Heaving To

marieholmfan

At what point should one take in all sail and lie ahull and why. What is the theory behind not heaving to with a sea anchor or ideally series drogue? I am not looking for a general discussion of heavy weather sailing (though I'd love one!) just an answer to this question.

Pigeon Reaper

There's no fixed rule for when to heave to and it varies from boat to boat. Long keels will tend to heave-to better than fin keeled boats. Heaving-to also normally involves a small fore sail backed with the rudder hard over to keep the head into the wind rather than lying to under poles. At this point you're stopping the boat to try and ride out heavy weather so it passes over quicker than if you ran with it. It also tends to reduce the chances of broaching or getting pooped. You'd want lots of sea room before taking any of these actions.

Heaving-to can also be used to have lunch between races when in a dinghy which has the fore stay running though the jib.

marieholmfan

Thanks Pigeon Reaper. Is heaving to sometimes more dangerous than lying under bare poles?

pedroeibar1

What to do when things are that bad depends on the boat, the prevailing conditions, the state of the crew and the amount of sea-room. Firstly, avoid being in that position if at all possible. But if you’re ‘out there’ before a ‘weather event’ it really is important to be prepared (boat and crew) for all eventualities.

Were I in a very light boat I would consider an option to lie-to, warp with something attached (sea-anchor preferably) paid out in front. Forget any suggestion of a bucket, that won’t withstand the forces. Some prefer to run, but with any cruiser I sailed with near flush decks, open cockpit (and often an open transom) I would not fancy that.

When hove-to, a fin keel boat has a tendency to pivot on its keel, which makes heaving-to in short seas more difficult because the rudder (or a big part of it) is often out of the water and the bow gets pushed around. That can very easily lead to ‘sliding’ off a wave into broaching-to, or worse, a roll. Sail balance is critical and that often is not easy to get right/adjust as it usually involves someone going up on deck, where, even in a harness, it’s not a safe or nice place to be in those conditions.

I’ve always preferred going ‘on the wind’ where possible, with the tiniest jib and fully reefed main for balance. If it is too much even fully reefed, drop the main down the track and pay off some sheet as needed, allowing the luff to lift. Pick the most comfortable tack, there always is a favoured one. On a ketch drop the main entirely (drop the boom also, and double lash it) and use the forward triangle and mizzen, reefed if needed. Being on the wind gives you more stability, control, direction and decision-making ability/options.

I’ve only occasionally had to run, the most notable time was because the storm jib had badly torn at the hanks and we were about to lose it. We then streamed a warp (made up of every bit line we could get our hands on) over the stern, made fast to each quarter. It was not easy getting the warp out of the locker with breaking water everywhere – I should have been more prepared. We ran at up to six knots under bare poles (45 ft. ketch!) A tanker/bulk carrier came on a collision course, scared the cr@p out of us but then called us up on Ch16 to ask if we were OK and gave us our position, (long before the days of GPS) which was a nice gesture and the first time I’ve ever been spoken to by a big ship. The warp was a total mess when we recovered it, twisted/tangled, took hours to sort out. We had the sea-room to run, it was in a SW storm off NW Spain – we had left Vigo and I reckoned it safer to stay out rather than close with the coast to get into La Coruna. Very scary at first, then it was OK as we could see the boat was handling well (she was new to us, a delivery job.)

It’s worthwhile practicing heaving-to, it is not as easy as it sounds and when in the teeth of a gale/storm it is not the place to try it for the first time.