Heaving to with club foot jib

[Paul Grecay]

I have installed the jib boom with my Harken roller furling. When sailing with the working jib it works great. I mainly use the working jib late and early in the season (Delaware Bay) when winds tend tend to be brisk...which is also when I am likely to heave to. Does anyone have experience heaving to with the self-tacking jib? Without a leeward and windward jib sheet, there must be some other way to back the jib. By the way, if anyone is interested in rigging the self tack with a roller furling, let me know..there's nothing to it.

Paul



rfurman@dmv.com

[Tom Coons]

I have installed the jib boom with my Harken roller furling. When sailing with the working jib it works great. I mainly use the working jib late and early in the season (Delaware Bay) when winds tend tend to be brisk...which is also when I am likely to heave to. Does anyone have experience heaving to with the self-tacking jib? Without a leeward and windward jib sheet, there must be some other way to back the jib. By the way, if anyone is interested in rigging the self tack with a roller furling, let me know..there's nothing to it.

Paul

Cutters are such handy sailers that they don't like to heave to very well. I have heaved to with the club footed staysail by taking a line and tying it around the boom and then to a stanchion base on the windward side, but you wonder how much strain it can take. I usually furl the staysail and heave to on the jib. Depending upon conditions, she foots along too quickly most times. I then take a double reef in the main. You might try it with no main set and just a little jib set, or no headsails set and just a little main. I have a roller furling jib so I can usually find a combination that works, but if you have the designed yankee you can't really reef it down much. I haven't found any magic answer, and usually wind up playing with combinations until I find one that suits the conditions. I wouldn't trade the cutter rig though, in every other way they are great. Hopefully someone else will post and tell us how it's done...



TacCambria@thegrid.net

[Neil Gordon]

Paul,

You have to hold the foot of the boom out so you can back the jib. Tying off to a stanchion sounds like a bad idea... not designed to take the strain. You could tie a line to the jib sheet with a rolling hitch and tie off the boom so it can't swing. That would leave all the strain on the jib sheet and on secure deck fittings. If you want to get fancy, you could bring a jib sheet back through a block on the rail and to a winch. That would hold the boom as when you tack.

I've set my genoa up (partly furled)with the club boom. Nifty for easy going to windward.


Regards, Neil
s/v LIQUIDITY
Cape Dory 28 #167



neil@nrgordon.com

[Carl Jones]

I have installed the jib boom with my Harken roller furling. When sailing with the working jib it works great. I mainly use the working jib late and early in the season (Delaware Bay) when winds tend tend to be brisk...which is also when I am likely to heave to. Does anyone have experience heaving to with the self-tacking jib? Without a leeward and windward jib sheet, there must be some other way to back the jib. By the way, if anyone is interested in rigging the self tack with a roller furling, let me know..there's nothing to it.

Paul

Cutters are such handy sailers that they don't like to heave to very well. I have heaved to with the club footed staysail by taking a line and tying it around the boom and then to a stanchion base on the windward side, but you wonder how much strain it can take. I usually furl the staysail and heave to on the jib. Depending upon conditions, she foots along too quickly most times. I then take a double reef in the main. You might try it with no main set and just a little jib set, or no headsails set and just a little main. I have a roller furling jib so I can usually find a combination that works, but if you have the designed yankee you can't really reef it down much. I haven't found any magic answer, and usually wind up playing with combinations until I find one that suits the conditions. I wouldn't trade the cutter rig though, in every other way they are great. Hopefully someone else will post and tell us how it's done...

Everyone,
This subject is of great interest to me also. I own a 30ft. CD cutter. I have thought of installing a folding payeye next to the toe rail athwartships the boom bail. Then I could run a backing line through a snatch block back to the cockpit. But it would be nice to find out if it works before I go drilling holes in my boat.
I suppose we will just have to experiment, unless someone else enlightens us. I think you could run a line through a block attached to the stanchion base in moderate conditions, without putting too much strain on it, just to get an indication of how well it would work.
The proper sail configuration should be the staysail with a reefed main. A reef point in the staysail would surely be helpful in severe conditions. Anyone planning a crossing should probably have this or a storm staysail.
I suggest we all experiment and get back together with the results.
Regards,
Carl Jones
S/V Spanish Eyes



GreatCells@aol.com

[Tom Coons]

I have installed the jib boom with my Harken roller furling. When sailing with the working jib it works great. I mainly use the working jib late and early in the season (Delaware Bay) when winds tend tend to be brisk...which is also when I am likely to heave to. Does anyone have experience heaving to with the self-tacking jib? Without a leeward and windward jib sheet, there must be some other way to back the jib. By the way, if anyone is interested in rigging the self tack with a roller furling, let me know..there's nothing to it.

