Scudding

Running fast downwind to survive the ultimate storm
It was the French cruising sailor Bernard Moitessier who drew attention to the technique of high-speed scudding in a sailboat as a way of surviving “the ultimate storm.” Moitessier used the technique to save his boat Joshua in the southern Pacific Ocean, but he credits the idea to Vito Dumas, who sailed around the world in the Roaring Forties during World War II in his boat Lehg II.Dumas found that his boat would get out of control in the troughs of really big, long, fast-moving seas when she was blanketed from the wind. She needed to be moving faster to carry her way and retain maneuverability.But let’s backtrack for a moment. The buildup to the ultimate storm produces short, steep seas in which Dumas, Moitessier, and such renowned scientific experts as C. A. Marchaj believe it’s best to stream a drogue that will hold the stern up when the boat is on a breaking crest and the rudder is inefficient. In that sea state, the plunging breakers are close together and it’s almost impossible for a small slow boat to avoid every one rolling up astern. But the breaking crests are not yet fully developed, and the occasional one that boards will not greatly harm a well-found boat with a watertight cockpit and lockers and a sturdy bridge deck. The drogue slows the boat down and prevents her from surfing off out of control, broaching, and capsizing.After a few hours of storm-force winds, however, the seas get bigger. The breakers plunging down their faces become more fearsome. A sailboat pooped by one of these monsters would likely suffer damage. Fortunately, at the same time, the seas lengthen and grow farther apart.So now it’s time to start scudding, or moving faster downwind with greater maneuverability, and therefore with a greatly increased chance of avoiding the worst of the more widely spaced monsters rolling up from astern—or at least that’s what Moitessier believed.First, get rid of the drogues. Moitessier simply cut his free; there was no way for him to retrieve them, which would be the case in most boats under those conditions. He had found that Joshua was being held fast while massive breakers boarded her aft and rampaged over the decks; however, as soon as he cut the drogues away, she was free to flee downwind under bare poles.He would keep her running dead downwind until a steep sea reared up close astern. Just before it struck, he would turn Joshua 15 to 20 degrees to one side and try to maintain that course while the sea broke under her and passed by.If the helm pulled when the wave was underneath, Moitessier released the tiller completely for a few seconds to give her her head. It was important, he said, not to fight the sea at this critical period. Then, when the sea had passed ahead, he would put the helm up again to bring her back on course, dead downwind.Moitessier confirmed Dumas’s theory that taking the seas at an angle like this prevented Joshua from getting out of control by surfing too fast and plowing into the sea ahead. The oncoming sea also heeled her to leeward substantially, so that if she did dig deep into the back of a sea, her rounded bow tended to scoop her out.An active storm-fighting technique like this demands constant attention to the helm, of course, and only works properly with a fresh, attentive crew. Exhausted, shorthanded crews must use passive techniques, such as heaving to or running off, and leave the boat to fend for herself as best she can.See also Heaving To; Heavy Weather; Lying Ahull; Pitchpoling; Pooping Seas; Running Off; Towing Drogues.