Ep 7 Sailing singlehanded to Azores: When I use genoa only
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Winds drop causing the boom to swing back and forth (with a crash). I drop the mainsail, and make excellent progress on the genny only. (This also works great in very high winds when running downwind.) I did not launch the spinnaker due to very wet foredeck.
Ya, why is he so good with the English, and a French man. Very engaging for some unknown reason, and he doesn't talk above what a novice can connect with, very good.
I will watch more. Another brave soul.
Ty
Very kind of you Ty. I have dual nationality.
@@patricklaine6958 thought you might, first American then French. I'm guessing.
And a retired fighter pilot too - huuah! (US Army speak for, well, "yeah!") - learning multiple languages (especially as a bluewater sailor) is recommended for sure. Though English is still the norm in EU waters? I'm curious about language barriers in the Indian Ocean, Sea of Japan, Southern Pac, etc...
LMAO "I bare myself to Ariel and all other mermaids..." Love it, Patrick!
How this alchemist looks so fresh and sounds so lucid after a night of so little sleep is beyond my mortal comprehension...
Patrick is the Bob Ross of sailors ^^
Ha! Not quite. That brilliant man has been dead for 25 years and still has 3.8 million subscribers on TH-cam. I've got some work to do. ;-)
I watched at least four of your videos last night. Out from Spain to the Azores and back. It was totally enthralling and I lost all sense of time!
I’m learning so much and while it’s most unlikely that I will ever do such things, to witness your courage and skill, together with your ready acceptance of the occasional problems, the experience is so captivating. Please accept my continued best wishes. Kenneth.
Thanks or the kind feedback Caenydd. Fair winds to you.
Patrick : Greetings from a Union Polaris 36. We often fly just the 500 sq ft headsail for pretty much all the reasons you detail. When the mainsail boom rocks back and forth like that, put a little clean engine oil on the goose-neck pivot and it will last much longer. On the Polaris, the mainsail boom is enormous, and it can get aggressive sometimes.
Just flying the headsail is so much easier to handle when close downwind.
In calmer conditions, I have found that when just flying a MAINSAIL downwind that the boat is stiffer and rolls less. I guess I must be crabbing the keel more? When we gybe with mainsail, we often "do a granny". That Polaris 36 mainsail boom is so long!
Fair winds !
Thanks. I haven't tried mainsail only in light winds. I'll check it out next time..... :-)
@@patricklaine6958 The Polaris 36 (early model) mainsail is enormous, and the mainsail boom helps hold it out so it curls much later than the big jib does and so has a wider usable angle when downwind. We use a kicking strap to prevent the mainsail boom from accidental gybe. Worth a try.
thank you for all the small informative bits that lots of people omit.
Thanks for the nice feedback Saltees. Much appreciated.
You are living the life I wanted. God bless and good luck
Very kind of you Gil. Thanks for commenting.
Hi Master; I think this one, is the 9th video of you I see in a row!
Every next is more interesting than the previous! Awesome!
Your vids are not only interesting but also well organized, with the titles if the next Great job!
Thanks for uploading! Cheers from Montevideo
Well hello Uruguay! Thanks for the very kind feedback. Very much appreciated. Fair winds to you.
Old Viking Proverb
"Man alone with spinnaker make big trouble"
I got much better with it --- see episodes 48-51. It took some practice!
@@patricklaine6958 I suspect Vikings didn't have dousing sock ;)
When people ask me whay I don't do the spi, I have a god answer. Because I don't want to. Simple.
This is the third time I see your all saga. Waiting for new videos!!!!! Come over this side of the Atlantic!!! We have god margaritas.
I just another video where a crew struggled enormously with their spi. I will continue use mine very cnservatively! Fair winds to you.
I´m doing that kind of lazy sailing too, on a downwind course it is very smart, this way you´ll have the genoa in a solid stay.
I hope I’m not preaching but I think you should use a gybe preventer from broad reach to dead run. We had a rope permanently tied near the end of the boom with a snap shackle on the other end which snapped to a ring close to the vang, keeping it tight to the boom and out of the way until it was needed.
A long sheet was rigged through a block attached near the bow and run back to the cockpit. The outboard end had a loop which the snap shackle clipped on to when the preventer was needed. Then the inboard end was pulled tight and secured. This pulled the boom out while the main sheet pulled the boom in. The preventer and sheet need to attach to the boom in roughly the same place, so all is in balance, stable and safe and hopefully no gear gets broken and, more importantly, no heads.