Paul

Cutters are such handy sailers that they don't like to heave to very well. I have heaved to with the club footed staysail by taking a line and tying it around the boom and then to a stanchion base on the windward side, but you wonder how much strain it can take. I usually furl the staysail and heave to on the jib. Depending upon conditions, she foots along too quickly most times. I then take a double reef in the main. You might try it with no main set and just a little jib set, or no headsails set and just a little main. I have a roller furling jib so I can usually find a combination that works, but if you have the designed yankee you can't really reef it down much. I haven't found any magic answer, and usually wind up playing with combinations until I find one that suits the conditions. I wouldn't trade the cutter rig though, in every other way they are great. Hopefully someone else will post and tell us how it's done...

Everyone,
This subject is of great interest to me also. I own a 30ft. CD cutter. I have thought of installing a folding payeye next to the toe rail athwartships the boom bail. Then I could run a backing line through a snatch block back to the cockpit. But it would be nice to find out if it works before I go drilling holes in my boat.
I suppose we will just have to experiment, unless someone else enlightens us. I think you could run a line through a block attached to the stanchion base in moderate conditions, without putting too much strain on it, just to get an indication of how well it would work.
The proper sail configuration should be the staysail with a reefed main. A reef point in the staysail would surely be helpful in severe conditions. Anyone planning a crossing should probably have this or a storm staysail.
I suggest we all experiment and get back together with the results.
Regards,
Carl Jones
S/V Spanish Eyes

The couple of times I tied the boom to the stanchion base the conditions were moderate (15 knots)-- not storm conditions. The staysail never really fills because with no way on and the sail backwinded like that it never gets to really pulling. I still wouldn't try it if it were really blowing. I think under those conditions as you say you'd want a real pad eye to anchor to. Not so easy to get a backing plate in with the liner below and you have to weigh that against how often are you going to be heaving to? When it's really blowing I like to run off before it and mainly use heaving to when you just need a break and don't want to lose ground. Regards, Tom

TacCambria@thegrid.net

[Carl Jones]

Cutters are such handy sailers that they don't like to heave to very well. I have heaved to with the club footed staysail by taking a line and tying it around the boom and then to a stanchion base on the windward side, but you wonder how much strain it can take. I usually furl the staysail and heave to on the jib. Depending upon conditions, she foots along too quickly most times. I then take a double reef in the main. You might try it with no main set and just a little jib set, or no headsails set and just a little main. I have a roller furling jib so I can usually find a combination that works, but if you have the designed yankee you can't really reef it down much. I haven't found any magic answer, and usually wind up playing with combinations until I find one that suits the conditions. I wouldn't trade the cutter rig though, in every other way they are great. Hopefully someone else will post and tell us how it's done...

Everyone,
This subject is of great interest to me also. I own a 30ft. CD cutter. I have thought of installing a folding payeye next to the toe rail athwartships the boom bail. Then I could run a backing line through a snatch block back to the cockpit. But it would be nice to find out if it works before I go drilling holes in my boat.
I suppose we will just have to experiment, unless someone else enlightens us. I think you could run a line through a block attached to the stanchion base in moderate conditions, without putting too much strain on it, just to get an indication of how well it would work.
The proper sail configuration should be the staysail with a reefed main. A reef point in the staysail would surely be helpful in severe conditions. Anyone planning a crossing should probably have this or a storm staysail.
I suggest we all experiment and get back together with the results.
Regards,
Carl Jones
S/V Spanish Eyes

The couple of times I tied the boom to the stanchion base the conditions were moderate (15 knots)-- not storm conditions. The staysail never really fills because with no way on and the sail backwinded like that it never gets to really pulling. I still wouldn't try it if it were really blowing. I think under those conditions as you say you'd want a real pad eye to anchor to. Not so easy to get a backing plate in with the liner below and you have to weigh that against how often are you going to be heaving to? When it's really blowing I like to run off before it and mainly use heaving to when you just need a break and don't want to lose ground. Regards, Tom

Tom,
15 knots should be enough wind to give a good idea of how that sheet run will work. Even though the staysail didn't fill, how did the boat lie? How far off the wind was she? How far to windward did you sheet the club boom? Was she making much way to windward, or just "jogging" in place and leaving a nice slick behind her as she slid downwind?
Running off is not always an option. Heaving to is a great storm strategy.
My previous boat, an Atkin Eric Junior, a wooden double-ended 25 foot sloop, with a real full keel, not the cutaway forefoot that we have, hove to like a duck. I think the cutaway forefoot causes the bow to fall off like it does when we try to heave to, and believe it is a disadvantage. My Eric Junior would come about on a dime. Some of the justifications for a cutaway forefoot are that the boat will come about better. My experience doesn't verify this. When she was hove to, the forefoot would "grip" the water and lie 30-40 degrees off the wind. It was easy to control how close she lay to the wind by adjusting the jib sheet. I'm offering this as a comparison between a "modern" traditional boat (the Cape Dory), to an old traditional boat (the Eric Junior was designed in 1929).
I know we have good seaworthy boats and that they will heave to. As prudent sailors, we must know how to do this, before we do anything major.
If anyone can offer anything about this, it would be appreciated.



