Plastic Classic Forum

It is not that hard to come across some advice in some sailing article that talks about - "We just back the jib and heave to, then we can deal with the main." The concept that one can heave to while adding/removing sail baffles me. Doesn't your boat need to be balanced in order to heave to, and adding/removing/changing sail fundamentally changes that balance, so how can anyone stay hove to while changing their sail plan? Do these sailors have their boats figured out in such a manner that they can heave to with main alone and with jib alone?
I'm flummoxed.

Hi Marvin -

At it's simplest, heaving-to is just coming up through the eye of the wind as if tacking, but leaving the jib sheeted as it was and allowing it to backwind. When this happens, unsheet the main and let it luff, and put the tiller (or wheel) down to leeward and lash or lock it into place, so that the boat would otherwise be steered into the wind.

What happens is that the backwinded jib causes the bow to want to fall off, and as it does, the boat begins to move forward. At that point the rudder forces the bow back to windward. After a couple of progressively smaller oscillations, the boat will settle down somewhat, and it is the balance between these two forces which makes heaving-to what it is.

So when hove-to the main is luffing, and as you are mostly head-to-wind, you can drop or reef it easily.

Boats do react to these forces differently; some will want or need less rudder, some more or less backwinding of the jib. But when you get them balanced, they will be working against each other just right, and it is amazing how the boat settles down.

Hope that helps!

Makes sense. I'll have to try that with my Wanderer.

Is this how you do it with your Alberg 30? With my Tanzer 22, I found that it needed some mainsail in order to create that balance.

Done it on pretty much every boat I've ever sailed, at some point in time. Hobie 16's were probably the 'trickiest' to do it with. They are so lightweight that big waves & wind will back them down, making the rudders work in reverse and the boat will take off. I learned to use a bungee to hold the rudders over so I could still work them when needed, and kept an ready eye on the mainsheet (as you don't drop the sail on those) to make sure it didn't snag on something and become effectively (and suddenly ) "sheeted in".

On the Tanzer, using the main like that - did you keep it barely sheeted in, or slightly backwinded?