heaving to

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What is heaving to? ‘To lay a ship on the wind with her helm a-lee and her shortened and so trimmed that as she comes up to the wind she will fall off again on the same and thus make no headway’.

1: Hove to on a quiet 5: Different hull and stretch of water for a keel configurations spot of lunch. heave to in diffferent ways. In the case of this Hallberg Rassy 352, her 4 & 5: Different displacement and methods for lashing underwater profile your tiller and wheel. lend themself to a hassle free heave to. 2

When do we use it? boat will try to drive to windward and as it Any time we want to stop the boat in the does so the backed headsail will bring the water. Heaving to is one of the tactics we bow down again and the boat will remain use in heavy weather. In fact in very strong stationary or very nearly so. Every boat winds it may be our survival strategy. But will require adjustment of the sails, the there are other occasions when heaving to amount of , the angle of the rudder and is very useful. As long as I am out of the so forth to bring her to a stop. And if she way of traffic and not in a hurrry but with does make any way while hove to, this is 3 enough sea room I will heave to, to stop known as fore-reaching. Once we have for lunch Pic 1. I will heave to if things balanced the boat in the heave to position are getting out of hand and I need to settle we should lash the tiller Pic 4, or helm the boat down. And of course heaving to is Pic 5 or lock it off. Step one in our Man Overboard recovery In strong winds of 30+ knots or more procedure. When the boat goes into the where one will probably have a triple reef The Beauty of heave to position, all the bustle and drama in the main or a trysail and a storm set, of a moments before disappear. She settles the boat may well have sufficient windage and a calm descends. It is the best thing in the topsides, furled headsail and the like, 4 one can do to buy a little time and have a that one can heave to without any headsail moment to think about things. set at all. One would drop the storm jib, then tack the boat and put the helm down how do we do it? about 20° and she should stop. heaving to You don’t need to shorten sails; If the Boats with different hull and keel Being able to stop our boat whenever we want is a very important skill wind is light you simply tack without configurations heave to in different ways. touching the headsail sheets Pic 2. Leave At one end of the scale we have heavy to have under the belt. Duncan Wells take us through Heaving To. the leeward sheet as is and once the displacement boats with long keels and PHOTOS: Guy Foan / Duncan Wells bow goes through the wind the headsail a good deep fore-foot (the point where will be backed Pic 3. With the helm 20 the stem is joined to the forward end of to 40° a’lee, depending on hull, rig and the keel) and they heave to in a very well 5 displacement, the main will power up, the mannered fashion. At the other end of the >> 102 Sailing Today July 2011 heaving toJuly 2011 Sailing Today 103 seamanship heaving to

And this is what we found Weather F2/3 Variable sea state calm. The wind was much lighter than we Para would have liked and so all the boats behaved beautifully.

