why wasn't my heave-to working

[newsailor72]

went out last night, wind was about 8, 10 knots(guessing.) At one point, I tried to practice heave-to. I was on a close hauled, port tack, so I tacked and kept the jib back-winged. the boat slowed down but never came to a complete stop and it wanted to take off again shortly after. when i pushed the tiller to leeward like I was supposed in a heave-to, the boat heads up swiftly as if the jib had no counter force at all.

what was I doing wrong? my jib is fairly small, should I have ease the main sheet, it was very close to centerline(I was on a close hauled.) Attached pic shows the setup after the tack.

In a previous outing, my heave-to worked nicely, it was less wind though.

 

[onecoolair]

went out last night, wind was about 8, 10 knots(guessing.) At one point, I tried to practice heave-to. I was on a close hauled, port tack, so I tacked and kept the jib back-winged. the boat slowed down but never came to a complete stop and it wanted to take off again shortly after. when i pushed the tiller to leeward like I was supposed in a heave-to, the boat heads up swiftly as if the jib had no counter force at all.

what was I doing wrong? my jib is fairly small, should I have ease the main sheet, it was very close to centerline(I was on a close hauled.) Attached pic shows the setup after the tack.

In a previous outing, my heave-to worked nicely, it was less wind though.

Put your center board down!

 

[tommays]

In my experience unless you were going with what worked with a Mac 22 it is going to take some experimentation

For example my J24 does it well under mainsail only with the tiller tied off to port of starboard depending on the tack you need to do it on

The boat kind of goes into "irons" and stays about as still as a J24 is going to

 

[justsomeguy]

Let the mainsheet out all the way.

And it still won't come to a complete stop.

 

[RichH]

........, I should have eased the main sheet ......

Adjust the main sheet (and tiller) until your boat very slowly drifts 'straight' downwind ..... the boat should not 'forereach' nor go astern from the drift path with the boat 'cocked' to the wind at an angle.
For heaving-to, every boat is different and the amount of wind will be different ... requiring your adjustment of how much mainsheet you let out and the amount of helm required. ;-)

 

[Ray Bowles]

I think your tiller should go the other way. Back the headsail, ease the main sail and lash the tiller to leeward. Adjust as necessary.
There is the possibility I am wrong on the tiller but that is how I do my SJ 23 as told in "The Handbook of Sailing".
Ray

 

[newsailor72]

Put your center board down!

my swing keel (600 lb) was already all the way down.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Tiller DOWN, not up towards the jib, make sure you are going closehauled, NOT closereaching, you need the jib all the way in. Play the mainsheet and the tiller before you yank the tiller down. Let the mainsheet out some more, traveler down if you have one.

Keep practicing, good thing to do, as U know.

 

[alexco38]

I dont understand the difficulties.

Just sail close haul as high as possible.
Tack without release the jib.
you are heave to now. Keep the rudder.
Now trim to make as little movement as possible.

 

[sinnettc]

I often have the same issues with my Capri 22. It really doesn't like to heave to.

One thing that helps is to head up into the wind enough to come almost to a complete stop before coming through the wind and backing the jib. If I've got any way on to start with it just won't stop. Even then I have to keep a hand on the tiller.