heaving to

[tigereye37]

Ok, two questions about heaving to:

1. I have an oday 25 that i typical sail with a working jib and main. When heaving to, do you just luff the main if its only for a short time?

2. The boat i learned on was equipped with wheel steering and my boat has a tiller. Do i position the rudder to counteract the force on the back-winded jib? Example: wind soming from port. Angle the tiller to starboard?

Thanks

 

[bffatcat]

The common method is to go about but keep the jib tied off once it backwinds you have to tie the tiller off to lee andadjust the main to get a balance. some boats just wont heave too they just keep fidgeting around. Things usually work out better with a long keel boat You have to do some trial and error to find out what works best for your boat

 

[Stu Jackson]

When you heave to you have to back the jib and then "balance" the main based on wind strength, sometimes the main needs to be in further than other times. The main shouldn't be luffing too much.

You should also do it from closehauled, not from a reach, 'cuz the jib needs to be inboard.

If you think about what you learned with the wheel, just think of the position of the rudder, then move the tiller accordingly. (Answer: the tiller is "down.")

You should have little trouble doing it, since you are using the working jib, usually about a 110. Many folks have trouble heaving to with big genoas. Good luck, keep practicing, it's usually never the same twice.

If the wind is no too high, you can "exit" the heave to by simply jibing out of it. It avoids having to release the jib sheet. Give it a try.

 

[Dan Hill]

Our old Mac/Venture 22 would heave to easily without much dancing around, probably due to the large head sail. Now the H240 loves to dance and takes some adjusting to calm her down, she just wants to keep sailing.

 

[All U Get]

I do it the easy way, I ask my wife to take the helm.
All U Get

 

[Ray Bowles]

Tiger, Everybody has said the same thing. So some more of the same. I sail a San Juan 23 which is very simular to your boat. Say I'm sailing close hauled on a starboard tack and come about to a port tack without letting the jib sheet loose. This backwinds the jib against the mast. Then I pull the tiller to me (downwind) about 1/2 the way from straight ahead and lock it. This tries to turn the bow to starboard (downwind). The wind hitting the backed jib and the main try to turn the bow to port (upwind). The rudder tries to go to starboard, the wind pushes to port etc.
You get the idea. You might have to let the mainsail out a little or re-adjust the rudder until the boat settles into a slightly bow up to port drift. The boat will drift downwind in this position but at a rate of about 1 knot an hour, there abouts.
Everybody and every boat are slightly different so just play with it.
I have what I call a toolbar that crosses my conpanionway where the slider rests when fully forward. On it I have mounted 8 cam cleats or v-cleats. Among the lines led there is my topping lift. To raise my boom all I have to do is pull the line and up it goes. I have found that if I raise my boom about 1 foot when in the "heave-to" position the boat just sits there so nicely without any sail flopping. I can drop the jib or go forward to work on the front half of the boat without any drama in winds up to 20mph. With the jib down the boat just does slow lazy turns. It's a wonderful device.
San Juan sold a simular item on new boats and I just copied it, improved it and I can easily run everything by standing in front of the tiller.
Wow, I've talked too much. Good luck,
Ray

 

[Stu Jackson]

Ray's description is very good. I'd modify it just a tad: put the tiller all the way to leeward and lock it there, then, use the mainsheet to balance the boat.

 

[page.crow]

My Prindle 18 cat will heave-to sweet. We parked the boat when others were flipping over and went swimming off the hulls.