South Pacific: Triple Wrapped, Pt. 1

Tuesday
June 19 2007 - 3 am
Lat: 150* 00' W
Lon: 10* 00' S
Seas: 10 - 12 feet out of the NNE and 8 -10 feet SE - Crossing Seas
Winds: 18 - 20 knots ESE with gusts in squalls 24 - 26 knots from NE-E-SE depending on location of squall relative to vessel

Enroute from Nuku Hiva Marquesas to American Somoa

"Triple Wrapped," Part I

Everyone is familiar with a "wrap". It is a good healthy snack easy to make. Just put any ingredients onto a flat tortilla and 'wrap-it'. Some Mexican foods, including a burrito, are essentially a wrap. Even the French wrap exotic ingredients into things.

A 'wrap' on a sail boat can mean three different things according to what is being wrapped.

The foresails - the Jib, Genoa, Staysail or even a Spinnaker - can wrap itself around a shroud or even its own lines or sheets. That can be difficult to undo but it happens a lot in racing, especially when the foresail is up and the boat changes direction from downwind to upwind or the reverse. If the crew is not quick enough, the free floating or flogging sail end (clew) or aft edge (leach) starts whipping around and catches something or even a part of itself and 'wraps".

Another wrap can be the loose end of the upwind sheet on the foresail. The downwind sheet is tight and holds the sail end (clew) in close to the boat to trap or control the amount of wind coming across the boat into the sail. The upwind sheet is let loose and is kept ready in case the boat has to tack across the wind and then this sheet becomes the downwind sheet in a few seconds. If the newly loosened sheet is not brought in tight, but instead starts whipping around, it can 'wrap' itself around something, anything in its way, like a shroud or other line, or even around itself into a knot.

Another 'wrap' is when you are not paying attention to the powered winch and the tailing end of the line that is being ‘wrapped’ around the winch gets under the tightening line. If not noticed in time it can wrap itself under the tensioning line and be difficult to undo. The more line bunched up under a powerful electric winch, the more difficult it is to unwrap. A winch is designed to turn in only one direction. It is geared to only turn clockwise even when the cranking handle is turned in either direction on a 2 speed winch. The internal gears and claws keep it from turning in the opposite direction. When you 'wrap' a tightening line around itself, it does not just come undone, you have to do something about it or that line becomes stuck and useless.

I was sailing from Nuku Hiva Marquesas towards US Samoa heading almost due west along a line of 10 degrees South latitude.

I marked three atolls that would be close to my route with waypoints just to keep reminding me that these dangerous reefs, atolls or islands were not to be forgotten and possibly run into while sleeping or preparing food down below. I wanted to know exactly where they were and stay clear. One of these dangerous atolls on my route was Karoraina, about halfway between Nuku Hiva and Suwarrow.

On Tuesday morning, about 3 am, I was napping on the cockpit floor very near all the instruments and the wheel when I felt the wind increase and whistle in the shrouds. The boat started to heel a little more so I got up to read the wind instrument.

The wind was normally around 18 knots that night and I had taken down the spinnaker (I do not like to fly the spinnaker at night, you must go forward to roll it up and I don't like to move along the edge of the boat to the bow at night in heavy seas) and instead rolled out the staysail. I kept the genoa on a whisker pole with its clew out to windward taking the maximum advantage of that big foresail.

However, the genoa sail is simply to large when the wind gets above 25 knots.

As I was standing at the helm reading the instruments, the wind meter showed 24 knots. At that moment a sudden gust of wind shot up to 30 knots and the rain started. It is a black night with no moon so you don't see the squalls coming. This was a BIG one and its winds were coming more southerly.

I had to make the big genoa out to windward smaller, but first I had to turn the boat to keep the new wind direction blowing into and not across the poled out genoa. That is the danger of putting the end of the sail (clew) out to the opposite side of the boat from its normal position, held there by a fixed pole.

Normally the genoa is out along the downwind side of the boat and its angle to the wind is controlled by pulling in, or letting out tension on that downwind sheet.

With the clew of the genoa on a pole held out into the wind, you cannot control the angle of the sail to the wind. To do that, you actually have to turn the boat more into or away from the wind. The one thing you do NOT want to happen to a sail on a pole out into the wind is for the wind to come around and attack the FRONT side of the sail (or 'back' the sail) which could, if the wind were strong enough, turn or twist the bow of the boat into the wind and off course or damage the pole.

I turned the boat to starboard straight downwind. I watched the wind needle stay on the port side but also increase to 34 knots. I had to do something fast or I could break the pole or one of its lines or even rip the sail.

In total darkness, I first released the 2 sheet ends from their captive self-tailers atop the winches loosening the tension on the upwind sheet by about 3 feet, then locked it in position. I then went to the aft end of the furling line attached to the front drum on the lowest most forward part of the genoa (tack). This furling line is wound around the drum that rolls the sail in and out by pulling on or releasing the aft end of that furling line. The line runs along the side of the boat back to a turning block then through a 'stopper' and up to a winch. The line has a grip clutch or "stopper' that keeps the tension you want held at that point. From the stopper, the end of the line is either tied off for sailing or the end is brought around a winch to be able to pull in on the furling line to roll up the sail making it smaller.

