apparent wind. (It is a high performance sail boat and still managed about 7 kts SOG all of that time --- something impossible in my gentle cruising boat.) Best wishes for a nice broad reach on your next delivery!

[@economcy]

Thank you for the nice videos Patrick. In 20+ winds on a 40 ft sailboat I would normally expect that you could close reach at a boat speed of 8+ kt and a vmg of at least 5kt, without any use of the engine. That would require some active steering through the waves though. Perhaps some tweaking of the autopilot settings, some balanced trimming of the sails with lots of luff tension and sail twist, could achieve a similar result.

[@patricklaine6958]

Really good point Economcy. When I go out day sailing in my local area, I am constantly adjusting the fairleads to get all 6 telltales in the genoa aligned, etc. I even have a fractional rig, so I play with mast tension as well. However, when I am doing blue water passages, I purposely depower the boat a bit (put a first reef in at 15 kts rather than 17; the second in at 20 rather than 22), ease the main just a touch after optimizing, etc. Being honest, I do this primarily for comfort, but say to myself, "Let's not stress the rigging/sails any more than I have to. It's a marathon not a sprint." So yes, I probably do give up 0.5 to 1 knot in performance quite often. I understand that. Having said that, I'm sure if I were to participate in regattas with experts who do that every weekend, I would learn a massive amount about sail trim and optimizing performance (compared to my current mediocre performance). Not really into racing though. Too old perhaps. :-) Good comment.

[@FitOutPost]

Very rough sailing experience, I'd say.

[@mhansl]

Oh, man! Earlier in the episode, I notice the flag whipping in that squall. Then, when you came back on after it had passed, I thought to myself, "Oh, good he secured that flag." LOL

[@patricklaine6958]

Embarrassing moments......

[@mhansl]

More humorous than embarrassing, I would say. Though, Patrick, your humility is part of what makes this channel so endearing.

[@tahirsargin8236]

👏👏👏

[@alainbedard2284]

Hello Patrick - Thanks for your vids, I really like the format and find them very informative. I have one question though, why don't you stabilize or stop your boom from swinging left and right with a preventer when using the genoa only and the main is not in use. Thanks again for sharing!

[@patricklaine6958]

Merci beaucoup Alain, très gentil. This is a question that has been asked several times before, and at first I was puzzled by it. I hate having the boom banging around, but the viewers are right, it often is in my videos. However, I almost always have rigged a brake (and not a preventer) to stop the boom from swinging. If you look at this video at 0:23 you will see a blue line attached to a cleat. That is my boom brake line (brand Wichard). So why is the boom swinging so often? I made a habit of filming first thing in the morning, and just before sunset. That is often just after sail changes (shaking out a reef, and putting one in for the night). I think I filmed just after the sail changes, but just before I reset the boom brake to stop it from swinging. :-) Thanks for watching.

[@margaritastrode4752]

❤

[@pentachronic]

A thought for you about going overboard when tied in with a jack line. As a climber one thing we use is a ladder (etrier) for ascending a rope. The issue with a jack line is that if it is too long you end up being dragged by the boat with no means to get back on because you have nothing to pull on (a pure jack line is slippery). So here’s the fix. Make sure your jack line is double webbing. Tie a knot every 18” or so. This can then be used by your arms to pull yourself back onto the boat. Also if you carried another piece of webbing (again doubled up, knotted every 18” and one end clipped into your harness carabiner) you could throw this from your pocket and use it as a leg assist. Your legs being way stronger than your arms would provide you more purchase. Anyway I thought I’d share this as redundancy and risk management are all part of the game. Btw, I love your videos and explanations. Very well done !! Would welcome your thought about the jack line idea here too.

[@pentachronic]

Ok, to clarify my terminology (I don’t want to edit all over again). The jack line is the line on the boat. I’m talking about your harness line (from the jack line to yourself/harness).

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks Gazza. Your suggestions are very good, even excellent, from a theoretical point of view. I'm less sure of how practical it would be to carry two quite heavy tethers all of the time. I'm already in the very rare category of sailor who always wears my tether (well, 99.5% of the time). If it were thicker (doubled up webbing), and snag prone with knots, and I also carried an equally long 'leg' jack, I am sure I would start finding excuses not to wear it unless in quite rough weather, and at night. That's the trade-off: comfort and practicality (for an incident that occurs quite rarely) vs greatly enhanced safety. I do like your ideas though, and may make a second tether combination as you suggest for when the weather is really severe.

