Heaving to

[casampson]

Last time I practiced heaving to my navigation app showed an average speed of 1.2 knots. I thought this was my forward progress, but I learned from watching a video on YouTube that this was probably my speed as I drifted downwind while hove to and not forward progress at all. This makes perfect sense when you think about it.

[John Stone]

Last time I practiced heaving to my navigation app showed an average speed of 1.2 knots. I thought this was my forward progress, but I learned from watching a video on YouTube that this was probably my speed as I drifted downwind while hove to and not forward progress at all. This makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Could be. But, the best way to tell for sure is to tear off some small pieces of paper towel, wet them, and drop them over the windward side of the boat. If you are drifting downwind squarely you’ll see the paper towel appear to be drifting straight up wind of the boat.

[Bill Goldsmith]

Every boat heaves to a little differently and different conditions may require a different approach. My CD32 heaves to quite well in moderate conditions with jib only, no main at all. My old CD27 did as well. When the breeze gets heavier and the water is choppy, I have found that the main stabilizes the boat better than running on jib alone, but will forereach more which can be controlled with reefing.


I'm not sure who wrote the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaving_to but I agree with this part, as it describes what I have experienced:

"When hove to, the boat will heel, there will be some drift to leeward and some tendency to forereach, so adequate seaway must be allowed for. In rough weather, this leeway can actually leave a 'slick' effect to windward, in which the waves are smaller than elsewhere.[7] This can make a rest or meal break a little more comfortable at times."

A boat hove to is still considered "under way, making way" under the rules.

[John Stone]

Every boat heaves to a little differently and different conditions may require a different approach. My CD32 heaves to quite well in moderate conditions with jib only, no main at all. My old CD27 did as well. When the breeze gets heavier and the water is choppy, I have found that the main stabilizes the boat better than running on jib alone, but will forereach more which can be controlled with reefing.


I'm not sure who wrote the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaving_to but I agree with this part, as it describes what I have experienced:

"When hove to, the boat will heel, there will be some drift to leeward and some tendency to forereach, so adequate seaway must be allowed for. In rough weather, this leeway can actually leave a 'slick' effect to windward, in which the waves are smaller than elsewhere.[7] This can make a rest or meal break a little more comfortable at times."

A boat hove to is still considered "under way, making way" under the rules.

I am not trying to be argumentative or combative. And I am not an authority on all things sailing. I’m always learning. But we should aspire to use precise words precisely. Wikipedia is not a valid reference—it’s certainly not authoritative for anything, much less sailing.

Let’s forget the Pardeys for a moment. Let’s turn to another couple many consider highly competent in the world of offshore sailing—Evans Starzinger and Beth Leonard. They mostly sail modern under-bodied boats. Different than CDs. Though they did circumnavigate in a Shannon 38. They wrote a very good book about modern offshore sailing called “The Voyagers Handbook.” I understand they are friends with the Pardeys. But they disagree with them on storm tactics. Fine. But they do agree that hove-to is parked. No forward movement. “Hove-to. When hove-to, a sailboat makes no forward progress but drifts more or less dead down wind.” The Voyagers Handbook, 2d Ed, page 459.

I have used the term hove-to loosely myself on occasion. But it’s inaccurate. I think we do that because getting a boat properly hove-to is difficult. We mean it sort of “generally.” But it’s incorrect. And many boats, especially modern ones, simply won’t do it—they fore-reach. To do it they require a drogue and who wants to do that unless its a survival situation. This would be serious thread drift but I suspect the difficulty of heaving to with modern boats is why so many folks have gone to the Jordan Series Drogue which is employed over the stern so boats can “run off.” I have a Jordan Series Drogue. But never used it. Didn’t take it with me to the West Indies. Pros and cons probably better left for another thread.

So call it what you want but if your boat is moving forward understand that you may confuse the person you are talking to if you say “hove-to” when you really mean fore reaching and that seems counter-productive and contrary to the reason we have so many specialized words in sailing.

If you don’t have a copy of the Pardeys Storm tactics I highly recommend it. Even if you never intend to sail offshore it is very informative and just good reading. They also made a video/DVD called Storm Tactics.

[Bill Goldsmith]

I am not trying to be argumentative or combative.

