Storms Wednesday Night

[rfrance0718]

In Columbus we had lots of rain. It was enough to keep me awake, and I waas happy to hear our sump pump kicking on. I also laid there and realized that I hadn't folded down the picnic umbrella on our deck, but I wasn't hearing wind, just rain. In the morning it was fine.

The story, 100 miles North, at out marina was a bit different. I found that out when I got a morning call from Jim, at the marina. He told me that my jib had unfurled, and that he had tried to secure it, without accomplishing much. So I jumped into the truck, and took the 2 hour drive to the boat. On arrival I was surprised to see 5 boats, including mine, with shredded, madly flapping jibs, and I'm assuming that there were more, that had already been taken care of. For me it was 2 destroyed jibs as my staysail was a goner as well.

I had seen this happen to a boat or 2 in the past, and I always assumed that it was due to a poor job of securing the lines. I'm not so sure now. When I come in I usually unfurl the jibs, and wind them up again. I had done that after my last sail, and I had cleated off both furling lines, and the sheets, which had at least 3 or 4 wraps around the sails. All of the lines were still cleated when I arrived! It could be that they had loosened some, and someone had re-cleated them, but I'm not sure. It seems like most of the sail was still furled, but there were strips that had ripped, and unwound, creating streamers. I've attached pictures of neighboring boats that suffered the same fate. These boats were lined up with my boat along the general direction of the wind, but no other boats on my dock were affected.

According to Jim, there was a 70 mph gust recorded at one nearby marina, and he also noted that their 5 inch capacity rain gauge was full. The area was also littered with tree branches of varying sizes.

The good news; On my last sail, when I had to tack 34 miles to get home, I had decided that my old jib was totally blown out, and I had already made some calls about having a new one made. So no loss there. My stay sail was an old Lightning jib, obtained for free. I can probably make the same deal with another Lightning sailor.




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[Frank B.]

From the pics looks like the affected sails do not have a significant UV protective panel on the leech?  Mine does, has withstood winds of that strength on many occasions without issue.  I've seen others in my marina that don't have the panel or just double the dacron and they would shred like that.  I guess it's a performance thing to not put the panel on, but I can give that up for longevity.

[rfrance0718]

My big jib had a protective edge and I would have said the same thing, that it had survived many high wind exposures, without incident. But as I said, my jib was really old, so disintegration could maybe be expected. I have noticed some newer jibs in the marina, that have no edge, or maybe one that is white. I thought that it was curious. Looks like the one sail has that.

[rfrance0718]

So. I guess I hadn't looked  carefully at the jib. It was flaying around in the breeze, which was still in the upper teens, and I just went about getting it down and off the furler.

When I laid the sail out in the driveway today I found that the only part torn was the red uv border. Only one section, about 10 feet was gone, and some of the rest is coming undone. Tami is going to sew that down, so we'll have something to use until we get a new one.

As I had said, the sail was already about as useful as a big burlap sack, and I'm sure that Wednesday night didn't help it any.

[Ed]

My only true marina boat, Com Pac 19, had a jib sock that was raised by the Jib Halyard along the RF Genoa on the bow, with a honking zipper.  It worked well but was a pita to put up/down.  My Sea Pearl Tri, like most Sea Pearls, has pull on socks for both the main/mizzen that I put on for those rare occasions I keep it in a slip for a few days, either mast up after installing or in the bullwinkles, and of course all the time while parked on the trailer.  I think if/when I ever get another marina queen I will have a jib sock on in the slip and a tight mainsail cover.You cannot view this attachment.