Completely agree Ian, and I do have and use a preventer (actually a "brake") made by Wichard. I don't understand why so many of my videos have the boom banging around, as I hate that. I mentioned elsewhere that perhaps it is because I often filmed my videos just prior to sunset, and just after sunrise; times I usually make sail changes (putting in or shaking out reefs). I may have just timed my filmings for that window when I changed sail settings, but had not yet re-rigged the preventer. As you say, a preventer or brake is an essential piece of gear to protect equipment, provide safety, and preserve sanity.
Well done, sailor! "A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." (I wish I knew who said that)
Not in WW2 anyway
Looking at getting a small catamaran and running double genoas and no boom as a normal rig with safety in mind foremost! Being singlehanded in open ocean as an older human tends to require a lot more forethought. An afterthought alone in the deep sea realizing your mistake is a really bad time! Love your wise opinion here and hope to see many more!
Ha! Youth is wasted on the young. Hope you are having as much fun as I am Keith! Fair winds.
Talking about Pro's, I learned that when you go below decks you should unbuckle your life jacket. So that in a case the boat flips you have a chance to get out if the jacket gets inflated.
That makes sense Patrick from a factual viewpoint Patrick. However, I'm not sure it is very practical --- I don't think I have ever seen anyone do that. (The risk of capsizing just seems too low.) On the other hand, most people take off their foul weather gear when going down below for any length of time, so comply with this practice 'by accident'. :-) Thanks for commenting Patrick.
Hi Patrick, I really enjoy your videos. I was saw right away that you're on a Bavaria. I was wondering what model and what year she is. I have a 2006 Bavaria 33 and I always wonder about the suitability of this boat for offshore sailing. My boat loves to slew around at anchor and I can only imagine what all the windage she carries would do to her in a strong breeze. I haven't tried to heave to in the boat though I know I should give it a go. But it looked like you weren't too happy with your boat's ability to do so.
I was also wondering about you inner forestay idea. On the 33 there is precious little room between the mast and the bow to affix an inner forestay. I can see your boat is larger than mine but I wonder if you've thought about this question.
Finally, it's great to see that you can achieve 3500 subscribers without any bikini clad twenty-somethings bouncing around on your foredeck. I'm looking forward to more videos!
Many thanks USA for the kind remarks. My boat is a 2008 Bavaria 40 Cruiser. In terms of seaworthiness, I would not hesitate a second to jump aboard and take it on a Transat. It is a very stable boat, handles wx well, and is ideally suited for single-handed sailing. I'm very please with it. There are two issues with heaving to: 1) is it the right tactic for the storm (versus running downwind or forereaching) and 2) how easy is it to get to a 'text book' hove to position with the slick at about 100 degrees relative to the bow. I won't address issue one, other than saying that when I crossed the gale on my way to the Azores (episode 12), the wind and seas were not aligned, and I felt the forereaching tactic was better (though stressful on the equipment). I must admit, I do struggle to get my boat to do a textbook heave to....It really likes to continue moving forward, and I have tried every variation on the controls that people commonly say to do. It almost gets there at times, but not quite. Probably 'pilot error'. :-)
If I ever do go on a major passage, I will install an inner forestay (the removable kind). For serious cruising, I want to be able to furl the genoa, and use a staysail or storm sail. I have the room for an inner forestay --- just a question of installing it. Finally I'd love to hold a bikini party on my boat, but no one would come. :-) Fair winds to you.
Spinnaker, single handed, in the middle of the ocean? Fuggetabout it.
Maybe wing and wing?
To prevent slatting in light winds and big swells going downwind or on an open reach, I unclip the mainsheet from the traveller and clip it to the rail, and tighten the sheet hard. That way the boom is pretty much fixed and the sail can't flap, yet the sail is still far out from the centerline and catches a lot of wind.
A great tip Ute. Thanks. It won't work on my boat due to physical layout -- but there are many ways to vary this theme slightly to get the same result. Thanks for commenting.
Ute å seglar great tip thanks Andy.
You can’t do that on a large boat at sea. The boom is too dangerous
Pat: Interesting video, thanks. I am curious why you don't have a windvane. Autopilots are great, but it seems it would be tough to handsteer a long passage if that system failed. and I know you have addressed the boom preventer question, I think a vang to the rail on both sides is for me, anytime off the wind. Boom slamming across can be a killer. I see the Navy pullover, are you an Academy grad? my dad was class of 47 and did two transatlantic races on a 40 footer in the 60s. He was racing with a crew of eight, but he was navigator. Those days it was all celestial, not even Loran. Nav was his favorite subject at Annapolis. Nice boat too.
