You don’t have to go back too many years before 8 knots was the maximum many boats would be likely to see.’ ‘These days double digits downwind are not uncommon and even high teens are fairly regularly seen. ‘If you take a fairly modern boat, they all tend to be easier to sail downwind in big waves for a couple of reasons, but one of the key reasons is that they are able to achieve higher sustained speeds downwind,’ says Neil Mackley of North Sails. Usually in these sort of extreme conditions, slower tends to feel safer but it is something we should all be trying to do in a following sea, to reduce the chance of broaching or being rolled. Typically it feels counterintuitive when sailing in big waves to want to speed up. The ‘speed is your friend’ attitude can be difficult to get your head around. So although size is key, when sailing with waves, speed is very much your friend, too, as the energy transfer will be reduced when you are travelling at pace.’ ‘It’s really all about the wave energy transfer and the object that the energy is being transferred through, in this case, the boat. ‘To take that to an extreme, if you think about an oil tanker in the middle of an ocean, a wave that would barely wet the deck for her would be something big enough to roll a cruising yacht. ‘Fairly obviously, the bigger the boat you sail the less of a problem waves generally are,’ say Merfyn Owen of Owen Clark Yacht Design, himself a double Cape Horner and former BT Global Challenge skipper with over 250,000 miles under his belt. Understanding how to set up your boat for sailing in waves, to take advantage of them or ameliorate their worst traits is a skill that it is well worth understanding and practising in order to make your sailing more enjoyable, and to give you the confidence to sail in a wider range of conditions. However, it can also mean a thrilling surfing ride to your destination. Sailing in waves can make for a jarring, juddering experience and long, uncomfortable passages and at worst, a dangerous, boat-rolling hazard.
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