High Wind Sailing Archives

Tag Archive for: High Wind Sailing

The Chicken Gybe (Jibe)

November 18, 2022/by Grant Headifen

Sometimes in sailing it’s smart to stay safe and not take the dare. The safe maneuver is called the chicken gybe (jibe).

Sea Monster Story: Katabatic Winds

September 26, 2022/by Grant Headifen

Well actually not so terrifying and not REALLY a sea monster BUT … We spent about 20 minutes starring at the effect of katabatic winds blasting down the valleys and exploding into the water.

How to back your sailboat into a slip with a high cross wind against the direction of propwalk. If you like this post please like us on facebook over there ——-> Watch this animation. It deals with an extremely high wind situation. The trouble is that you are wanting to turn the boat against propwalk […]

Sailing in High Winds

April 18, 2014/by Grant Headifen

You’ve got to understand balancing the forces and what are the effects of each available sail control when sailing in high winds.

How to Handle Wind Gusts and Rounding Up

February 17, 2014/by Grant Headifen

Rounding up is so – so – so dangerous. Last weekend we were out sailing and a speed boat came ripping by at about 20 knots to the windward of us and only about 60 ft away. Yes they are stupid – yes they should know better and yes they should be shot – but […]

Handling a wind gust in a dinghy

September 5, 2012/by Grant Headifen

Below, we have included a brand new animation that will help you better understand how exactly to handle a wind gust when you are sailing a dinghy. This specific animation, along with many more, will be going into our new Dinghy Sailing iBook “Your First Weekend in Dinghy Sailing.” The iBook will be available for […]

When to reef a sailboat

December 7, 2011/by Grant Headifen

While all sailboat designs are different and will sail optimally at different heel angles and reef points, there are a few generalities that we’ll cover in this sailing blog. General reefing point number 1 through infinity: Don’t scare the beegeebees out of those on board by heeling the boat over too much. While you may […]

Learning to sail in gusty conditions

March 10, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Yesterday I was out teaching on our new Beneteau 373. The conditions were extremely gusty. Lake Travis in Austin Texas is a great lake for sailing all year round and in the summer the water is so incredibly warm that you can swim while anchored in a cove still at 2am. There are lots of […]

High winds

December 1, 2008/by Grant Headifen

Yesterday we went out in our Beneteau 373. And the winds were really cranking to 25 knots but very gusty as is typical with Lake Travis. The winds channel off the tops of hills and down through the valleys leading into the lake and they create gust after gust. When we went to come back […]