Hove To...any tips?

[JeremyF]

Thought I would try out a few different things this weekend in the new boat to see how she behaved, and that included heaving to.

With no reefs in, in a f3-4, she hove to easily, with zero knots on the log, but sat with the wind abeam. However much we played with rolls in the genoa, reefs in the main etc, the best we could hold her up into the wind was abeam. In some confifurations she lay with the wind distinctly abaft.

Now, in a big sea I guess I would want to be hove to into the wind. What were we doing wrong? Or is it a characteristic of a light modern fractional rigged Bavaria 34?

Jeremy Flynn

 

[Twister_Ken]

The 'usual' hove to posn is with wind about 45° on the bow. This is caused by creating a stable balance between three controllable forces - main, jib and rudder.

What should happen is that the aft end of the main fills and together with the rudder (which is across in a posn to put the bows through the wind) tries to drive the boat up into the wind. At the same time the backed Jib (or Genny) is trying to force the bows downwind. Get it right and the posn is almost stable (actually, the boat usually oscillates slightly between being main-driven and being jib-driven).

I'd suggest your beam-on posn (if it's not endemic to that yacht) may have been caused by a) not enough mainsheet so the main wasn't drawing enough or b) the rudder so far over that it was stalled and iincapable of driving the bow up.

Incidentally, not generally good practise to heave to with a full genny as it will be pressed against shrouds and spreaders. Ideally, roll it so it just clears the face of the mast.

 

[JeremyF]

Thanks for the advice Ken. We tried with all laundry up, and one reef in the main, and genoa rolled so the sail stopped short of the rigging. Rudder was on full lock, and main fully sheeted in. Does this suggest anything else?

Jeremy Flynn

 

[Twister_Ken]

In those conditions, a full main may have been better but hove to you wouldn't generally sheet the main hard in, just enough to get the aftmost third (or so) drawing. Maybe the problem was having the rudder full over. At this position it was probably stalled, and so not able to assist in driving the bow up to windward.

But it could also just be one of the side effects of the design of your boat.

 

[Guest]

Funny enuf i did the same exercise at the weekend and had a similar problem at first.
Then realised we had the wheel too far over as mentioned above.
This caused the rudder to stall and prevent forward drive allowing the bow to get blown down.
Soon got it sorted and balanced and even in just the f5 blowing at the time the 'calm' that came over the boat was significant.
good luck next time.

ps we have a jenny so 37

 

[JeremyF]

Thanks. I'll try again with some rolls in the genoa, a slightly looser mainsheet and less lock on the helm. Great advice from the forum, as always!

Jeremy Flynn

 

[AndrewB]

I put a little bit of slack in the genoa/jib sheet which on my yacht which keeps it pointing upwind. The slack is enough so that the clew is held only just on the windward side. If the sheet is hardened right in to windward, the yacht sails in "scallops" as first the genoa forces its head off, the yacht picks up a little way, and the rudder then brings it up to wind again.

When heaving-to in order to sit out an open-sea gale, I like to get the main right off and have just a small amount of foresail showing. The yacht will fore-reach when set up like that, but I think its more comfortable.

 

[peterk]

hi,
next time, if the breeze is a little stronger,
try using the main alone,
perhaps reefed,
sheeted in a close-reaching position.
Experiment with the
rudder from
slightly to a bit more
to windward.
I did this once for 14 days straight on my DM 22, when the South East Trades,
against which I was sailing
began to act up
(for four days I was down to triple reef) -
in those two weeks I lost 100 miles-
while going against the Humboldt Current.
The boat has a moderate fin keel.

enjoy fiddling around - I do!

...peter 'Tehani', www.juprowa.com/kittel

 

[Jacket]

I've never tried heaving to with just main in anything above a gentle breeze - when it gets windier I'm normally too busy feeling sick to think about such things.

What I've always wandered though is doesn't the main tend to flog itself to bits?

 

[peterk]

Re: flogging to bits

hi jacket,
yes, I was worried about that too, that's why I had never,
in over 30 years of sailing offshore,
tried
heaving to with just the mainsail before.
I had tied in the third reef
and was thinking about
whether to use the storm jib or not
when I realized that
it worked just the way it was.
occasional flogging
thankfully was minimal,
had to do
with the waves

I am not sure whether this works on any other boat
but it's worth a try!

...peter, www.juprowa.com/kittel