Heavy weather sailing
- Thread starter Lfarquhar
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,092
Great question. It depends on how well you can trim the sails to get her to hove-to. Can you stall the forward motion so she slides sideways, leaving a slick to windward? Many boats are a bit of a pickle to get them to stall and not fore-reach out of the slick.
I read a technique that can help a boat to stall and slide sideways if it is fore-reaching. You can set a drag on the bow to windward and let it help to keep the bow from falling off. The writer mentioned the use of a galerider drogue. The same writer stated that if the boat will not hove-to safely, you are better off employing a Jordan Series Drogue.
I read a technique that can help a boat to stall and slide sideways if it is fore-reaching. You can set a drag on the bow to windward and let it help to keep the bow from falling off. The writer mentioned the use of a galerider drogue. The same writer stated that if the boat will not hove-to safely, you are better off employing a Jordan Series Drogue.
Simply put: go try it out in progressively windier conditions; i.e., practice, practice, practice. That's what I did when i got my boat 25 years ago. Most of us also learned that huge jibs don't do hove to very well, whereas 110 working jib size is just fine. If you have a big genoa, reef it or else your bow will blow down.
John's advice is helpful but most likely presents techniques required well beyond both your stated conditions or even your question.
John's advice is helpful but most likely presents techniques required well beyond both your stated conditions or even your question.
Your underbody is very similar to my ‘99 Bavaria 38E, but mine with a six-ft draft. So, I expect similar dynamics w.r.t. heaving-to. Basically, my boat does not heave-to very well at all. Tends to “pivot” against the narrow keel. A wider keel as in the older Cal yachts works much better.
Also, having sailed along the central west FL coast for 11 years, I’d rather skedaddle to safe harbor than heave-to out in the eastern Gulf in Force 7, most likely from the northwest, in your (our) type of yacht.
It’s like being on a washboard out there!
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Another consideration is the 373 is a light displacement boat with high freeboard with topsides that exhibit a higher amount of wind & wave exposed surface areas. As @jssailem & @Stu Jackson advised, it would be advisable to setup a drogue and practice to determine how well you & the boat would perform in force 6-7 conditions. Personally, I don’t think it would be a pleasant experience. I have a drogue; pm me if interested.
Experimentation with my Bavaria in light conditions (mostly regarding headsail size and trim) has proven that I cannot leave the boat unattended for long before it falls off and puts stern to the “seas.” One whole point of heaving-to is to rest, even sleep, while the boat minds itself. To take a break from working the boat, to go below to cook or tend to other chores as needed. It’s less about “storm tactics.” But you need a lot of sea room to leeward as the yacht will make leeway. Could travel many miles during a blow. If you must fiddle with the boat’s trim constantly, heaving-to might not be a good strategy.
Older literature of “circumnavigators” comments on a yacht’s tendency to “sail out of its slick.” The slick that it creates as it slides down the face of a wave while hove-to. That slick mitigates the force of the on-coming wave to overcome or to pound/slap the boat. The trim has to be adjusted so the boat sails (fore-reaches) at about the same speed as it slides down the waves. For this to work it seems to me that you’d have start with a yacht that can stably heave-to in the first place. Evidently, this is a challenge for even the experienced.
Older literature of “circumnavigators” comments on a yacht’s tendency to “sail out of its slick.” The slick that it creates as it slides down the face of a wave while hove-to. That slick mitigates the force of the on-coming wave to overcome or to pound/slap the boat. The trim has to be adjusted so the boat sails (fore-reaches) at about the same speed as it slides down the waves. For this to work it seems to me that you’d have start with a yacht that can stably heave-to in the first place. Evidently, this is a challenge for even the experienced.
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,092
It is a challenge. Even more so if you have a fin-keeled boat. The long and 3/4 keel boats are better at setting the hove-to condition and maintaining it.
Add a fractional rig and planning hull design to the mix, plus novice experience (who jumps on their boat and announces to the crew, "Let's go out and spend the day practicing hove-to sailing") with such a balancing trim setup; all combine to challenge the owner/helmsman. Traditionally, the helm is locked over to the windward to make the boat sail independently. That is just the boat.