I went to the starboard arch where I tie off all my line ends and found the furling line for the genoa. I untied that line and brought the end back and around the winch. Normally you wrap a few loops around the winch and then pull it into a 'self-tailer' atop the winch that keeps the line running around the winch and the free end falls to the cockpit floor.

I left the line loose around the winch and did not put it into the teeth of the 'self-tailer' so that I would be able to pull on the line and start the drum rolling up the sail first before using the powerful electric winch. I went to the line stopper and prepared to release the clutch. I was ready to hold on to the line and pull in on it to turn the drum to start the sail furling.

When I released the clutch stopper, the wind pressure was too strong for me to hold and the furling line raced through my ungloved hands burning the inside of my fingers and palm. The line pulled all the way out and only the knot at the end of the line finally stopped it at the 'stopper'.

Now the genoa was let fully out and started flogging and whipping around out in front of the boat. The windward sheet going through the pole was now being whipped back and forth from the tension the sail end still had. The loose end, the downwind sheet on the genoa, was also flogging and whipping around and came up and over the other sheet. It tied itself into knots. I didn't realize this until later, when I got out a flashlight and went forward to find out why the furling line wasn't rolling in the genoa.

When the furling line whizzed through my hands and finally stopped by the knot hitting the stopper, I tried to pull that end back to the winch. The sail was flogging so much it was almost impossible. But every now and then it would slacken and I could pull a little more line up to the winch, finally getting enough line around to use it. I pushed the electric button on the winch and the furling line started to roll the drum and thus the sail into a smaller package, at least I thought so.

The winch would pull in a little line and then make that sound when you know it is trying too hard. I would release the furling line from the 'self-tailer' jaws and let out a little line, then start the winch again, back and forth. Doing so I thought I was rolling in the genoa sail. But the sail was still whipping around and making terrible flogging sounds. Even the mast and all the shrouds were vibrating and it seemed the whole boat was shaking.

I needed to go up forward and see what was happening. Up until now I could only hear and guess. I was wearing my inflatable lifevest with built in harness so I found the 6 foot long tether and attached both ends to the D rings at the front of the vest. I put the rest of the webbing around my neck so I wouldn't trip and made my way forward always holding on to a hand rail or standing rigging until I could turn on the flashlight and have a look at the genoa flapping at the bow.

What a mess! The sail had wrapped around itself and the luff going up the forward stay. I had 3 or 4 wraps going around clockwise up from the clew and another 3 or 4 going counterclockwise below that. AND both sheets were knotted together after wrapping themselves into a ball of knots.

A DOUBLE WRAP! I didn't know what to do. The sail and the sheets were both wrapped around and knotted.

The sail wrapped around the front stay and itself many times and flogged like crazy. It was the loose sail above the clew going all the way up the stay to the mast that was bellowing out at different places and catching wind. This was the loudest and most violent and was going to do the most damage.

The loose downwind sheet had wrapped itself around the tight, upwind sheet going from the sail end (clew) out to the pole. The lines were knotted together at about 8 feet above the deck. No way I could reach or get to the knots.

I didn't want to stay out there on the bow too long, so I went back to the safety of the cockpit and thought about what I could do. It was dark, raining, rolling and I hadn't slept in over 30 hours.

But I needed to try something. It was a little after 3 am. This had all happened within 5 minutes; I thought it was an hour. The sun wouldn't be up for 3 or 4 hours and the sail was beating itself up and possibly harming other essential parts of the boat. I needed that sail, it was my downwind sail and it was downwind all the way to Australia.

I decided to try something. I would release the tension on the sheet going through the pole and hoped that would relieve the knotted lines wrapped together. Maybe I could then pull in on the other sheet and start the roller furling to untwist the sail and then try to roll the drum the other way with the furling line to furl the sail into a smaller package and stop the flogging.

I released about 8 feet of the port upwind sheet and went to the starboard sheet and pulled. It came in about 6 feet. I thought I could then try to put the furling line around the winch and try to roll that amount of the furling line back onto the furling drum and that way roll up some of the flogging sail.

I wrapped the winch with four turns of the furling line and watched forward with the flashlight how the sail might be rolling. It seemed the furling line pulled in a few turns of the drum so I did some more. Then the winch made that sound when you know it is working too hard, any more tension would surly break something.

I looked back down at the winch. It had become completely entangled, wrapped up and stalled. The free end had somehow gotten under the line that was being pulled in and wound tighter and tighter. There was no way I could get that mess unwound. The winch only turns in one direction and the line was forced on there so tight, nothing would move.

I was "Triple Wrapped"! And I was in trouble.

End of Part 1.

Mike Harker