In our new series on Best Practices in Blue Water Cruising, member Tony Gooch, with more than 160,000 miles at sea, has tackled the topic of Heavy Weather Sailing, especially short-handed.

We have more than 2000 members with blue water experience and we would like to hear what you have learned across all those sea miles. One thing we all recognize is that every boat, every crew and every situation is different so please take a look at Tony 's excellent paper and please contribute your thoughts via this Forum. We 'll compile the comments into an OCC white paper for all to benefit. Many thanks.


Please Note: The original attachment has been removed because the paper has been updated and is posted in a later section of this thread.

Vice Commodore, OCC 

My thanks to those who have responded to the posting of a "white"paper" on Heavy Weather Sailing. I have edited and revised the paper to reflect the input and the revised paper Version 3. will replace the earlier posting. The principal revisions/edits were in regard to:

Use of staysails
The colour of webbing used for jacklines.
Movement on deck during heavy weather
A side note on the advantages junk rigged boats in reducing sail in Heavy weather
Position of reefing line winch.
Considerations when heaving to.

Please post further comments/corrections/suggestions.
fair winds Tony Gooch