Heaving to is balance between the backwards thrust of the headsail, the forward thrust of the mainsail and the rudder hard over keeping the whole thing going. You're also balancing the rotation of the boat about the keel. The headsail is trying to turn the boat off the wind and the mainsail and rudder are trying to turn it up into wind. If the sails are balanced while moving the boat forward then they should be close to balanced while going backwards. That being said, I don't like having more than ~100% when heaving-to since this means that the sail may be riding on the mast. More than ~100% unfurled is fine just make sure to ease the sheet enough to prevent the sail from riding on the mast. Adjust the mainsheet well above center line provides more counter rotation to the headsail AND more movement backwards giving the rudder more control. Adjust the mainsheet below center line and you should get less counter rotation and more forward thrust. This slows the boat but may not leave enough control with the rudder.
Some boats don't hove-to. Period. Some don't do well in different wind and wave conditions. Employing a drouge might be helpful for some of these boats. Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD On Aug 13, 2015 6:17 PM, "Patrick Davin via CnC-List" <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm splitting this out from my reefing email because that one was getting > big (sorry!) and heaving to seems big enough to be a separate topic. I > searched the archive but didn't find too much on what configurations people > have found work best. > > Two questions really - > - What sail config leads to a good heave-to for your boat in moderately > high winds (25-35 kts)? > > On an LF38 with 130% genoa I've already figured out a 130% genoa is too > much fore sail to heave to well in winds above 15. When we heaved to in 15 > kts with full genoa the bow was fluctuating between 70 to 90 degrees. > Worked okay but not ideal. > > In 25 kts I furled to ~100% and it didn't work at all - the wind and waves > blew the bow past a beam reach and we had to abort the heave-to. Helm was > hard over alee (rudder to windward) and mainsail was trimmed in but the bow > blew through 90 degrees, *fast*. Not fun. Does the boat heave-to best with > no foresail at all when winds are over 25? > > - Is heaving to a good technique for putting a reef in? I read this idea > somewhere and it seems to make sense - a nice calm boat so you can take > your time getting reefed without all hell breaking loose. Haven't had a > chance to try it in >25kts yet though (due to the abort I mentioned above). > The key would be whether the main can be dumped (sheeted out) enough to > take the pressure off the mainsail track, yet not mess up the heave-to. > > -Patrick > S/V Violet Hour, LF38 > Seattle, WA > > _______________________________________________ > > Email address: > [email protected] > To change your list preferences, including unsubscribing -- go to the > bottom of page at: > http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com > > >
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