To be clear I am not either, just trying to flesh out the subject. You make a number of excellent points!

[John Stone]

Same here. The more I learn the more I realize I don’t know.

I know I love to sail beautiful boats. I like to stay free of complications. That’s about all I know for certain when it comes to sailing. Everything else is negotiable.

[fmueller]

Bill,

i sure would like to be able to heave to on jib alone on my 27 ... but so far have not been able to ...

do you remember particulars ? How much jib, how hard to leeward with the helm? Did you just let the main flog ?

thanks

Fred

[John Stone]

Bill,

i sure would like to be able to heave to on jib alone on my 27 ... but so far have not been able to ...

do you remember particulars ? How much jib, how hard to leeward with the helm? Did you just let the main flog ?

thanks

Fred

I have never seen a boat truly hove-to under a jib alone...maybe a jib and a mizzen. Even with the helm all the way to leeward the boat is probably slowly fore-reaching a scalopping course. Does not mean it’s not a useful technique for slowing the boat down and creating a more controlled way to reef or shake reefs out of the mains’l. I’ve done something like this with a stays’l only. It keeps the boat from rolling and allows it to slowly move forward. And remember, what might work at 12-20 kts to create comfortable conditions on the boat for lunch or rest may not work as the wind and seas build up through 25-40 kts and beyond. But that’s true even with procedures used to achieve classically defined hove-to. Forces on the sails and hull increase exponentially as the wind increases.

As a side note, even though the Pardey’s wrote about how great Taliesin could be hove-to under just a storm trys’l, I noticed a very small storm jib get added to their sail inventory in the late 1990s. Later in life they added a bronze sail track on top of the 8’ bowsprit to allow that small jib’s tack to be hauled out on the bowsprit to the head-stay without having to crawl out there in high winds and big seas. I have before and after pictures of that track. Think about that...they needed to counter act the force of the wind on the trys’l not with the very convenient stays’l but with another smaller sail much further forward than the stays’l. I read once where Taliesin would sometimes tack when hove-to. So the small storm jib was probably needed to keep the bow from turning into the wind. Also, when the wind was over about 55 knots they would deploy a small 8’ drogue to keep her from forereaching and hold her behind the projective slick. It’s a good example for us mortals to appreciate there is no one maneuver that works for all boats or even one boat in all conditions. When the waves get big, there can be very little wind in the troughs while the boat gets blasted after she rides up over the crests. All those variables have to be managed to get a boat hove-to. When you think about it, it’s no wonder so many sailors choose to run off with a Jordan Series Drogue—a much simpler tactic to employ...except you need searoom to leeward and it keeps you in the low pressure system longer.

[Nebe]

Bill,

i sure would like to be able to heave to on jib alone on my 27 ... but so far have not been able to ...

do you remember particulars ? How much jib, how hard to leeward with the helm? Did you just let the main flog ?

thanks

Fred

One of my mild complaints with my old cd27 was the fact that the boat would not want to keep its bow into the wind at all when not under way. The second the bow falls off from being pointed dead upwind, the wind would whip her sideways very fast. Heaving to was very difficult to do as well.

[fmueller]

Nebe,

Agree.

Wither the wind goes so goes the bow of my 27, if not under sail or some other directing force, and quickly. Makes slip life at the RIYC marina "interesting".

At John Stones prompting I have read most of Lin and Larry Pardeys "Storm Tactics" . A kindle version can be had for $10 on Amazon. It's a good read for sure.

A couple of comments:

- Yes, it does seem that much of the boating world (expert and novice) have confused fore-reaching with being hove-to, the latter sublime state having been attained when all forward (or aft) motion has ceased. The thing is - I have been trying to heave to and just not got there yet ... and the next thing for me to try is to heave to (or nearly heave to) on just the main, or with very very little jib and mostly mainsail just to see if I can do it. If I'm not successful I'll just have to settle for the still pretty sublime little "fore-reach/drift" that my boat does quite handily already and just use that trick when the situation (nature usually) calls for it.

- I'd be a damned fool to let myself and little Jerezana get into a spot where I actually need to heave to and also launch a para-anchor a la Pardey. My boat and myself are just not equipped for such extremes.

cheers

Fred

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Tactics-Ha ... way&sr=8-2