Erik and Evi Menzel Ivey wrote:
Great information, not just regarding junk rigs. Singlehanding in those conditions and encountering the series of difficulties is very hard. Any thoughts on why the foresail was doused first. It seems like keeping the driving force forward by keeping the foresaw pulling and dousing the main intuitively makes more sense. But maybe it depends on the boat.
Erik
Annie Hill could say more about this but I remember her writing that the Benford dory did not like running just under the foresail, perhaps because it is light displacement and the foresail would push the bow down, causing weather helm.
Badger was sailed downwind under main, with the foresail sheeted in flat, sometimes reefed, unless conditions were moderate enough to run wing and wing. Thus
Easy Go was running downwind under bare poles but with the main bundle squared out for some drive when the sail bundle gybed accidentally, causing the fan up to occur. This alone may not have been enough to make Bob abandon ship, It had more to do with his severe exhaustion after days of very heavy weather, in the face of what was rapidly turning into a survival storm.