How to Balance the Rig While Hove-To Video

How to Balance the Rig While Hove-To -Storm Tactics

OK, let's do a quick refresher here on wind and sail forces. If the wind hits the jib here, the boat will fall away from the wind. That's with the jib only. Now with a backed staysail, if you were laying with a backed staysail which would be something like that. The wind would hit even more directly and cup it, so it would push it off even more. So the bow would fall away proportionally more than if the jib were in this angle. Now, if you were laying with just the main only and the wind hits hard on the mainsail here, you will head up into the wind. If you had a full main, you would head up even more and you could even possibly tack, with a full main and a fresh wind. In this discussion of how I would heave-to with various boats, we're going to assume that there's at least forty knots of wind and the boats are fully found with storm sails, trysails, and appropriate gear for off-shore work. This particular boat is a fairly standard, modern type, maybe 35-feet long. And my first act would be to reef the main down to three-reefs and drop the headsail. And she would probably round up as shown and create a slick (TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP). Now, if she didn't sit as perfectly as this, if the bow fell off this way, I would put the helm down a little more, maybe another 5-degrees or so. So set the helm down a little bit and maybe sheet the triple reef main in a little more, say, a few more degrees like that. This would usually bring the head up closer to the wind. Sometimes, with the main sheeted in, the boat wants to head up; and this thin skegged boats are quite lively. With a puff of wind she'll pop up into the wind and tack over. And, what you may do then, is to reverse the helm a little bit. Take it 10 degrees that way and ease the reefed main out, so when she came up, the main would just start to flutter and she'd bear away again. Because the helm has been put up, she would want to bear away a little more. You play with the adjustment of these sails so, in a strong gust, the boat will come up and the luff of the sail will just break, just barely break and she'll fall off again. Most boats today have a roller-fuller headsail and this ends up as quite a big sausage, it's probably two-thirds of the sectional area of the mast. So with that forward, that will help hold the bow off on these modern boats. So it's a little bit like a backed storm sail. On a marconi cutter, I would start out, in forty knots of wind, with a double-reefed main and the helm tied down about 15 or 20 degrees. This usually works pretty well on boats that I've owned, like Serafynn and Talesin. The deep underbody grips the water up forward especially. And this can be an advantage, but sometimes, in big swell conditions, a swell can come by and grips the bow and pushes it down to leeward. So that's why you need a longer footed sail. A long-footed trysail would also do the job. A sloop, which has its mast farther forward, and also has a long keel, is probably going to need a long-footed trysail to heave-to. With the rig farther forward, the mast farther forward, the efforts are all up forward. So if you had a double reefed main, say at that point (01:21:09;20) she'd probably fall off on you. In many Sailing manuals, they have a recipe for heaving-to, and it's with a reefed main and staysail, or storm jib. You simply tack the boat and leave the sheets secured so the headsail ends up backed. Now this actually works quite well with any type of a reefed, gaffed mainsail. And the reason it works is because the gaff sail, here, has a lot more area aft. See, when you reef it down, the gaff actually goes, the area goes proportionally down. Now, when you reef a marconi sail, as here, the area goes forward. This area here pushes the boat up into the wind, so you need a small storm jib backed to hold the bow down. Now possibly, if you had a roller-furler, it might balance out OK and hold the bow down with a gaffed main. But I've found, with a reefed marconi sail, you don't need a backed staysail at all. And I don't particularly like the shrouds chaffing the windward staysail sheet here. ON A gaff-rigged vessel, when the wind increases over forty knots, you may have to use a trysail. Now, on a gaff-rigger, you can either have a gaff rig, small gaff trysail or you can have a traditional long-footed trysail. There's fore and against for both. I delivered a fifty-three foot ketch across the atlantic and found she hove-to nicely in 50-knots of wind with just the mizzen sheet in. It was a good strong mizzen. And we tied the helm full down. So it worked nicely in fifty knots. Another interesting thing was, she held her head up better when we put the center board all the way down. That got some grip on the water up near the main mast and she hung on nicely. Later on when the wind lightened up, forty-knots, we weren't too worried when her head fell off a little bit, her head fell off. But the seas weren't breaking dangerously, so it worked fine for us. Other people I've talked to about ketches said their boat wouldn't heave-to unless they had a trysail on the main. So this is another option you may have to resort to if you have a ketch. If I heave-to in a schooner in forty-knots of wind, my first instinct would be to deeply reef the main or use a long-footed trysail here, tie the helm down about 30, 20 to 30 degrees, and if she staid with her head up into the wind nicely, fine and good. But, if she tried to tack, then you may have to resort to using your foresail sheeted forward or your fore-staysail sheeted in this manner to hold the bow off and steady. ``

