Heaving To (How does it work ?)

[B27]

That is always a worthwhile goal.

The US Navy current dictionary says: Heave to: to bring the vessel's head or stern to the wind or sea and hold her there by the use of the engines and rudder. ...

I'll bear that in mind when suggesting what the USN do with their motorboats.

Various online dictionaries give a spectrum of meaning from simply 'stop' through 'stop head to wind' to 'stop using the sails to act against one another'.
The more modern and American tend towards the 'just stop' end of the range.

If 'heaving to' includes all these things, then we need a new term to define the classic backed-jib method?

I can see it's useful to say 'stop the boat and hold station head to wind' in two syllables.
I guess on a sailing boat, we have time to say 'back the jib and heave to'......


There's not much ambiguity on a diesel freighter.

 

[MisterBaxter]

I finally got to try heave too on our new boat, with mixed results.

It's a Hunter Horizon 23 with self tacking jib. Having rigged a line to stop the jib traveller we tried heaving too.

The jib will back, but we could not find a stable position, Tiller free or hard over either way and the boat would just continue turning and end up sailing off the wind.

We had some limited success if you kept steering the tiller, you could keep it hove to for a short time, long enough to drop the mainsail, or put a reef in for example, but it was very unstable and required attention to stop it turning one way or the other.

I guess with the small self tacking job it is never going to heave to like a normal larger jib.

I had a Sonata which is fundamentally the same boat as a Horizon 23 and the only way I found to heave to was to sail to windward with the jib sheeted in, the mainsheet slacked off somewhat and the tiller fairly central. She'd pick up speed and bear away, then the main would fill, she'd luff up, lose the wind in the main again and lose speed. Depending on sea state and wind she would either find an equilibrium or keep luffing up and bearing away. The net result was a couple of knots to windward.
But the main flapped a lot and it wasn't that relaxing; good for a break to make tea or reef the main while single handed, though.
She needed a small jib for the wind strength for this to work. The self tacker on the Horizon might be about right. The trick was to slack off the main the right amount and to tie off the tiller in the right place, both by trial and error.

 

[Travelling Westerly]

When setting a reefed backed jib does having the sheet hard up against the shourds give any cause for concern regarding stresses on the rig etc?

 

[Poignard]

Also known as 'dodging'









Source: FV Gaul - Wikipedia

 

[srm]

Also known as 'dodging'

Been there, done that. 1970's working as a surveyor in N Sea for pipeline routes etc. We would have to spend time dodging, usually in the winter but there were the odd summer gales. One contract, mid winter, on a chartered ex Dutch sidewinder trawler. We spent a couple of days "dodging". When conditions eased we were able to head in to Peterhead. Radio call asking for permission to enter, harbour radio asked where we were from. . . . . . "You can't have been there, its been force eleven".

I had just bought my first cruising yacht and spent time in the wheelhouse watching the seas and wondering just how I would manage in a small sailing boat. Fortunately, I have never seen conditions like that when sailing, but did learn to avoid the N Sea in winter.

 

[Daydream believer]

When I was holed up in Peterhead one year the harbour master said that his son was at sea on an oil rig supply vessel currently just riding out a F10 for 2 days. I asked why they did not come back to Peterhead. He said that the vessel only got paid when at sea, so the owners insisted that they stayed at sea for as long as possible, to get max return for the vessel from the oil co. Seems that it was standard practice & they did it quite often.

 

[wingcommander]

Also known as 'dodging'

Not to be confused with the term dogging

 

[Rhylsailer99]

My Cobra 850 sits nice in a heaved to position.