A ship like the MIR is underway in all weathers and during all times of
the year. She is built for this and normally does not suffer any harm
from this. Nevertheless bad weather always puts a test on the
seamanship that is carried out on board and this is especially so on
sailing ships. The best way to deal with dangerous situations is not to
get into dangerous situations at all. For this it is necessary to
reduce sail area in good time before the trouble starts and eventually
to take away the sails at all. That takes a close observation of the
weather situation and planning a passage accordingly. Unfortunately
this is not always possible as due to schedules not any storm can be
avoided.
THE
SQUALL
Most dangerous for any ship under sails are squalls. This is especially
so on tall ships where in contrast to a yacht one cannot easily take
the sails away if one sees bad weather coming. Here many hands must
work together and eventually a part of the crew first needs to be woken
up to help take away the sails.
As a rule a ship always sails with all sails that can be set in the
prevailing wind. If then the wind gains force unexpectedly with or
without a change of direction – a squall – the ship
gets
laid over seriously. Alone this can lead to problems and injuries, e.g.
with crew members who were below decks and tumbled and fell against
something, or in kubricks or cabins where suddenly things fly around.
Especially dangerous it becomes for those on deck who now try to take
away the sails. On the lee side there is serious danger of falling over
board.
Heavy gusts out of the blue sky can even capsize a ship, especially if
they are connected with wind shifts. Whereas a ship in squalls coming
from the same direction as the wind was coming before can usually
compensate the increasing heel by luffing up, the situation is much
more serious in squalls from other directions. It happens that the ship
does not react to the wheel any more and runs completely out of course.
Taking away the sails then not only gets difficult but eventually even
impossible. If one is lucky the sails tear away. If not, it can be
necessary to cut away the sheets.
To avoid such situations it is good seamanship to prepare the ship in
good time before the squall hits. The watch officer must be able to
anticipate the signs of an oncoming squall. At the first sign that a squall might be on the
way (what can
be a strange looking cloud, an unusual colour of the sky, ripples on
the water in a distance, a significant radar echo, a steep rise or fall
of the barometer, something starting to clatter high up in the rigging
or even a feeling that all your hairs are rising up on your spine and
“something is in the air”) it is necessary
to take away all upper sails. If it gets obvious
that this is not enough, also the lower sails and finally all sails get
clewed up. For a square rigger especially a squall hitting from dead
ahead is problematic. If the square sails come aback it is impossible
to clew them up. The watch officer must in any case try to avoid this
to happen and must order the helmsman in time to bear off and to take
the wind parallel to the yards.
ACTIONS
TO TAKE WHEN AWAITING BAD WEATHER
While yachts stay in port in winds of more than 6 Bft, for tall ships
the fun only starts then. The ship achieves good speed and in most
cases still all sails can remain set. 7-8 Bft is also not worrying
much. You take away some sails and the ship starts rolling, but
that’s it. From 9 Bft on things get serious. The ship
prepares
for bad weather:
- It is checked that all lines of
the running rigging are belayed
safely. Their bights must hang free from the deck so that they do not
catch any water coming on deck, do not block any scuppers and do not
hang over board. Lines that are in readiness for manoeuvres must lie
clear so that they can run out easily.
- All sails not set must be stowed
storm-proof (harbour stow). That
means they get packed very tightly to reduce the windage and get
secured by additional gaskets. This is especially important for the
yard arm ends.
- On deck safety lines get rigged.
Only those working there are
allowed to stay on the deck. Anybody else who has no imminent job to do
there must remain below deck. Those who need to be on deck wear their
safety harnesses and secure the lanyard to the safety lines or other
fixed points.
- All openings in the deck get
closed. That includes all hatches and
bulkheads and all ventilation flaps. The portholes get controlled and
eventually secured with the blinds. All sea cocks get closed.
- The crew receives order to make
their cabins storm-proof, that means to lash and secure all things that
might work loose.
Which sails are now still set depends on the planned strategy to
weather off the storm. If it is getting really bad and the storm raises
to 12 Bft or more there are 4 main tactics that have proven to make
sense over the centuries:
- beat against the wind
close-hauled under minimum sail
- run before the wind under bare
poles
- heave-to
- lie before a floating anchor
Which of those tactics are chosen
depends on the force of the storm, the sea area, the experience of the
crew, etc.
As a rule it is always tried to sail against the wind as long as
possible, eventually with help of the ship’s engine. For this
one
would set fore stay sail, fore lower topsail, main lower topsail and
mizzen sail. Is that not possible and given there is enough sea room
available one would try to run before the wind. In any case one would
try to avoid taking the seas from the side
this
page was updated 10/07