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Post by lateron on May 26, 2011 18:04:05 GMT
Having recently read several magazine accounts of the relative minus points as to the seaworthiness/comfort/safety in heavy weather of more modern, lighter and broader beamed yachts such as jeanneau, in comparison to older, heavier designs, I wondered what were the general opinions of you Jeanneau guys out there who probably have had a lot more experience of challenging conditions than I have. How well did your Jeanneaus cope? My SO 32[1.5m keel] was delivered across the Irish Sea in F8 gale and the skipper said it bounced around a bit but that was his only comment. Would welcome your views. May link with 'choosing a Jeanneau'thread. cheers Ron
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Post by rhb on May 26, 2011 23:09:41 GMT
Recently we took our 42I around Tasmania in Australia. Tasmania is in the roaring forties. The trip included a westbound passage through the Banks and Bass straits. We had some patches of fairly heavy weather, particularly a few patches up the east coast and in the southern ocean in the Southeast. At one point we sailed for a day in 2-3 metre long southwest swells with 1-2 metre easterly seas. I don't think any boat smaller than the QE2 would have offered a pleasant ride in the worst of it but our 42I handled it very well.
There were a few times when the motion was uncomfortable but there was never a time when the motion of the boat was extreme or dangerous. I noticed that I had a much easier time moving around the boat in the worst of the weather than I would have had in our previous boat (a Sydney 38).
I was very pleasantly surprised at how well our new boat performed. I would not characterize the motion as bad, or "bouncing around",at least no more so than any other boat of a similar size in the conditions.
A few weeks prior to the trip we had the boat out in a race in very heavy weather in the southeast of Tasmania. The wind gauge peaked at 47 knots and it was above 30 in the lulls. No problems sailing the boat or handling it. We had a couple of mini-broaches while reaching in the biggest gusts - the boat lost rudder traction for a few seconds but was easily recovered before anything ugly happened. I suspect that every boat in the fleet had at least one of these episodes and some that we saw had much worse. We managed to lead most of the race in front of at least one very quick and well sailed 39 foot racer cruiser until the organizers wisely called the race off.
I don't know about other sizes of Jeanneau, but the 42 handles bad sea conditions quite well in my opinion.
Any concerns that I may have had about design or build quality were laid to rest after this trip - it was a real confidence builder.
Having happily completed the trip around Tasmania I wouldn't be reluctant to take our boat anywhere (at least anywhere I'd be likely to go :-)
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Post by rxc on May 27, 2011 2:16:27 GMT
I crossed the Atlantic from Florida to France in 2008 in my 43DS. We (4 people) left the first week in May, intending to have a quiet, uneventfull passage. Unfortunately, Mother Nature intervened, and we saw five serious gales, with winds up to 59 kts, often sustained above 40 kts for several days. Seas ran 15-20 feet during these events.
The boat handled it all quite well, and we suffered only one significant casualty (steering), likely due to a commissioning issue, not design. The boat was never pooped by any waves, and in fact, we made the entire trip in T-shirts with no need for foulies because of the cockpit enclosure we installed in the Chesapeake. We were briefly knocked down due to the steering casualty, but did not ship any significant amount of water into the cockpit.
The worst part of the trip was difficulty sleeping during the storms, because the boat would come down off of the waves and pound into the sea, making life inside difficult. Sleeping forward was not possible. Sleeping aft was a challenge. One crew member slept on deck. I figured out how to wedge cushions together in the main cabin and slept there.
In terms of special equipment for this, we did not have any storm sails - just standard Jeanneau issued roller furling main and 135 Genoa, and with them furled most of the way we had no problems. Roller furling from the cockpit made sail changes possible that would have otherwise been foolhardy. The shape leaves much to be desired for regular sailing, but in storms, I really don't want to go on deck for any reason. I guess a real storm trisail would be useful in a real hurricane, but that would require someone to set it before conditions get to bad to go topside.
All-in-all, I consider the boat to be quite seaworthy, and am about to leave for 3 months in the UK and Ireland, heading even up into Scotland, land of the "interesting weather". I would sail it back to the US with no hesitation.
