heaving-to under foresail only

[MarkGrubb]

It's widely known and reported in books and the press, and I'm sure many will have first hand experience (I haven't, being a relative newbie) that one option during heavy weather is to heave-to. The foresail is sheeted hard to weather, the main sheeted in, and the helm lashed to leeward. In this manner most boats will lie bow to the wind, and hopefully therefore the prevailing seas, balanced by the foresail and deep reefed main or trisail. Some boats may settle better than others, and it may be necessary to tweak sheets and tiller.

I've also read of boats that have weathered a hard blow hove-to under foresail alone. Is this possible? I've always assumed that one would need some sail aft to balance the boat, and a foresail on its own would just cause the bows to blow off and the boat to run downwind. Will a boat heave-to under just the foresail.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of this and for what types of boat it may work?

 

[TigaWave]

It's more the accessories than the type of boat. Spray hoods, dodgers, wind gens, arches, stack pack or in mast system will all effect the centre of effort.

First time it's usually a suck it and see, I've used the storm jib only set up twice for over night rests in a storm, that worked on a Bav 390, with stack pack main and dodgers. There was enough windage aft of the mast to keep the bow 30-40 degrees off.

With in mast main, lashed down boom and no dodgers or spray hood it could have needed a staysail to keep the bow up.

 

[BobnLesley]

We can and regularly do heave-to in Spring Fever, an Albin Vega (twenty-seven feet, long keel). A couple of times to sit out some heavy weather but more ususally, just for a rest and a cup of coffee or to slow down on approaching a tidal gate, bridge lift (Levkas two weeks ago) or similar; even in big seas, the motion is surprisingly comfortable. Generally, we heave-to under main and headsails; not surprisingly the further they're reefed down, the slower one falls away to leeward. We have hove-to under headsail alone on a couple of occassions and found that whilst the speed of drift is reduced, the motion is not as comfortable - the bow falls further off the wind, so putting you further across the direction of the sea. We have the advantage of a long keel and feel that this is a distinct advantage in heaving-to generally, with a fin keel I would expect that you'd need both sails to maintain balance, indeed we once tried demonstrating the heaving-to procedure on a friends X-boat; it just wouldn't settle at all. Go out and have a practice, you don't need a big wind; as wind speed increases, so will the rate of drift, but we've found the basic action feels no different between F4 and F7/8.

 

[LymingtonPugwash]

Heaving-to in this manner has been one of my favourite ways of resting and killing time over the years, even occasionally used it to kill time at a racing start line in my racing days! But as the 2 previous responses state, you really do need to practice it with your own boat as I also have found that every boat I've had has responded differently to this method and has also been affected by how much windage has been generated by the various items up on the boat.

So practice it a dozen times or so in a force 3, then 4, then 5, etc and work your way up and take careful note of what you can get away with at different wind strengths and what affects it....... I have also found it useful to take note of how much of a 'nuteral' drift I get at each of the wind strengths. That is drift which arises only as a result of heaving-to and not anything to do with tides and currents.

 

[Cornishman]

...and if it's any comfort to you I once spent two and a half days in a 45 foot gaff schooner hove-to using a reefed fore stays'l only in a December storm in the Med. On our return to Malta the RAF station at Luka reckoned the wind had been force 10 to 11 all the time! We had drifted about 40 miles to leeward.
My other experiences back up what others here have said, go out and practice it in your own boat as every one behaves differently.

 

[alant]

"Spray hoods, dodgers, wind gens, arches, stack pack or in mast system will all effect the centre of effort."

Try it without any sails up.

Then any foresail will surely force the bows further off the wind - effectively you will be sailing more comfortably 'down wind', but if your cockpit is at the stern rather than centre, you will be prone to getting cold & wet in a blow.

 

[SoSageofLorn]

Possibly a cat may behave like that but, anything with a decent underwater profile will fore reach under just a backed foresail giving enough steerage to keep the bow to the wind.

At least, HR's and Vancouvers behave in that way.

 

[Salty John]

Boats with a large fore-triangle are considered more likely to heave-to satisfactorily under headsail alone than more evenly apportioned rigs.
One can only theorise as to why this should be so, but it is certain that each boat has it's own particular set of adjustments to achieve a satisfactory result.

 

[Guest]

Post deleted by danfoley

 

[MarkGrubb]

Thanks for the tips and comments. You all make it sound a very civilised affair. I'll give it some practise and find out what works.

Regards,

Mark.

 

[DeeGee]

It simply depends on the boat. I think that it should work with any boat, but the motion will vary and the greatest angle to the wind may become larger than safe - becoming beam-on could be catastrophic.

The intention is that the foresail will tend to blow the bow off the wind, and the boat will then tend to start to sail. The action of starting to sail will un-stall the rudder which will then tend to bring the bow back toward the wind, when the foresail will tend to blow the bow off the wind, and the boat will then tend to start to sail....

/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[graham]

Our boat has very little extra windage aft,no dodgers ,sprayhood or stackpack.Just a radar reflector on the backstay. She has a furling genoa creating some windage fwd.

She heaves to very comfortably with deep reefed main and small jib lying about 45° to the wind creeping ahead at about 1 to 2 knots.

With just a small amount of jib unrolled and no mainsail set she lies about 70 to 80° off the wind and would be dangerous in big seas.

I havent had to try it yet but if ever really battered the plan is to attatch some fenders to the seagull spare engine and use that as a sea anchor from the bow. Shane Acton rode out a storm at sea like this in his 19 foot Caprice then washed out the motor and started it again. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif