Seacocks Dept. Blog: How to Sail Yourself Out of Big Trouble

Great Ways to Keep Yourself Out of Trouble While Sailing

Raritan Engineering Company your seacocks specialists would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding how to sail yourself out of big trouble. 

Pinwheel Avoidance

Your seacocks manufacturers talk about how this one’s a classic: If you’re the outside boat of a group approaching the leeward mark and blindly carry on with pace, you’ll sail extra distance in bad air, carry wide around the mark, and then exit in a terrible lane. 

Once you’ve slowed, let the pinwheel unfold, and watch as the boats swinging around the outside become pinned and stuck in bad air. These boats had room on you, but because they are now pinned wide from the mark, they can no longer make a tight ­rounding and close you out.

One cautionary note: When slowing down and waiting for your opportunity to round inside, there might be boats coming up from behind with no room who want to speed into the gap you’re ­shooting for. 

Overstand Recovery

Overstanding a mark is a big no-no, but we still end up doing it from time to time. The key to recovery is to start hauling butt, getting to the mark as quickly as possible. Upwind, you need to put the bow down, but in medium and heavy air, cracking off causes too much heel, so depower the rig — traveler down, backstay on, hike hard, and scoot back about a foot on the rail.

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Downwind, if the lane is clear, sail high and fast toward the leeward mark. If sailing higher puts you in the dirty air from boats ahead, sail low to keep your air clear as long as possible, then heat it up late near the mark. 

Ducking another boat

The goal when ducking another boat is to minimize loss, and if done well, possibly even pass them on the next crossing. To duck well, generate extra speed by bearing off and then taking advantage of the small lift as you cross close to the other boat’s transom.

Since you are going faster than upwind sailing speed during and after the duck, and you get a small lift from the other boat’s sails, you can burn some of that speed by pinching slightly after heading up, giving you a little more gain to windward. This will last for only a few seconds. Make the front of the jib bubble just a touch. 

What if it appears the other boat will leebow you and you want to continue? If you’re in a lightweight boat with good maneuverability, try a late duck, which will keep from giving away your intentions and possibly freeze them.

On heavier and bigger boats, bear away early and generate as much speed as possible. If they tack to leebow and you have tons of speed, you can head up firmly and smoothly, gliding above closehauled for a while and creating a lateral gap. m, with enough of a gap to hold your lane.

So don't forget these great tips on how to sail yourself out of big trouble. 1) Pinwheel avoidance;  2) outstand recovery and 3) ducking another boat.

Couple who sold everything to sail around the world lost it all when their boat sank after just two days at sea

A couple who packed in the rat race to sail around the world for life had their dreams dashed when their boat capsized after just two days at sea.

Tanner Broadwell, 26, and Nikki Walsh, 24, from Colorado, sold everything they had to buy the vessel that would given them an adventure they would never forget.

But it became immemorable for the wrong reasons when their craft tipped over off the coast of Florida when it struck a foreign object.

They lost everything in just 20 minutes when the houseboat sank along John's Pass, near Tampa, after the keel had been ripped from the base of the boat.

Tanner and Nikki were forced to jump overboard and were left with just $90 (£65) to their name as well as their two-year-old Pug named Remy.

The couple were bored with their rat-race lifestyle at home and wanted an adventure 

And they face forking out up to $10,000 (£7,200) to get the vessel, which had no insurance, out of the water.

Now they have no jobs, no savings and nowhere to go, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

"I sold everything I had to do this," Tanner said, "and I lost everything in a matter of 20 minutes."

The couple had sold all their worldly goods last year after making the decision to sail around the world.

Tanner and Nikki forked out $5,000 for the 28-foot-long sailboat they named Lagniappe, and the same again to fix it up.

Tanner and Nikki paid out more than £7,000 to buy and do up their sailboat they named Lagniappe (Image: Facebook)

But it all went wrong when their boat capsized at sea off the coast of Florida. "We got so tired of that lifestyle," Tanner said, "of doing things to make people do the things they don’t want to do."

The pair, who initially had no sailing experience, got busy doing up the boat and on Tuesday set sail from Tarpon Springs in Florida for their adventure.

"Everybody gave us a nice farewell off the docks."

The next day they passed by Clearwater Beach and made their way to John’s Pass to dock for the night.

But the couple have vowed to set sail on another adventure again in the future.

"I’m not going to give up now," Broadwell said. "I’m going to get another boat down the road."

"We can’t just give up on our dreams," Walsh said.

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Be sure to watch our latest video on seacocks below. 

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