Heaving To (How does it work ?)

[Jon magowan]

I’m a fairly novice sailor, trying to consolidate what I learnt on the day skipper course.

Something about ‘heaving to’ has always bugged me. Perhaps somebody can clarify ?

I’ve read the books and watched the YouTube channels and they all say pretty much the same thing.

1. Tack from close hauled.
2. Allow the jib to become backed.
3. Release the main sheet.
4. Progressively apply leeward tiller and lash it full over.

The boat will ‘gently’ drift downwind.

Now here’s the thing. In order for the rudder to have any effect, surely the rudder needs to have water flowing over it and therefore the boat needs to be moving forward by at least 1 or 2 kts.

I can’t imagine the backed jib will provide a forward drive, so presumably we need some drive from the mainsail ?

Overall then, we need to have at least some tension on the main sheet and we need to be aware that the boat will not just be drifting straight downwind, but will also be slowly moving forward.

I would welcome your comments. Thanks.

 

[srm]

Basically, you have nailed it. There must be some tension on the main sheet to prevent the sail from flogging as in severe weather flogging would very quickly destroy the sail.
The best way to understand it is to go out and do it (didn't you get to try it on your course?). However, different hull configurations/rigs will react differently and some boats may not settle down comfortably.
My experience with longish keel boats is that the main drives the boat forward, but only slowly against the force of the backed headsail. The rudder bites and brings bows towards the wind. Main feathers, looses drive and the backed jib stops the boat. The head falls off and the cycle starts again. Its a dynamic situation with the boat slowly falling off the wind then jogging along until pointing up towards the wind and falling off again. The resultant track being somewhere around 135 degrees off the wind.

 

[scozzy]

Push and pull,ying and yang.. or just good old physics....why not try and heave too under jib alone with the mainsail tucked away and see if it still works

 

[William_H]

Not all modern sail boats will settle down to heave to. Mine certainly won't. With fairly deep high aspect ratio keel and flat bottom. ol'will

 

[BobnLesley]

Push and pull,ying and yang.. or just good old physics....why not try and heave too under jib alone with the mainsail tucked away and see if it still works

Both our Vega and Trident Challenger would heave to under jib alone, but you drifted a little faster than you did with the main too, so depending upon the course you were making/wanting to make that could be a good or a bad thing

 

[MontyMariner]

You tend not to heave to in light winds, normally there is plenty of wind to allow the rudder to be effective.
Point to note: Always try to heave to on starboard tack, one less thing to have to worry about!

 

[BobnLesley]

You tend not to heave to in light winds, normally there is plenty of wind to allow the rudder to be effective.
Point to note: Always try to heave to on starboard tack, one less thing to have to worry about!

While we tended to heave to in heavy weather there's no reason you can't practice in lighter winds and we've often hove to for real in light winds to delay an arrival until daylight or make a meal in confused seas.
We roo always chose starboard until one night in the Med port gave us a significantly better course towards our destination. Theafter we always chose best course, it only makes a difference if you encounter another vessel under sail and it the weather's bad enough to need to heave to, it's unlikely that anyone else is daft enough to be out there with you.

 

[Sandy]

You need to get out on the water and practice, practice, practice. Every boat is different.

I was surprized one day when a RIB raced over to us to check that we were OK, we were making breakfast, then zoomed off before I could invite them onboard for a mug of tea!

 

[Jon magowan]

Thanks everyone. Very interesting.

 

[Wansworth]

Bit of a failure not to teach heaving too,still try yourself how your boat performs while your at it how your boat behaves just under main or jib and practice reefing while your at it!

 

[Lifeboater]

There are 2 ways of heaving to, one of which has already been described, so here is the better, simpler version for use when you really don't want to drift or get blown downwind.

1/ Furl the headsail
2/ Check the main is reefed correctly
3/ Adjust your wind vane to 60 degrees apparent wind angle.
4/ Lash the tiller as required to balance the boat.
5/ Fiddle about with wind angle and tiller if necessary.

That procedure on a typical yacht will result in it trying to limp to windward whilst producing a lot of leeway. My long sold steel Van der Stadt 34 that I converted from wheel to tiller steering and fitted a Hydrovane to for a singlehanded circumnavigation would do about 2kts at 60 degrees with around 20 to 30 degrees of leeway. 2 kts is just about enough boatspeed for the Hydrovane to function correctly.

I'm building my own motorsailor for what might be another circumnavigation, only this time I will be South West bound from Blighty to Magellans Channel/Straights and onwards up the inside passage to Ribinson Crusoes Island before the long haul to Easter Island and Fiji.

 

[wonkywinch]

Heaving to is great for calming everything down in strong winds if your crew are getting weather beaten.

It's also a good move (to start with) if you have an MOB.

