Written by Irina Gracheva – Ullman Sails sponsored sailor

My name is Irina Gracheva, I am from Russia and two years ago I started my ocean solo racing career in France. I bought a Mini 6.5 and dived deep into the world of spectacular, but extremely hard physical and mental, competitions. My target was to sail the Mini Transat race – a solo race that crosses the Atlantic ocean.

During my preparation for the Mini Transat, I have been racing and qualifying for more than 6,000 miles sailing solo on my Mini, going from gaining experience to increasing risk. Sailing long offshore races I faced really hard weather conditions alone in the ocean. I spend a lot of time learning my boat and sails’ settings, always trying to find a good balance between performance and safety.

The Mini is designed specifically for the Mini Transat race – to cross the Atlantic with the trade winds. The boat is small, but very powerful: it has a long rotating bowsprit; square top mainsail and carries huge spinnakers in comparison to its hull length. It was not difficult to find the right balance and settings going upwind, but sailing downwind for many days, facing squalls, wind shifts and waves affected my small boat greatly! Small ocean solo sailing boats that have large sailing areas require increased attention to balance, autopilot settings, and dealing with strong winds.

The challenges of sailing downwind

The most exciting and interesting questions for me are: What are my limits for the size of my spinnaker? What will I do to drop or change it safely if I have already passed the limitation border, already have too much wind, or if I am in an emergency position for any reason?

My last solo race (“Mini en May” in France) I had to drop my beautiful Ullman Sails spinnakers twice in very tough conditions. In the first instance, I was sailing downwind with my largest spinnaker (82 square meters) and full mainsail. The wind was slowly picking up from 14 to 20 knots, and for my boat this was on the edge, however, there were just a few miles to go to the finish line, and I decided to keep the sails up.

Сlose to the finish squall clouds brought gusts and one of them proved dangerous for me. I saw the squall approaching, the wind was coming very fast, and I didn’t have enough time to get the spinnaker down safely. I met the squall under the spinnaker, tried to bear away and just keep the course, but I was thrown into a broach. The squall continued and I needed to drop the huge spinnaker in broach, but I was afraid for the mast and the sail itself. I chose to trim the sheet even more and then release the halyard totally so that the spinnaker would lie flagging on the water.

How I lost position in the race

This time this technique worked, but it wasn’t possible to trim the sheet – the winch was already in the water, the boat was healing hard, and each turn on the winch added a load to the mast and bowsprit. Eventually, I collected the whole spinnaker inside of the boat, but I must say – it was not easy. As soon as my boat was stabilized, my medium spinnaker went up, but I had already lost out to a few competitors, who were sailing close to me in a tight group.

When downwind sailing goes wrong

Later on, I wasn’t so lucky. I totally lost one of my spinnakers during the second leg of same race. This time, after rounding a mark, I hoisted my new medium spinnaker from Ullman Sails, while having one reef on the mainsail in 15-20 knots of wind. I surfed from wave to wave with the pleasure of watching the sails of my competitors move further and further back.

But then suddenly 20 knots became 27. It was becoming difficult to restrain the boat from a broach, and any step I took in the cockpit or leaving the helm could end in disaster. I expected the wind to drop but, as darkness fell the wind intensified to 30 knots. The boat broached, and I wanted to repeat my technique of dropping the spinnaker by fully releasing the halyard. But the wind was much stronger compared to the first time.

How I saved my boat

I started the procedure, and everything went well until the bowsprit gave way and the spinnaker went under the boat, caught on the keel and became firmly entangled on the rudders. But it was necessary to save the boat and I needed to drop my jib and reef my mainsail more before I could think about my torn spinnaker. My spinnaker become a huge floating anchor, and to get rid of it, I had to throw away the halyard and tack line, unhook the sheet and cut the sail with a knife.

A solo sailing lesson learnt

In general, the chosen way to bring a spinnaker down depends on:
• race strategy and tactic
• expected subsequent manoeuvres (including positions of other competitors)
• weather conditions
• boat, rig, sails design (symmetric/asymmetric, long or short bowsprit or spinnaker pole)
• if there is an opportunity to use the hatch on the foredeck, using the “sock”, furler or other spinnaker drop pre-made equipment
• amount of crew members, knowledge and capabilities helps you to save your sail.

Of course, the best way to race solo, fast and safely, is to know the limits and reduce sails just a bit earlier before it’s too late. But in strong winds, the small boat requires you to helm manually and stay windward to avoid broaching. Any movements from the skipper in the wrong moment may cause problems. Sometimes the wind increases too fast and, being stuck at the tiller, you must wait for a short break of wind, or perform an emergency spinnaker drop and deal with all the associated risks.

Unfortunately, this time I saw my pretty new Ullman spinnaker being ripped apart in the water – it was a very sad sight. But also a good learning lesson which will hopefully help me later to deal with thunder clouds on the way to the Caribbean.