Thanks VF. I don't have a windvane simply because I didn't want to have all of that hardware hanging off the stern. And yes, that means loss of the autopilot would be 'challenging'. I did practice two other primitive methods of self-steering. I think they would have been alright for the trip to the Azores. I do think that if I were doing a Transat or other very major passage, I would indeed install a windvane. To date, I have been very lucky with my Lewmar autopilot. On the preventer thing, I really should have filmed my 'brake' in action. It is tied off to both sides and really does do an excellent job of stopping the banging, and I could have used it for wing on wing if I had wanted to. I'll film that on a future passage. And yes, Navy '76, but then into aviation. As you can see, I'm still struggling with learning how to drive boats. :-) I too learned and used celestial navigation in the real world, but now with 5 independent GPSs aboard, I don't even own a sextant anymore. Thanks for contributing to the discussion.
These videos are great, thank you.
Many thanks Shipwrecked. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Missing Azores ❤️❤️
Sailing single handed has many problems but sleep is tricky and if your not getting enough sound sleep it tends to creep up on you and then your asleep for to long and totally surprised when you wake up. The AIS transponder and alarm is a better option but still not perfect with all the trash floating around.
Haha I get what you mean about just your pride being hurt, I overland camp in my jeep and I was going up some sketchy rocks, caught a bad bounce into a tree, was more pissed at my hubris 😂
I hadn't actually noticed until this video that you're always taking safety very seriously. Always hooked up to your safety line, always either sitting on a sturdy base, or hooked around something when you aren't moving from place to place or doing something. I am in no position to comment on purism, as I believe strongly in pragmatism over almost everything else, so if the genoa only works, then great.
Pat, Why not use a preventer line to stabilize the boom? Enjoy your videos! I assume you're retired in France?
Thanks Bill. Someone else also asked why I allowed the boom to crash back and forth. I don't! I have a preventer that I hook up (brand Wichard), and if that doesn't work completely, I loop a big bowline over the rear winch, and tie a double half hitch to the rear end of the boom. I think the boom bangs in the videos because I often filmed just after sunrise, or just before sunset, right after a sail change and had not yet secured the boom. I agree completely that the banging boom is mentally fatiguing, and not good for the equipment. And yep, I retired to France (after having spent most of last 30 years living in Europe). I live on the coast, 5 minutes from my sailboat. Life is good! :-) Thanks for the comment.
@@patricklaine6958 Years ago we purchased 50 feet of 3/4 inch dia. bungee cord and designed a fast attaching or removed shock absorber system that worked really well to eliminate side to side banging. Preventers dont really do a good job stopping boom banging when the boom is facing aft.
Greetings from Canada Mr. Laine. Do you use a whisker pole on the genoa in this sail plan and singlehanded? Also for the boom have you tried a gybe preventer/break to keep the boom out? Thank you and really enjoying your episodes sailing to the Azores and find your content very informative. Thank you for sharing your experiences and advice.
This boat did not come fitted with a whisker pole. They are not difficult to install, but I never got around to it. Whisker poles are VERY helpful when doing extended downwind passages like in the Trade Winds. In one of my Iceland videos I show my 'boom brake' and discuss the difference between a brake and a preventer.
Thanks for yet another informative video! I like the way you talk straight to the camera and walk around with it. Is it a gopro? The audio is very clear too, do you have an external microphone?
It is a GoPro Elizabeth, but it does not have an external mic. That is a real problem, especially on a sailboat, because as soon as you stick your head out in the breeze, you lose all quality of sound. There is a wind muffler you can put over it, but then you can not speak; just film. I'll probably try a different camera next year, with an external mic that you can put a 'dead cat' (hate that expression) around. The advantage of the GoPro is its very small size, and stabilization, so you can take it anywhere with you and be very spontaneous. The bigger cameras will require 'staging' of sequences. Thanks for asking.
Thank you Patrick, I used a gopro too until it drowned together with my drone! I clamp my system camera on different fixtures around the boat but even though I use a “dead cat” the wind noise gets through sometimes.
You could try putting up the main and using a limiter on it so it wouldn't snap around, but I have seen that get a little dicey if there are sudden wind shifts... maybe when it's nice and you feel like being on deck so you can watch it.
