Some boats just don't like heaving-to as described in the books, especially light fin-keeled ones.
Some boats just don't like heaving-to as described in the books, especially light fin-keeled ones.
Minor thread hijack -- I recently practiced heaving-to as well and didn't care for all that force of the jib sheet against the shroud...seems like a potential problem spot (sheet chafe, point load on the shroud).
Is there something else that people set up when hove-to for extended periods, like a barber hauler or block on the toerail to keep the sheet off the shroud?
Or am I being silly and paranoid?
I think I remember that my boat would sort of heave-to if you first double reef the main, and then cross sheet the #3 or better #4 jib. Otherwise, it would just sail downwind no matter what.
You can put a snatchblock on the rail if you have a rail to lead an auxiliary sheet if your geometry leaves a line rubbing on the shrouds or whatever.
Once upon a time, on an ocean far, far away, sails were constructed of stiff canvas, then later thick Dacron. Chaff was much less a worry; it took a lot longer to chaff through than stretch beyond usefulness - that is if you didn't heave to for weeks on end. Today? I wouldn't consider heaving to with an expensive laminated carbon fiber headsail - unless my life depended on it and I had a backup jib ready to hoist. Times change and so do materials. ;-)
There aren't many boats that are less directionally-stable than a J/80 but even they heave-to pretty well. Here's how we teach it:
1) Look to leeward to make sure there's nothing you're going to slide into while hove-to.
2) Sailing close-hauled, sheet the jib in hard and get it as flat as possible (this doesn't work with a genoa). Ease the main to slow down.
3) Punch the boat up into the wind and chop until it's almost stopped, then complete the tack (leaving the jib tight on the new windward side).
4) Ease the main well-out and as the boat comes to a stop, push the tiller to leeward (45 deg +/-) and tie it off to a stanchion or something.
5) Go pee, have lunch, put on that band-aid or whatever you needed to do.
Sheeting the jib in hard first keeps the boat from oscillating while hove-to, and it will probably solve your chafe problem.
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Last edited by BobJ; 04-05-2017 at 05:36 PM.
do you have something to lock the tiller in one pos'n?
I used this with both my express 27 and current boat J92s. Tiller Clutch. Works well
you may find, as I found for the Express 27, that if you flatten the main and travel down a little, mainsheet out a little, the boat will jog slowly to windward w/o tacking in a relatively stable manner, that will allow you to drop the jib and put up another. This is described by Andrew Evans, section 5-1. He sails Olson 30.
http://sfbaysss.net/resource/doc/Sin...irdEdition.pdf
Ah ... A sensitive topic! I was able to heave to: speedometer was reading 0 and it was comfortable. The problem was the point of sail. Andrew Evans says as much:
The boat will settle in a heading directly
opposite the original heading, on a beam
reach.
That wouldn't be desirable in heavy seas, would it?
It's on my list to try again with a smaller jib.
And the spinnaker is repaired. It was quite a large L shaped rip. 1x2 ft.
Ah, true; underway tasks, biological and otherwise, were easily handled when I was hove-to on a well-balanced little keel-centerboarder with a big genoa in fair weather. 10' swath of jib taut against the shroud didn't bug me much.
A good heave-to really is a handy trick!
But on my Cal I only have a measly 90%, and presume in real weather one has even less foresail up, so it's the sheets instead of the Dacron on the shrouds.
Snatch blocks are now on the shopping list.
Duct tape reigns ... Are there any preference for sailors, tape that sticks when applied to wet salty surfaces?