My worry has been how to perform one on a boat with a self tacking jib as is becoming popular. You'd have to secure the track and none I've seen have a pin as used on travellers which would work well.

 

[ProDave]

Ah but one sail will be on port tack and the other sail on starboard. So which "wins" to determine which tack you are on? (wins from colregs point of view)

Heaving to was usually our default way to stop the boat to drop the main sail at the end of a day, and only start the motor once the main was down, to furl the job and motor into harbour.

Now we have a self tacking jib, can't heave to. Must make a preventer to allow us again to heave to when we want to, it might be a handy thing for putting a reef in.

 

[Sandy]

There are 2 ways of heaving to, one of which has already been described, so here is the better, simpler version for use when you really don't want to drift or get blown downwind.

1/ Furl the headsail
2/ Check the main is reefed correctly
3/ Adjust your wind vane to 60 degrees apparent wind angle.
4/ Lash the tiller as required to balance the boat.
5/ Fiddle about with wind angle and tiller if necessary.

That procedure on a typical yacht will result in it trying to limp to windward whilst producing a lot of leeway. My long sold steel Van der Stadt 34 that I converted from wheel to tiller steering and fitted a Hydrovane to for a singlehanded circumnavigation would do about 2kts at 60 degrees with around 20 to 30 degrees of leeway. 2 kts is just about enough boatspeed for the Hydrovane to function correctly.

I'm building my own motorsailor for what might be another circumnavigation, only this time I will be South West bound from Blighty to Magellans Channel/Straights and onwards up the inside passage to Ribinson Crusoes Island before the long haul to Easter Island and Fiji.

That sounds a lot of faffing about when a quick tack with a backed headsail is very simple.

I'd love to see how anybody does not 'drift', the plan is to stop way thought the water, the tide will always move you.

 

[Sandy]

Ah but one sail will be on port tack and the other sail on starboard. So which "wins" to determine which tack you are on? (wins from colregs point of view)

The headsail.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Ah but one sail will be on port tack and the other sail on starboard. So which "wins" to determine which tack you are on? (wins from colregs point of view)

Heaving to was usually our default way to stop the boat to drop the main sail at the end of a day, and only start the motor once the main was down, to furl the job and motor into harbour.

Now we have a self tacking jib, can't heave to. Must make a preventer to allow us again to heave to when we want to, it might be a handy thing for putting a reef in.

From the rules:

(i) when each has the wind on a different side, the vessel which has the wind on the port side shall keep out of the way of the other;


(ii) when both have the wind on the same side, the vessel which is to windward shall keep out of the way of the vessel which is to leeward;


(iii) if a vessel with the wind on the port side sees a vessel to windward and cannot determine with certainty whether the other vessel has the wind on the port or on the starboard side, she shall keep out of the way of the other.


(b) For the purposes of this Rule the windward side shall be deemed to be the side opposite to that on which the mainsail is carried or, in the case of a square-rigged vessel, the side opposite to that on which the largest fore-and-aft sail is carried

Mainsail is what counts.

 

[wonkywinch]

And if you're not sure what tack the hove to boat is on, there's a rule for that too

 

[MisterBaxter]

One way to think of heaving to is that you're finding a way to sail very slowly to windward while making a lot of leeway. The traditional method with backed jib, loosened mainsheet and tiller to leeward works well with long keeled boats but modern yachts might need a different configuration, generally discovered by trial and error.
I used to own a heavy steel gaffer with a full length keel. Under deeply reefed main, backed staysail and furled jib, she would heave to very happily in a full gale, making about a knot and a half square across the wind with no loss of ground to leeward.
On the other hand, a smaller fin-keeled yacht I had for a while needed a reefed main set for a close reach and no jib. But she was a bit twitchy and unstable like that and her track was well to leeward.
I gather that a long keel is much better than a fin keel at providing lateral resistance while the boat is stationary - a fin gives a much better ratio of resistance to drag while sailing but it relies on its foil shape and the water flow to do it's best work. Hence the different behaviours.

 

[Sandy]

And if you're not sure what tack the hove to boat is on, there's a rule for that too

Is that rule 649 A (III)

Visit SpecSavers?

 

[Slowboat35]

A flat-bottomed Parker with a very long, narrrow, flat-plate lift-keel heaves to beautifully, as did my Sadler32. There's much more to it than just keel-shape but I've no idea what.
Heaving-to makes solo or shorthanded reefing or work at the mast/foredeck a doddle and is a wonderful way to 'stop' the motion when bashing into weather and seas and in need of a cuppa, a meal or just a few minutes breather. The transformation from noisy, wet, windy wedging-yourself-in-against-the-motion to lazily riding up and down the swell with a gentle breeze blowing is dramatic - and a great morale-booster if the crew are gettng tired of hanging on.