In episode 40 I discuss the use of boom brakes vs preventers. (I systematically use a boom brake whenever going downwind.) The banging noise you hear is a filming error. I filmed at the same time each day the first season -- just after shaking out the 'nightly reef', but before resetting the brake. You will hear much less banging in seasons 2 and 3 because I filmed after resetting the boom brake. :-)
@@patricklaine6958 thank you. I will watch it. I am not familiar with boom brakes. I own an O'day 27 and race on a tanzer 25, here in the fingerlakes, so larger, bluewater boats are interesting to me.
A preventer is a good idea, but if you’re making 5-6 knots with the Genoa alone, I’d take that any day! The one question is why not go wing-on-wing since you’re on a run? You could use the preventer to keep the boom opposite the Genoa. You’d then gain speed from the main not rob the Genoa of any air. Just curious.
You are exactly right JM. I was just satisfied with the 5-6+ knots. I think if I had only been doing 3-4 kts, I would have done exactly as you suggest (and I do that frequently in my local sailing). Excellent comment.
Patrick Laine - I only solo sail on lakes and on a 22’ pocket cruiser at that, but I realize the wisdom of a.) being satisfied with your SOG and 2.) the very real danger of having too much fabric up when conditions can change so quickly. Really enjoy your channel!
❤
I've flown spinnaker, but didn't launch it. A team of 5 on our j24s.
I got much more confident with the spinnaker eventually. In Episodes 48-51 you will see me launch and retrieve it solo numerous times. A great sail --- but one that merits respect.
I know you have covered this earlier; sort of, my biggest worry has always been sleeping. Would you please describe for me your typical sleep pattern on the passage to the Azores? thank you.
I discuss it in more detail in Episode 2 Leon. 'Best Practice' is to sleep in 20 minute cycles and then check everything. I tried this on a couple of long passages and found myself exhausted and not thinking clearly after 2 days. I then installed an AIS with an alarm, and now sleep 40 minute cycles when I am blue water. (In coastal waters, I just stay up all night.) This is pattern is a compromise between optimum security and maintaining a clear head. Thanks for watching.
Don’t blame you for not wanting to go forward too much sailing solo but would something like a asymmetric spinnaker, with a top-down fuller be of benefit? Also I don’t ever see you using a whisker pole. Is it that the more toys you use, the more trouble is possible or is it something that doesn’t lend itself to Bavaria 40s or just more bother than it’s worth?
Both great ideas Ian. I have an asymetric Spinnaker with a snuffer --- and I use it regularly. As I'm solo, I'm quite conservative as to when I use it --- not in heavy traffic areas, and not below 9 knots, nor above 15. My boat is not equipped with a whisker pole, but that is something I would definitely install if I were to do a transatlantic passage. Thanks for the excellent comment.
Why not use a preventer? And a whiskey for the genny? Nice video
I do have a preventer (actually a brake) Greg that I use on almost every passage. I disconnected it every morning and evening briefly for the reef change, and the filming of my clips. In the two seasons that follow this first one, you will not hear the boom banging. :-)
I have a furling mast and in my case the genua is much bigger than the mailsail so sailing with only the genua is still giving a ok speed.
Yes, me too Tino -- I have a 145% genoa. I can get good speed going downwind with it alone also, but I'm not a racer anyway. I have never sailed with a furling mast. Do you like it? Do you feel you lose performance compared to a classic configuration? Vertical battens I suppose? Best regards
There is no structural battens in a furling mainsail, it's like a second genua. But I like the system and it have a function where you only can pull the sail in. The system is made for reefing so you don't loose control over the sail in bad wheater. The whole system can be controlled from the cockpit however not when you want to switch to the reefing mode. It is done by the mast at the ratchet/free handle. (see my video: sailing with a TH-cam fan) I have not sailed that much in my boat to tell if furling mainsail is makng the boat go slower but I have heard the difference between furling and normal mainsail is 0.5 knots. But I'll find out, my friend have just bought a Bavaria 32 with normal mainsail.
Very helpful Tino. Thanks. It is nice having 'infinite' reefing, though a bit of a shame you need to go to the mast to do it. I guess the guidance 'reef early' still applies even to in-mast furling systems. I've already watched your video 'sailing with you-tube fan', but I don't remember the reefing sequence. I'll watch it again. Best regards.
We are spoilt. Our Prout Cat has in-mast mainsail furling with vertical batterns that is adjusted in both directions from the electric winch in the cockpit. Even so, when running downwind we often only put out the 150% Genoa to avoid having to set up the preventer on the boom that we run to the bow and back to the cockpit.
you sir sound very mature. may be you need an inexperienced mate at that age (not attacking your health by the way) to help you around the boat ?
