All boats are not created equally when it comes to “heaving to“. On your boat, what’s your procedure for” heaving to”? What’s your boat? How well does it work?
Heave to
- Thread starter Quoddy
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My shoal draft '86 Hunter 285 heaves-to fairly well. A lot depends on genoa size. I have and use furling 120 and 150 genoas. If I want or need to heave-to, I first have to roll up the genoa so that it is something less than a 100 per cent of the foretriangle. Heading the boat onto a close reach, I simply tack leaving the working leeward headsail sheet in place and backing the headsail. Once I come about with backed headsail, it is a simple matter to play with the mainsail until it is in a somewhat neutral position with a slight luff. At that point, I turn the wheel/rudder to balance the headsail and the boat will slowly forereach. I sometimes do this while solo sailing and I want to "stop" for lunch. Works pretty well. I come out of the "hove-to" position by releasing the windward headsail sheet letting the genoa come over and off I go.
Verboten doesn't heave to very well, but she does better with the blade than the genoa. She'l sall all over the lake with the genoa backwinded. With the blade she'll turn up into the wind and tack on you if you're not paying attention. Disadvantages of a fin keel I suppose.
Our little boat heaves-to (is that a word?) quite nicely under genoa or standard jib.(we have a fractional rig) Having a shortish keel, I imagine we drift considerably, but the boat stays calm and stable, even in a brisk blow.
Bonus heave-to tip: always heave to on starboard tack, so you can yell "starboard" at any encroaching sailboat.
Bonus heave-to tip: always heave to on starboard tack, so you can yell "starboard" at any encroaching sailboat.
My '89 H23 with a stock 110 jib does very well. Beating close to wind, I just come about, leaving the jib alone, let the main sheet out, and tie the tiller to leeward side. She can stay like that all day regardless of any changes in wind speed or direction. To resume sailing, I just let the jib come around to leeward where it belongs, trim the main and off you go. My favorite "move" when I need to break for whatever.
Most boars don't heave to well with jibs much beyond a 110. I agree with Warren, reef the jib if you have a big one. It'll make a huge difference. Why? Cuz you're trying to balance the boat.
We have a fairly tall rig with standard main on Starbright and, as is typical with Hunter, a small fractional 100% jib. We follow the standard procedure, as outlined by others, with good success, turning the wheel to weather for balance. In 15-20k winds, we have also had good success easing the main further and bringing a reef in while hove to. I am not sure why this works. We have the deep, wide fin keel witha small bulb. Perhaps there is enough windage on our 340 topsides to partially balance the small jib. In any event, we can luff the main not quite fully and manage to put the reef in without having to turn in to the wind and have the main flogging all over.
jib size
My Catalina 36 heaves to fairly well with the 90% jib I fly. One issue: It does tend to creep forward more than I would like. I always figured if I had a larger jib, it wouldn't do this since the backwinded jib would tend more to blow the boat backwards. From what Stu writes above, maybe I'm wrong?
I don't have any occasion to heave to. There are many boats (power and sail) that spend summer days drifting down river. I just lower sail and drift with the rest of them.
If you have several hard to handle sails and you are only stopping for a short time, than heave to becomes relevant. I used to practice it when I owned a schooner, especially on a first date (Ops ran out of wind, now what do we do?}
If you have several hard to handle sails and you are only stopping for a short time, than heave to becomes relevant. I used to practice it when I owned a schooner, especially on a first date (Ops ran out of wind, now what do we do?}
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