West Coast US Experience with No Storm Sails

[ledouxjj]

Since November 2006 I have owned a 2002 SO43DS which I purchased in San Diego and planned to move her to Vancouver, Washington running up the West Coast of the US. My wife and I did it shorthanded, i.e. just the two of us with little problem. However during one stretch we could sure have used a set of storm sails.

In the 200 mile stretch from Bodega Bay to Eureka, CA while rounding Point Arena and Cape Mendecino we had the displeasure of encountering 2 gales and one strong gale. Because the entire West coast is an up-hill climb and our previous 600 miles had indicated we could motor sail and cover the area in about 30 hours we hadn't expected this 200 miles to take 54. The strong gail was blowing 40 gusting to 40 for six hours.

Needless to say we could have used a set of storm sails. I had a fear of damaging the genoa and main that come standard on the 43DS so we furled them all the way in and proceeded under motor only.

Dies anyong know or have an Idea on how to afix a storm sail to the mast without damaging the in-mast furling system? Any Ideas or suggestions would be most appreciated.

JJL

[Tim]

That must have been awful without any cloth up. I've never used storm sails on boats with in mast furling but I imagine you could lash the luff of a trysail around the mast itself in the same way you can put a storm jib around a furled genoa.