Normally if the Boom starts doing this we tie it back to prevent crashing
Yeah -- you're right ------ and in later episodes, I use a combination of the boom brake and tieing off the aft end of the boom to prevent the banging. I'm still learning as I go along. :-) Thanks for commenting.
Why not tie the boom forward so it can't slam back the other way?
I do that Ron. In this first season of filming, I made an amateur error by filming at the same time every day --- just after I shook the night reef out, and/or just after I put the night reef in……...but before resetting my boom brake. In the next two seasons of videos, you will hear much, much less banging.
.. I had a question on a different type of boat and wanted your opinion.. ..
??? I'm missing something there ZT. Can you clarify or contact me at pcjlaine@gmail.com Thanks for watching.
Patrick Laine certainly.
bare myself to the mermaids ~ hilarious ~ if you had a ketch in these conditions could you get more speed because of the mizzen and genoa combination ~ while also staying conservative (no mainsail) should winds kick up
Radar reflector perhaps
Not sure what this comment is about Santa, but I do have a radar reflector mounted high. Technical studies have shown these are not particularly effective, but I mounted one anyway. Thanks for watching.
Mr. Laine, I'm enjoying your videos a great deal as I try to learn sailing from my dry perch in the mountains of southwest Virginia. I am a novice, but just yesterday I watched a lesson from the Maryland School of Sailing site on "Gybe Control" () and I'm wondering now, had you tied a "preventer" line (see video) to the mainsail boom (against the main sheet's tension) could you have avoided the dramatic boom swings (due to rolling) that you say woke you this morning, as you describe in this video? Have I grasped the principles correctly?
John, your excellent comment raises two thoughts: 1) There are two schools of thought on
gybe ‘preventers’. One school feels the ‘preventer’ will fail at some point in the system just when you need it most. This video th-cam.com/video/sakJNuTsiJI/w-d-xo.html illustrates that perfectly at 6:52. The alternative view is to use a boom ‘brake’ rather than a preventer. It will allow the boom to gybe, but a friction line will greatly reduce the speed and force at which it happens. I almost systematically use a boom brake when the wind is aft of abeam. It is the blue line you can see in many of my videos hanging from the boom. 2) I hate having the boom bang around as much as anyone. The reason it seems to do so in so many of my videos is that I filmed them very often just after dawn, or just before sunset ---- the times that I almost always make a sail change (which required releasing the brake). Thus, usually I have just made the sail change, but have not yet reset the brake when I filmed, so the boom is banging around. No one puts up with that for more than a few minutes. :-) Great question.
I watched the video about the Florence sv, and I'm perplexed about how the boom failed. Can you decode what type of "preventer" rigging had been used, and can you help me understand how that resulted the bending failure of the boom under sudden wind loading? If their "preventer" had been rigged to the boom where the main sheet attaches, I could understand that the unsupported boom length could have been whipped into a fold (exceeding the allowable bending moment of the boom), but if the "preventer" had been supporting the boom end, how did the wind load result in a bending failure?
I am not an expert rigger John, and I don't know how Florence rigged their preventer (nor do I intend any criticism whatsoever of them). Although I have seen preventers rigged at mid boom, or near where the main sheet attaches, I think most people rig attach them to the end of the boom. (The schools of thought being if it is rigged at the end of the boom, the aluminum can bend in the middle and fold under a shock load. If rigged in the middle, the bending leverage arm is going to be shorter -- thus less force. (Also, placing it in the middle makes it a bit easier to rig while running downwind.) I think more important than the placement is the golden rule to never have more sail out than the conditions call for. I doubt any preventer is going to work in 40 kts if you still have a full sail out. It may save the boom if you have 2 or 3 reefs in when the gust/gybe occur. Good question.
I appreciate your thoughtful and prompt replies. I suppose my question doesn't lead to a definitive answer, as you point out, but does admonish the sailor to reduce/drop the cloth before the squall hits. Thanks for your instruction; I will remember this.
Also, do you have an instagram account ? I'll share your channel..
Thanks for the kind support ZT. I'm too old to have an Instagram account. :-) Thanks anyway.
Motor for a shower! Not so easy to understand for a lanbubber :-)
I haven't looked at that video for a while Thierry, but think that it refers to running the engine (which heats the water) so that a shower is comfortable. :-)