[@pentachronic]

I get your points. As far as tying overhand knots in a tether, they roll very well but your point is very well taken. There are simple ways around this. Stitch them together at regular intervals !!

[@pentachronic]

Sew = 2 bar tacks BTW.

[@pentachronic]

Here’s what I would do - get some 1” tubular webbing. Sew loops (bights) every 2ft. Tie the end jack line carabiner (fig 8 on a bight is sufficient). On the main tether I would double the webbing and sew every 2ft. Run the lines together and use electrical tape to hold them together. Coil or serpentine the end of the leg tether and tape it at the bottom of the main tether near the waist carabiner. Redundant, light and deployable if needed. But I get all of your points and obvious risk/reward tradeoff. But in heavy seas you’ll have to weigh that up yourself as would any sailor. I would make my own tether as I know how to do this. Webbing is cheap. These are skills I’ve gained from climbing and being an engineer I enjoy these kinds of puzzles. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to sailing too. Stay safe my friend !!😁

[@phf3238]

I am wondering what batteries you carry in order to use an electric auto pilot as much as you do. I know you have added solar and am also wondering what the intake is. Thank you. I have learned a few things from you even though I am an offshore sailor myself. Always a learning experience.

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks Pat. I don't have solar -- I have a 'fuel cell' that converts methanol into energy for recharging the batteries when the voltage falls to a pre-set level (12.3 V). My batteries are standard lead-acid batteries (not AGM or lithium). It's true the autopilot works hard in high seas and gusty winds, but under normal conditions, I try to balance the sails pretty closely (so I can easily steer with just my fingers). I think this takes a lot of the load off the battery --- having balanced sails. When in a storm though, I turn the engine on every six hours or so to recharge them, because the fuel cell can not keep up. Thaks for watching.

[@phf3238]

Patrick Laine I completely agree with you about the sail set. I sailed with a mechanical vane and had crew that never understood that. Some would sheet in the sails and completely overpower the vane. Thanks for the reply. Fair winds.

[@maesy6730]

As a Brit I find that the most appropriate manner to display the Tri color 😉. enjoying your videos for the past few days.

[@patricklaine6958]

Very funny!

[@karaDee2363]

What's your thoughts on a weather vane for steering the boat instead of using an electric auto pilot?

[@patricklaine6958]

Wind vanes are great for cruisers, if you can fit them to your boat. (That was an issue on my Bavaria.) They don't work well on the faster racer-cruisers, because they spend a lot of time surfing, and the wind vane can't cope with the constantly changing apparent wind. On boats that can't/don't plane, a wind vane is a great investment. Great question.

[@alexnason]

I’d love to hear about your wardrobe

[@patricklaine6958]

You've read my mind Alex. I'm in the process of adding an inner forestay and staysail. That will provide many additional options, and much better performance in a wide range of weather. I'll do a short video on what this changes once the work is finished. Fair winds.

[@arnaudlebec4795]

@@patricklaine6958 We've been we watching the Ep 2 to 19 recently as we plan coming June a Portimao to Azores passsage with our Dehler 38 . As one of your viewer wrote we did like your honest way of telling the narrative not to mentionned several understatements . Congratulations and warm thanks . i have 2 questions ; - In rough seas the 2 helms are moving moderately ( responsive time and gain ) . Seems to be a perfect tuning together with the sails balance . Maybe one Ep. on the topic .? . In one Ep you mentionned your storm bag . For a Bavaria 40 was it a 10 sqm sail ?

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks Arnaud. I plan to stop by the Azores this Spring also….. :-) Regarding the setting on the autopilot, I have a Raymarine ST6002. When in blue water, I use setting "1" which is the least precise, but conserves a lot of energy. I use setting "2" (more precision, but more energy) when in coastal waters. I never use setting "3" -- which includes yaw damping, for very precise heading control. You change settings by pushing +1 and -1 at the same time. For the Storm Bag, I bought the recommended size for my 40' boat --- 8 m2. Last year I installed an inner forestay and 'trinquette' (solent) staysail on a furler. With this set-up, I don't think I'll ever have to use the Storm Bag, but I keep it on-board just in case. Fair winds.

