[Public-List] Heaving to

[David Tessier]

I have followed the recent posts on heaving to with great interest.  I often sail short handed and heave to in order to carry out a number of sailing and other tasks.  I give great credit to the person who sold me my first sailboat for emphasizing the importance of the heaving to manoeuvre.  Anyhow, I consider that heaving to comes in two main flavours, which are worth distinguishing:
 
a) heaving to with significant fore reaching
In this case, and especially with an Alberg 30, a wide range of backed foresail sizes, mains'l sheeting settings and tiller positions will achieve the desired result, e.g., a somewhat reduced speed, say 1.5 to 3.0 kts depending on settings and conditions and a self-tending yacht.  This is a great way to take a time out in mild or brisk conditions when sea room is present and I have used this on a few different types of sailboats. Sometimes I tack once and then heave to in order to fore reach in a preferred direction.  Generally the sailboat fore reaches gently and on the Alberg 30 (and some other less traditional sailboats) one can cheerfully drop the mainsail (or the fore sail) and the sailboat will simply find another well behaved attitude with the remaining sail, provided the tiler is tied down a wee bit.  I end most of my short handed sails this way; I do like sailing or motoring into anchorages with the mains'l flying.  However, I do not consider this form of heaving to, actually fore reaching, to be a heavy weather tactic, at least from the point of view of the yacht's safety (in distinction crew comfort, whiuch can also be enhanced by changing point of sail...).
 
b) heaving to in heavy weather with minimum fore reaching
In this case, as discussed in some of the references cited in the recent discussion, the goal is to reduce the yacht speed to less than about 1.5 kts and to have the yacht slip sideways so that the disturbed water from the keel lines up with, and can affect, the oncoming waves, perhaps causing large waves to break a few boat lengths from the yacht.  I have experimented with this in 20-25 kt breezes and 1.5 to 2.0 metre (crest-to-trough) waves on the great lakes, in preparation for possible future use under gale conditions.  I have found it quite challenging to achieve the desired sideways and very slow (say 1 knot) motion, at least with both sails flying, or a full mainbs'l.  I have more work to do on this.  The Pardeys recommend a deeply reefed mainsail alone and a rather centered tiller for yachts of the Alberg 30 hull form, which I have not yet experimented with. I do have a 3rd reef in my mains'l but have not experimented heaving to with it yet.
 
 
The usual rationale or explanation for the sail "trim" in heaving to is perhaps useful, but heaving to under one or other sail is quite feasible. I consider that the simplistic rationale based on centre of effort vs sheeting and lateral resistance need to be taken with a grain of salt.  Also, the rudder in heaving to, would seem to require motion (which one is trying to suppress) to exert a force...
 
Steering a sailboat on a close reach with the rudder free by trimming sail is another example where the aerodynamicists seem to tell us that the mains'l + foresail combination needs to be treated as one system, and that it is not usefully broken down into independent parts (although the usual simplification seems to indicate which sheet to harden for steering!).  Anyhow this July I did have a great 40 NM close reach across Georgian Bay (Lion's Head to Red ROck light) on my first cruise this season, with the tiller free and the course set with the sheets (8-10 kts breeze; full mains'l + 140% Genoa).  Every 10 or 20 minutes, a lull would cause TROIS BOULEAUX to fall off the wind and as the tiller was free, I needed only reach out and put my hand on the tiller to put her back on course.  Although the boat speed might have been somewhat greater had I been on the tiller, I did complete a number of boat chores and still get to an anchorage (motoring through some hsoal water) up Shawanaga Bay by sunset.  Had the windspeed increased a little, I expect that I would have had to reef the mains'l to maintain trim/course, but aside from occasional brief lulls, the breeze was very steady. It was great fun.
 
  		 	   		  
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