Now, our cats, on the other hand, have an entirely different opinion about what makes a boat "seaworthy"...
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Post by rhb on May 27, 2011 5:32:16 GMT
"Now, our cats, on the other hand, have an entirely different opinion about what makes a boat "seaworthy"..." Our cat shares their opinion I suspect...
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Post by MartyB on May 27, 2011 6:23:20 GMT
Dag has not been on open water, but he has found where he likes to sleep at times!
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Post by lateron on May 27, 2011 9:05:59 GMT
Very interesting comments and experiences rhb and rxc and reassuring to hear how your boats handled those conditions. It's the other side of the coin from those views sometimes made in the magazines. I've only been out in 6's and 7s' at the mo in the North Sea and have found that my boat has to be reefed early but then is well balanced and deals with what is there. However you do have to be alert to 'mini broaches ' if you haven't got the balance right. I'm planning to sail further afield which is why I'm interested in people's expeiences of heavy conditions in Jeanneaus. Think I'll leave the cat at home it would probably want to make the entire trip sitting on my wife's lap!! Any more tales of derring do out there?
Regards Ron
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Post by rxc on May 27, 2011 16:30:44 GMT
One last comment. If you are interested in doing some "adventure-type" sailing, like wintering over in Greenland or in the Magellan channel, you would be advised to seek out a different type of boat. One built out of steel or aluminum, with lots of insulation on the hull, and with lots of consideration for the effects of ice on topsides. The conditions in these places is really severe, and you need a whole different set of capabilities that are not built into a "pleasure craft".
If you just want to do the coconut run around the world, any Jeanneau over 40 ft should be safe and relatively comfortable. But if you want to go to high lattitudes, or sail in harm's way around the Horn of Africa, then your choices become more limited.
I really like to avoid heavy weather conditions, and would have succeeded better across the Atlantic if the hired "Captain" that I brought along had not worried so much about cutting into his French vacation time. I came very close to firing him in the Azores, but it would have made the last leg of the trip really difficult. Never again any hired crew or delivery Captains...
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pio
Full Member
Posts: 39
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Post by pio on Jun 1, 2011 19:05:28 GMT
I'm owner of a SO32 from 2004 and I sail on the North Sea and in the English Channel often. I trust that my boat is strong enough to survive Bft 7 ans 8. However the reefing possibilities on a standard SO 32 are limited, so to sail in these winds you need to have a 3rd reef at least and use a strom jib.
My main worry for the SO 32 are steep high waves coming in from the mid. The boat is a bit wide and not so deep. Already in Bft 5 a do not feel happy in that winds having steep waves when the water is not so deep, like near the Dutch Coast. In deep water it's no problem. So I'm planning my sailing trips now more carefully than in the past when I owned a Nantucket Clipper with long keel.
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Post by lateron on Jun 2, 2011 19:17:37 GMT
Hi Pio .thanks for that. I too am aware that the 32 does feel light at times in a brisk wind against tide and choppy sea such as we often get in the North Sea. So far it hasn't troubled me but the motion is quite lively which makes the boat rewarding to sail so long as it is reefed and balanced. I moved up to the 32 last year from a Hunter Ranger 265 and previously a Seamaster 23 and at the risk of upsetting Jeanneauers out there the 32 feels more 'bouncy' than those boats in a good blow, mind you the Seamaster was heavy for its length and obviously nowhere near as fast. I take the point about the 3rd reef and will be looking into that at the end of this season. Anyone else ready to shoot me down? Cheers Ron
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snail
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by snail on Jul 19, 2014 16:01:58 GMT
I'm the owner of a 42i which we sail in the Caribbean. We've found it handles 2+ meter seas and winds into the mid-30s pretty well. We've been able to avoid true gales. We do reef early, usually taking one reef in at about 20 kts and the second reef at about 25. The only caution I'd mention is perhaps with large following seas and very heavy air, when it has on occasion begun to broach when the rudder stalled in a large passing wave. I've since learned to shutdown the autopilot in such situations and to "feather the helm" as the waves pass. Better sailors than I probably know a term for this.