[@JeanBenoitFOURNIER]

A bad day of sailing is better than a good day of work, no? 😂

[@patricklaine6958]

Oh yeah. No question about that. :-) Fair winds JB.

[@PyeGuySailing]

That little shelf by the chart table looks like its in a dangerous position for you to smack you head off of.

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks Gary. It is a wooden box that holds the binoculars, and is located there so that I can grab them from the companionway hatch, without having to descend into the cabin. I suppose it could be a hazard, but hasn't been a problem yet. I'll take a good look at it tomorrow when I next go to my boat. Thanks for commenting.

[@crismoore6811]

Would you have heaved to if you had no motor in this situation?

[@patricklaine6958]

Heaving to is always an option, along with running downwind, laying 'ahull', or foreaching. The decision as to which to choose is based on how much room you have, the condition of seas, how fatigued crew is, etc. There is no single solution that would fit all circumstances.

[@crismoore6811]

Patrick Laine, yes. I thought about 'downwind' but that might mean into waves and slam down. Very uncomfortable. Thank you for explaining.

[@neptunesfancy]

Patrick, really a pleasure to view a real sailor's video as opposed to soft porn boating.Your vessel is beautiful. What is she? Your French is very good.S/V "Venceremos", out of San Diego, CA

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks JJ. Yeah, the content of many of those sites is eye-catching, but a bit weak on substance/sailing. My Bavaria 40 is a wonderful cruising boat, and not difficult at all to handle solo. If I were to leave on 'the Big One', I'd install an inner forestay so I could put up some smaller foresails in a storm. Otherwise, very sea-worthy. If you like action sailing with no bikinis. Check out the videos of Erik Aanderaa. He is a crazy Viking who makes fantastic sailing videos. BTW, I lived in La Mesa for a while, and used to fly in and out of Miramar often (long ago when my hair was dark in color). We used to fly inverted on departing over Black's Beach. ;-)

[@Fearless-sailing]

I had a problem with my genoa furling line chafing on the way to Bermuda in the B1-2 race. I wish I had known of your special furling mechanism! For the "Big One" I am going to install a dyneema solent stay. the stay is retractable so you can still tack your genny. Maybe you have seen Joe Cooper's descriptions - joecoopersailing.com/solent-stays/ Keep the videos coming - Phil Haydon, sv Prairie Gold, Boston

[@patricklaine6958]

Thanks Phil. I really like the dyneema stay concept, and several boats near mine have installed this. My concern is that 90%+ of my sailing is solo, so I am still left with the problem of having to hank on a storm jib alone in high winds. (That's why I chose the clip on Storm Bag solution, which is then deployed from the cockpit.) That said, I'm sure I will eventually install an inner forestay, but it will probably be a furling one though. I'm a coward. :-) (Joe would not approve!) Best to you.

[@patricklaine6958]

If you don't do regatta racing, the added necessity of partially furling the genoa prior to tacking is of little consequence compared to the advantage of having a stay sail on the inner forestay. I think you made a very good choice.

[@pierrewoodhurst]

Thanks much for the tip on Erik Aanderaa @@patricklaine6958

[@keithmurray5791]

+Patrick Laine I found this video hilarious! To find yourself driving aimlessly around in the ocean.., flag wound around the back stay so tightly...man! Good thing it didn't take you long to figure out what was going on! Lol

[@patricklaine6958]

Ha! Rookie mistake. It was funny though. :-) Thanks for watching Keith.

[@wincrasher2007]

Why not replace your main and mast with in-mast furling? I would think it would make these passages much easier.

[@patricklaine6958]

Ha! now there is a controversial topic wincrasher. I'm not brave enough to take that one on the web! I'll just comment that some are not comfortable with in-mast furlers, because you can't have battens in the sail in the classic way to maintain an aerodynamic shape purists like, and the foot of the sail also does not sit like a classic sail. On the other hand, you have infinite reefing capability and other advantages that those who love this system strongly advocate. It's one of those topics that either you love 'em, or hate 'em.