Hoving To Question

[chilliwacker]

Dear All

Has anyone got any good practical experience of hoving to, especially in heavier weather?

I read that this is a good method of riding out heavy weather, or if crew/skipper need some rest, so long as sea room is not a problem.

So last weekend I tried hoving to in a force 4. We did so, i.e. back the genoa and lashed the tiller to opposite side of the genoa, but what I noticed was that we lay almost beam onto the wind/waves - not the best position to ride out a potential gale. Was I doing something wrong?

The boat that we have is a heavy displacement vancouver 27 with long keel.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Chilliwacker


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[ruff_n_tumble]

I don't have any experience of going hove to in heavy weather but I find I have to roll in some of the genoa and sheet in the main to balance the boat and bring the bow up to weather a bit. However the effect is not huge and the boat is still more or less beam on to the wind and waves. This is in a fin keeler.

<hr width=100% size=1>Steve Marsh
Hunter 27 OOD "Ruff-n-Tumble"
Gosport

 

[alex_rogers]

Hi Chilliwacker,

She'll lie much better without the genoa, just balancing the main against the staysail. The bow has a lot of windage and the mast is set well back so you don't need much forward. I've hove to in my Vancouver 28 in F7-8 and she sits really comfortably under just the deeply reefed main and the storm jib. Sheeting in the main should bring the wind forward of the beam.

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[chilliwacker]

That's great. I will try this to see if I can get some better results.
I guess that practice makes perfect.
Any other suggestions gratefully received.

Chilliwacker

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[Johnboy2004]

on the same subject can someone tell me how to heave to in a beneteau first 211?


what do i do with the jib?? do i just put the rudder the opposite side of the jib?



cheers...


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[Sunnyseeker]

Best thing is just to go out and try, each boat is different. Its handy to know the set up first as when you decide you've had enough it'll probably be dark and very wet, we found with a Bav390 1991 vintage that she sat with just a backed storm jib on an inner forestay, did 2.5 knots at about 70 degrees to the wind. She would be knocked almost beam on by breaking waves, but came back up. our course during two nights of this was around 120 degrees off the wind due to the huge lee way....not pleasant but safe.

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[ex-Gladys]

AS Sunnyseeker says, you have to do it for your own boat, there is not a generic setting

<hr width=100% size=1>Larry Botheras

Anderson 26 "Amber"

 

[john_morris_uk]

Whilst I agree that you have to try out what works in your boat, you also ought to think anout what you are trying to achieve.

Ideally the boat when hove to will lie with the one bow (ideally the starboard one) facing the wind and waves)

Why the starboard bow - because this means that the main will be to port and you will by definition be on starboard tack thereby being the stand-on vessel in nearly all situations.

The job is to balance the sailplan so that the boat stays on her feet and very slowly forereaches whilst making lots of leeway. One way of looking at it is that the helm is lashed as if it is trying to make the boat tack - the foresail stops the boat tacking.

Remember that the time you have to use it in heavy weather the force of the wind will be much bigger and the waves much larger than when you practice in benign conditions.

Most modern sloops need hardly any foesail up at all. Try a storm job and three reefs or a trysail and see how it goes.

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[AndrewB]

Like others I would strongly recommend a storm jib rather than a genoa for your gale strategy. A full genoa is obviously too much in a gale, and the huge pressures involved makes a partly furled genoa too risky, likely to blow loose.

One reason you may be too far off the wind is that the genoa is too large. Another is that you have hauled the sheet in too hard to windward. Try slackening it a little. You might also experiment with where you lash the tiller, surprisingly midships is best on my yacht in a gale, though not in light wind.

You may have the wrong expectations. When heaved-to, expect to lie at about 60 deg to the wind, depending on the boat. Of course it will be wider at times. Getting rolled is always a risk with this strategy, though arguably far less than when 'lying a-hull' with no sails at all.

The reason John Morris gives for preferring starboard tack is a bit theoretical. In practice, in a gale, the seas rarely come exactly from the direction of the wind. The safer tack to heave-to on is the one that has you going more directly into than across the seas, and in a gale resulting from an anticyclone in the northern hemisphere that tends to be on starboard tack, but of course it could well be port.

Some small fin-keelers have difficulty heaving-to under head sail alone and like dinghies some judicious balance with the eased-off mainsail is needed - again that would be a liability in a real gale. But that shouldn't apply to a Vancouver 27. Its a long time since I sailed one, but from memory they heave-to very well.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Without standing on my theoretical principles reference starboard tack heaving to, if you are going to use heaving to as a survival technique then I suggest the seamanlike thing to do would be to heave to on whichever tack gives you the best/most comfortable angle to the waves.

Of course its also possible just to heave to to make a cup of tea/have a rest/have a break from the grind to windward that you might find yourself in on some passage. In which case I will argue for starboard tack for the reasons already given.

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[AndrewB]

Yes, true, specially if you do it in the middle of the Solent on a busy Saturday! In my experience of gales at sea though, which was the context of the question, being the stand-on vessel is fairly academic.

I was going to add that safety and comfort don't necessarily go together in this respect. Heading more into the seas is safer in terms of lowering the risk of being rolled by a breaker, but I've found its more comfortable to be on the other tack, the boat gets thrown round less. But this is based on just three experiences of 'sitting out' a gale or near gale hove-to in open sea in my yacht.

 

[Knut]

Its all a question of balance. As for a windsurfer with no rudder, the steering is done by tilting the mast forward or backward when falling off- or going up against the wind. Like the others have suggested, reducing the sailplan in front of the mast will reduce the boats angel against the wind.
"Time out" is very practical, and as a Captain you will get a lot of pluss-points from your crew if you hove-to during toilet visits, coffee breaks etc! (We dont have tea-breaks in Norway..) On longer trips, I would not dream of having dinner unless hoving-to! Dont be afraid of trying & testing.

<hr width=100% size=1>Knut

 

[chilliwacker]

Thank you for all the advice

To everyone

Thank you for all your very useful comments and advice. I think I will try some of you suggestions next time I'm out and about. It did strike me that to ride out a gale, waves coming beam on was not an altogether good thing.

If I can achieve 60 degrees off the wind then this will be a vast improvement, but experiementation is the key I feel.

Thanks once again for all the advice.

Happy sailing
Gratefully yours
Chilliwacker

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