There's an excellent article in the December issue of Cruising World by Beth Leonard on the use of forereaching and heaving to as storm tactics. She describes forereaching as making very slow progress to windward at one or two knots under reefed main alone with the helm locked at a point where the boat heads up into the wind and then falls off and starts to sail until the weather helm takes over again bringing the bow back into the wind. Heaving to she describes as balancing a backed jib or staysail with a reefed main and a balancing amount of helm to keep the boat about 45 degrees plus or minus off the wind and drifting downwind at one or two knots. Importantly she says you can tell you are really hove to when there's a "slick" to windward of your boat which calms the seas somewhat before they reach your boat. She also says that while full keel and modified full keel boats heave to pretty well, fin keel boats with skeg hung (or balanced I presume) rudders continue to make headway (thus eliminating the slick) and are thus technically not hove to. I've messed around with heaving to on my boat and know how to do it, but have never used it as a heavy weather tactic. If the weather turns really nasty, we usually head for protection. Also sailing in our protected waters means there's generally a lee shore somewhere nearby which would make heaving to a bad idea. I've also never deliberately forereached, but think the idea is pretty good and plan to give it a try the next time I'm out in some big winds. What has been your experience with these techniques? Can the fin keel boats with separated rudders that most of us sail heave to? Have you used either of these techniques as heavy weather tactics? How well did they work? Gary Wyngarden S/V Wanderlust h37.5
