heaving to

Birdseye

Birdseye

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Despite a lot of years sailing I have never tried heaving to. Target fixated, I always focus on gettibg there as fast as poss. But yesterday and after reading a Cunliffe article, I decided to give it a go whilst I made chilli for dins half way up the north cornish coast. Worked like a dream. Without time tofiddle with the sails we drifted beam on at 1.5 kn but the boat was upright and the motion was calm.

Dont have a lot of time for Cunliffe' s often luddite views but this one definitely is a good idea.
 
birdseye said:
Despite a lot of years sailing I have never tried heaving to. Target fixated, I always focus on gettibg there as fast as poss. But yesterday and after reading a Cunliffe article, I decided to give it a go whilst I made chilli for dins half way up the north cornish coast. Worked like a dream. Without time tofiddle with the sails we drifted beam on at 1.5 kn but the boat was upright and the motion was calm.

Dont have a lot of time for Cunliffe' s often luddite views but this one definitely is a good idea.
Click to expand...

Hope the galley is on your port side, so you can heave too on starboard tack & claim 'stand on'.
;)
PS good opportunity to practice MoB when lunch finished, now you know how.
 
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alant said:
Hope the galley is on your port side, so you can heave too on starboard tack & claim 'stand on'. ;)
Click to expand...

Thought provoking post.

My mainsail is fully battened. So, to heave to and not pick up speed you have to depower it fully - that means letting the mainsheet out a long way so the boom simply lies "downwind". Anything else and she will make enough way to round up to windward, then fall off, and repeat this rather unpleasant motion ad infinitum.

I rather assumed in that position she isn't on any tack at all, since the wind is neither hitting the sail from port nor starboard.
 
IRPCS

Rule 12

(a) When two sailing vessels are approaching one another, so as to involve risk of collision, one of them shall keep out of the way of the other as follows:

(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 her port or 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.
 
awol said:
(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.
Click to expand...

Yes, I knew that was the definition (which is why I said "thought provoking" rather than to disagree). It is just that I never previously thought about it in a situation where the mainsail is flapping because the mainsheet has been completely eased - even though the boom will patently be on one side of the boat or the other.
 
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If you have to let the main out to heave to the best solution is to reduce the size of the foresail so that the main can stay in fairly tight. Much more comfortable imho.
 
mainsail1 said:
If you have to let the main out to heave to the best solution is to reduce the size of the foresail so that the main can stay in fairly tight. Much more comfortable imho.
Click to expand...

If I did that on my boat, even with the headsail backed, she would pick up enough way to tack.
 
birdseye said:
Despite a lot of years sailing I have never tried heaving to. Target fixated, I always focus on gettibg there as fast as poss. But yesterday and after reading a Cunliffe article, I decided to give it a go whilst I made chilli for dins half way up the north cornish coast. Worked like a dream. Without time tofiddle with the sails we drifted beam on at 1.5 kn but the boat was upright and the motion was calm.
Click to expand...
Brillliant, I use it all the time.

First time I was shown how to do it I was just a tad sceptical, a F8 and the skipper says let's stop for lunch and we hove too.
 
Angele said:
Thought provoking post.

My mainsail is fully battened.
Click to expand...

Try heaving-to with a deep reefed main, sheeted hard midships, helm up so that she's trying to steer up to the wind. No headsail. With luck she'll luff, then drop off, and come back up again.
I'm fully battened and she sits like a duck under that rig. 36 hours is the longest time I've spent like that. Shortish keeled boat, too.
 
oldvarnish said:
Try heaving-to with a deep reefed main, sheeted hard midships, helm up so that she's trying to steer up to the wind. No headsail. With luck she'll luff, then drop off, and come back up again.
I'm fully battened and she sits like a duck under that rig. 36 hours is the longest time I've spent like that. Shortish keeled boat, too.
Click to expand...

I've tried that. In anything other than the lightest of winds she will pick up sufficient way to complete the tack, rather than drop off.
 
birdseye said:
Despite a lot of years sailing I have never tried heaving to. Target fixated, I always focus on gettibg there as fast as poss. But yesterday and after reading a Cunliffe article, I decided to give it a go whilst I made chilli for dins half way up the north cornish coast. Worked like a dream. Without time tofiddle with the sails we drifted beam on at 1.5 kn but the boat was upright and the motion was calm.

Dont have a lot of time for Cunliffe' s often luddite views but this one definitely is a good idea.
Click to expand...

First time I tried it was in a very similar location. Sailed overnight from Wicklow to Padstow but wind was fresh north-westerly so we arrived rather early, still dark. Hove-to for a couple of hours and had breakfast, then sailed into the estuary. Our big genoa needed quite a few rolls but after that it was straightforward.

Our previous experience of heaving-to was with a Hobie 16, which does it quite well. However, this was between races at the Europeans in Lyme Bay, in quite a big swell. Half way through our sandwiches the boat tripped over the rudders and we back-looped.
 
oldvarnish said:
Try heaving-to with a deep reefed main, sheeted hard midships, helm up so that she's trying to steer up to the wind. No headsail. With luck she'll luff, then drop off, and come back up again.
I'm fully battened and she sits like a duck under that rig. 36 hours is the longest time I've spent like that. Shortish keeled boat, too.
Click to expand...

Yes, my old Kings Amethyst 33 used to love that way. Technically of course you are not 'hove to' but forereaching but the outcome is pretty much the same.
My current boat won't even think about doing it this way. The thing is, every type of boat is different. get out there and try different methods. I've never come across a boat I couldn't make heave to, some were a lot harder than others !
Chris
 
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