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Post by alenka on Jul 19, 2014 22:13:06 GMT
We've reached that age where if there is a force 5 in the forecast we tend to put the kettle on, start a new book and stay put! However, as with all best laid plans mother nature has her say and when we got caught out in a F7 the beat to wind in our 43 DS was fairly un-dramtic despite a large swell on the beam. The only problem we had was the auto-pilot did not want to play in those conditions.
Trying to sleep however at anchor in that large aft cabin bed with a swell on the beam is a different story! Still wouldn't change it though.
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Post by manaia on Jul 21, 2014 7:12:08 GMT
Reef early is what I have discovered works best, the boat can be balanced to reduce the load on the helm and it stays more upright, there is probably a minor speed penalty, but this is more than made up for by a happier crew !
We do mostly coastal cruising but occasionally find an ocean swell to play with...
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Post by lateron on Jul 21, 2014 8:13:40 GMT
Hi din't realise this post was still alive. Yes I have discovered that the answer is to reef early and blance the boat, sometimes it seems to go even quicker because you are not fighting the helm and heeling too much. Anyway next week hoping to cross the North Sea [ given good weather ] so we shall see . I have had a 3rd reef put in the main but not used it yet. It seems these days I'm always sailing in F5-F&. It's definitely got windier in the last ten years. Regards Ron
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Post by lateron on Jul 21, 2014 8:15:04 GMT
Hi din't realise this post was still alive. Yes I have discovered that the answer is to reef early and balance the boat, sometimes it seems to go even quicker because you are not fighting the helm and heeling too much. Anyway next week hoping to cross the North Sea [ given good weather ] so we shall see . I have had a 3rd reef put in the main but not used it yet. It seems these days I'm always sailing in F5-F7. It's definitely got windier in the last ten years. Regards Ron
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Post by rxc on Jul 21, 2014 13:18:39 GMT
Interesting that this thread has come to life again. Since my last posting on this thread, we went to Scotland twice, once up the Irish Sea and then back around the west coast of Ireland, and the second time up the North Sea, down the Caledonian Canal, and back down the Irish Sea. Both times the boat did very well, with no problems whatsoever. One gale in Scotland, lots of nasty weather in the North Sea, and a trying beat around the SW corner of Ireland. But the boat did quite well and we have the confidence to take her anywhere, now.
I am now back in Florida, USA, after shipping the boat back. I considered sailing back, but I think that the most important issue in a long trans-ocean sail is finding the right people to go. People who can deal with unpleasant weather and get along with one another for 4 weeks confined on a boat. I didn't want to have to put together a crew from friends who I didn't really know could do this, so shipping was the easy way out. There was no question about whether the boat could handle the trip - it was all about finding suitable crew.
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Post by Tafika II on Jul 21, 2014 15:53:37 GMT
Hi rxc! I don't want to change the theme of this thread, but who did you use to ship your boat from Europe to Florida? What was the experience like and, if you don't mind, what was the cost? WE are thinking about shipping from the West Coast of the USA to the Caribbean in OCT 2015. You can email me at tafika@gmail.com also. Thanks!
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Post by electricmonk on Jul 24, 2014 19:34:51 GMT
In 2010 we sailed from Dover to Greece via the Bay of Biscay and into the Med at Gib. Although we left with a 5 day forecast promising F5 from the NE we had F10 -11 from the NE. We spent 3 days and nights sailing a broad reach with a reefed down main and postage stamp jib. At times the GPS SOG was reading 12.5 knots, very exhilarating, the autohelm did a fantastic job and even though some of the waves were in excess of 15mtrs (some of the crew reckoned 20) we never felt that the boat was unstable. The reason for this we decided was that we did take care to balance the rig, i.e. sail the boat, all crew were clipped on all the time on deck, and the washboard was always in but no water entered the cockpit. After one fairly rough night I did find some squid on the anchor locker next morning. In my humble opinion the SO43 is a very seaworthy boat I would be happy to sail it anywhere.
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