Knowing when to use the technique and how to maintain the condition when waves are coming at the boat (sometimes from different directions) is a skill only developed by experiencing the conditions—a good reason to get out and sail often.
As I understand it, the process is that the slick disturbs the waveform. The wave tends to break in the slick, not on top of the boat. You want your boat to slide in the slick and not fore-reach out of it
Add a fractional rig and planning hull design to the mix, plus novice experience (who jumps on their boat and announces to the crew, "Let's go out and spend the day practicing hove-to sailing") with such a balancing trim setup; all combine to challenge the owner/helmsman. Traditionally, the helm is locked over to the windward to make the boat sail independently. That is just the boat.
Knowing when to use the technique and how to maintain the condition when waves are coming at the boat (sometimes from different directions) is a skill only developed by experiencing the conditions—a good reason to get out and sail often.
As I understand it, the process is that the slick disturbs the waveform. The wave tends to break in the slick, not on top of the boat. You want your boat to slide in the slick and not fore-reach out of it
Thank you for all the input. I figured it would not be pleasant experience and something I should work up to in moderate conditions.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,092
Definitely you should practice trimming your boat and sails to Hove-To.
The rationale for its use is that it is a pleasant rest period from the uncomfortable nature of troubled seas.
Next time you get 15knots of wind blowing and 2-3ft choppy seas, spend 30 minutes of your outing trimming your boat into a
Hove-To condition. Trim the sails till you can maintain the Hove-To.
The rationale for its use is that it is a pleasant rest period from the uncomfortable nature of troubled seas.
Next time you get 15knots of wind blowing and 2-3ft choppy seas, spend 30 minutes of your outing trimming your boat into a
Hove-To condition. Trim the sails till you can maintain the Hove-To.
Great advice.
As I tell my wife all of the time, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”... of course I am going sailing today (usually as she is watching a less than perfect weather forecast on the news).
In other words, get out there and sail in all kinds of weather.
Greg
I have been practicing heaving to on my Beneteau 311 on and off over the last few years. In higher winds the sails have to be reefed down, but up to 20 kn full sails are OK for heaving to, but if you have a reef in that is fine. I have a 116% jib (standard max size on this boat), and the main and jib are about the same area. In moderate winds, try tacking from close hauled (or nearly so) onto the other tack and leave the jib sheet alone. Let the main fall off to leeward and see how it goes. As the boat slows turn the wheel to windward (or tiller to leeward) and find out how the boat settles. You should be pointed somewhat above a reach and drifting nearly sideways. If the boat falls off to leeward too much tighten the mainsheet a little or roll up some jib. Above 20 or 25 kn you may do better with just the main, possibly reefed. The boat may be forereaching a little, which usually is fine, but the GPS will probably show drift mostly sideways at maybe a knot.
Heaving to is not just a storm tactic. If you are alone or shorthanded, heaving to is great for tending to something down below, like making a sandwich or a meal, changing clothes, or digging something out of storage. A couple months ago I was out on Lake Erie waiting for the Aurora Borealis to show itself, and I decided to heave to rather than endlessly heading back and forth in the dark while waiting, and to observe the Aurora when it arrived.
To resume sailing, just release the windward sheet, sheet in the sails, and resume sailing. If you want to resume sailing on the original course before heaving to, you can also just bear off without releasing the jib sheet, and circle the long way around with a gybe, and head off on the original tack (but probably not in a big wind).
Every boat is different, and modern boats with smaller keels and light, shallow bows are trickier to heave to, but they mostly will.
Heaving to is not just a storm tactic. If you are alone or shorthanded, heaving to is great for tending to something down below, like making a sandwich or a meal, changing clothes, or digging something out of storage. A couple months ago I was out on Lake Erie waiting for the Aurora Borealis to show itself, and I decided to heave to rather than endlessly heading back and forth in the dark while waiting, and to observe the Aurora when it arrived.
To resume sailing, just release the windward sheet, sheet in the sails, and resume sailing. If you want to resume sailing on the original course before heaving to, you can also just bear off without releasing the jib sheet, and circle the long way around with a gybe, and head off on the original tack (but probably not in a big wind).
Every boat is different, and modern boats with smaller keels and light, shallow bows are trickier to heave to, but they mostly will.