GreatCells@aol.com

[Catherine Monaghan]

Paul,

My husband and I sail a CD32 cutter with a club/self-tending staysail on a traveller. We have never had any problems heaving to.

The staysail sheet is attached to a block and tackle system similar to the mainsheet and it attaches to a traveler. The staysail sheet can be locked in position using the traveler so that the sail will not tack when the boat is tacked in the process of heaving to. We usually do this with two reefs in the main.

Once the wheel is secured, she rides quite nicely.

catherine_monaghan@merck.com
CD32 Realization
Raritan Bay

I have installed the jib boom with my Harken roller furling. When sailing with the working jib it works great. I mainly use the working jib late and early in the season (Delaware Bay) when winds tend tend to be brisk...which is also when I am likely to heave to. Does anyone have experience heaving to with the self-tacking jib? Without a leeward and windward jib sheet, there must be some other way to back the jib. By the way, if anyone is interested in rigging the self tack with a roller furling, let me know..there's nothing to it.

Paul

catherine_monaghan@merck.com

[Ryan T]

I was messing around with different sail combinations the other day during a 25 to 32 knot blow and found that my CD33 hove to best under double reefed main alone. I tried the 90% working jib alone, the jib and reefed main together, and the main only. The main only set the boat exactly beam to with a very nice slick to windward. Forward motion was zero. My boat is sloop rigged so I don't get to play around with club footed booms but I imagine that heaving to under main alone would be the same. I agree that the cutaway forefoot allows the bow to be pushed so that the boat falls off the wind when hove to using only the head sails.

Everyone,
This subject is of great interest to me also. I own a 30ft. CD cutter. I have thought of installing a folding payeye next to the toe rail athwartships the boom bail. Then I could run a backing line through a snatch block back to the cockpit. But it would be nice to find out if it works before I go drilling holes in my boat.
I suppose we will just have to experiment, unless someone else enlightens us. I think you could run a line through a block attached to the stanchion base in moderate conditions, without putting too much strain on it, just to get an indication of how well it would work.
The proper sail configuration should be the staysail with a reefed main. A reef point in the staysail would surely be helpful in severe conditions. Anyone planning a crossing should probably have this or a storm staysail.
I suggest we all experiment and get back together with the results.
Regards,
Carl Jones
S/V Spanish Eyes

The couple of times I tied the boom to the stanchion base the conditions were moderate (15 knots)-- not storm conditions. The staysail never really fills because with no way on and the sail backwinded like that it never gets to really pulling. I still wouldn't try it if it were really blowing. I think under those conditions as you say you'd want a real pad eye to anchor to. Not so easy to get a backing plate in with the liner below and you have to weigh that against how often are you going to be heaving to? When it's really blowing I like to run off before it and mainly use heaving to when you just need a break and don't want to lose ground. Regards, Tom

Tom,
15 knots should be enough wind to give a good idea of how that sheet run will work. Even though the staysail didn't fill, how did the boat lie? How far off the wind was she? How far to windward did you sheet the club boom? Was she making much way to windward, or just "jogging" in place and leaving a nice slick behind her as she slid downwind?
Running off is not always an option. Heaving to is a great storm strategy.
My previous boat, an Atkin Eric Junior, a wooden double-ended 25 foot sloop, with a real full keel, not the cutaway forefoot that we have, hove to like a duck. I think the cutaway forefoot causes the bow to fall off like it does when we try to heave to, and believe it is a disadvantage. My Eric Junior would come about on a dime. Some of the justifications for a cutaway forefoot are that the boat will come about better. My experience doesn't verify this. When she was hove to, the forefoot would "grip" the water and lie 30-40 degrees off the wind. It was easy to control how close she lay to the wind by adjusting the jib sheet. I'm offering this as a comparison between a "modern" traditional boat (the Cape Dory), to an old traditional boat (the Eric Junior was designed in 1929).
I know we have good seaworthy boats and that they will heave to. As prudent sailors, we must know how to do this, before we do anything major.
If anyone can offer anything about this, it would be appreciated.

rdtec@aol.com