Protective Slick 7 WIND 250ft Cosmopolitan - Jeanneau Sun Odyssey, hove to easily and stopped dead Pic 6 and 7. The light airs suited her perfectly Pic 8. I suspect that in more Hove-To wind we would have had to shorten sail 50° to the considerably to get her to stand still. Wind 50° The Collision 6 Regulations ST ST ST ST Your (International Regulations for Tips Facts Tips Video Tips the Prevention of Collisons at Sea IRPCS) Drift of 9 Yacht Where we are on a collision course – scale are some a Westerly Centaur, bilge keeler and that is to say, two vessel are closing boats with a Cosmopolitan a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 36i and the bearing is constant – the order very shallow with a short fin keel and spade rudder. Vouvray - Westerly Centaur. She had an of giveway vessels is as follows; fore-foot and overlapping genoa which didn’t make for Power gives way to … they are often Starboard tack such a neat looking heave to Pic 9 but Sail gives way to.. 8 difficult to Bear in mind that if you have the choice balance and you always want to heave to on starboard she stopped nicely Fishing or Trawling give way to… ST and registered 0.0 sometimes tack, let’s remind ourselves of why with a knots through the Constrained by Draught gives way can drive themselves out of the heave to quick look at the collision regulations. (see Which side is your slip sideways through the water and create to… Asks? water, although 10 position and then you are off. ST Tip) the just perceptible galley on? a slick to windward which will protect her Restricted in ability to Manoeuvre So, assuming we are out of any wake off her stern So if we are going to heave from breaking seas. gives way to… Sea room Fairways, Narrow Channels, Traffic told us she was to on starboard tack, well Lin and Larry Pardey, the acknowledged Not Under Command When you are hove to you will be drifting Separation Schemes or Prohibited or moving very slowly designed boats will have their storm survival experts advocate the use of And any vessel overtaking – with the tide and the wind and so you need Precautionary Areas, as long as we are Pic 10. galley on the port side - to a para anchor to hold the boat and to allow overtaking being defined as ‘coming enough sea room to be able to allow for this. hove to on starboard we are the stand on Dorothy Lee - leeward - as it is much easier it to drift slowly downwind to create this up with another vessel from a Remember if the tidal rate is 3.5 knots you vessel on all counts. Remember we judge HR352. Again she to work a galley that’s to protective slick Diag 1. Remember, it is not direction more than 22.5° abaft her will have been moved 3.5 miles by the tide which tack we are on by the side the hove to nicely Pic leeward than to windward. the wind that will cause you damage in a beam’ – must keep out of the way in one hour. So you need to monitor tidal is, so the headsail, whether 11 but unlike the Which side is your galley on? storm but waves breaking over the boat or until past and clear. drift carefully. In the ocean this is less of a backed or not is irrelevant A sailing boat Jeanneau or the You know something? For all breaking waves rolling the boat. There are then two problem. Inshore it is crucial. on port has to give way to us. A sailing Westerly she was the reputation that Hallberg still making 1 knot further situations that boat on starboard that is approaching Rassy sailing boats have, and Thank you to First Class Sailing – www. affect us. When both through the water forward of the beam will be the windward I think it is generally well firstclasssailing.com 0203 006 3717 – for sailing vessels have Practice according to the log the wind on the same One should practice heaving to on a boat and has to give way to us. Pic 12. earned, my 352 has the galley their help and the loan of Cosmopolitan regular basis. Try it in light airs. Try it Any vessel approaching us from more on the starboard side and so and thank you to Ian Collins for his help side, the windward Both Dorothy Lee vessel must give way when the wind has piped up a bit. Notice than 22.5° abaft the beam is overtaking and Vouvray lay hove to on starboard the galley and the loan of Vouvray. ■ to the downwind the difference. One minute you might be and must give way. Of course we know nearly beam on is to windward. You can’t have vessel. When we are pounding to windward and then the next, that even though we may be the stand on to the light airs. 11 everything I suppose. using our engines, hove to you will wonder what all the fuss boat if we see that the give way vessel is Cosmopolitan whether with sails or was about. not giving way then we need to ‘take such managed to lie at Storm conditions About the Author Price: £14.99 not we are deemed Available action as will best aid to avoid a collision’. about 70 Heaving to in storm conditions can be part Duncan Wells is an RYA to be a power driven at www. The test However being hove to there is not much degrees. In of our survival strategy though opinions instructor and Principal of vessel and if we wileynautical. To see how different hull and keel we can do at the last minute and we are stronger winds on how to deal with storm conditions are Westview Sailing. For video have another power tutorials on navigation and com configurations behave we practiced heaving a bit of a sitting duck. Still I have never I would expect contentious indeed and always boat specific. driven vessel on our them all to lie seamanship go to www.westviewsailing. to with Dorothy Lee, a Hallberg Rassy heard of anyone having been run down The theory is that with the wind at 50°off starboard side we must give way. 12 at 45 - 50° to co.uk and click Reading & Videos. 352 with a long fin and skeg, Vouvray, while hove to. the wind. the bow and the boat stationary she will 104 Sailing Today July 2011 heaving toJuly 2011 Sailing Today 105