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OK, let's do a quick refresher here on wind and sail forces. If the wind hits the jib here, the boat will fall away from the wind. That's with the jib only. Now with a backed staysail, if you were laying with a backed staysail which would be something like that. The wind would hit even more directly and cup it, so it would push it off even more. So the bow would fall away proportionally more than if the jib were in this angle. Now, if you were laying with just the main only and the wind hits hard on the mainsail here, you will head up into the wind. If you had a full main, you would head up even more and you could even possibly tack, with a full main and a fresh wind. In this discussion of how I would heave-to with various boats, we're going to assume that there's at least forty knots of wind and the boats are fully found with storm sails, trysails, and appropriate gear for off-shore work. This particular boat is a fairly standard, modern type, maybe 35-feet long. And my first act would be to reef the main down to three-reefs and drop the headsail. And she would probably round up as shown and create a slick (TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP). Now, if she didn't sit as perfectly as this, if the bow fell off this way, I would put the helm down a little more, maybe another 5-degrees or so. So set the helm down a little bit and maybe sheet the triple reef main in a little more, say, a few more degrees like that. This would usually bring the head up closer to the wind. Sometimes, with the main sheeted in, the boat wants to head up; and this thin skegged boats are quite lively. With a puff of wind she'll pop up into the wind and tack over. And, what you may do then, is to reverse the helm a little bit. Take it 10 degrees that way and ease the reefed main out, so when she came up, the main would just start to flutter and she'd bear away again. Because the helm has been put up, she would want to bear away a little more. You play with the adjustment of these sails so, in a strong gust, the boat will come up and the luff of the sail will just break, just barely break and she'll fall off again. Most boats today have a roller-fuller headsail and this ends up as quite a big sausage, it's probably two-thirds of the sectional area of the mast. So with that forward, that will help hold the bow off on these modern boats. So it's a little bit like a backed storm sail. On a marconi cutter, I would start out, in forty knots of wind, with a double-reefed main and the helm tied down about 15 or 20 degrees. This usually works pretty well on boats that I've owned, like Serafynn and Talesin. The deep underbody grips the water up forward especially. And this can be an advantage, but sometimes, in big swell conditions, a swell can come by and grips the bow and pushes it down to leeward. So that's why you need a longer footed sail. A long-footed trysail would also do the job. A sloop, which has its mast farther forward, and also has a long keel, is probably going to need a long-footed trysail to heave-to. With the rig farther forward, the mast farther forward, the efforts are all up forward. So if you had a double reefed main, say at that point (01:21:09;20) she'd probably fall off on you. In many Sailing manuals, they have a recipe for heaving-to, and it's with a reefed main and staysail, or storm jib. You simply tack the boat and leave the sheets secured so the headsail ends up backed. Now this actually works quite well with any type of a reefed, gaffed mainsail. And the reason it works is because the gaff sail, here, has a lot more area aft. See, when you reef it down, the gaff actually goes, the area goes proportionally down. Now, when you reef a marconi sail, as here, the area goes forward. This area here pushes the boat up into the wind, so you need a small storm jib backed to hold the bow down. Now possibly, if you had a roller-furler, it might balance out OK and hold the bow down with a gaffed main. But I've found, with a reefed marconi sail, you don't need a backed staysail at all. And I don't particularly like the shrouds chaffing the windward staysail sheet here. ON A gaff-rigged vessel, when the wind increases over forty knots, you may have to use a trysail. Now, on a gaff-rigger, you can either have a gaff rig, small gaff trysail or you can have a traditional long-footed trysail. There's fore and against for both. I delivered a fifty-three foot ketch across the atlantic and found she hove-to nicely in 50-knots of wind with just the mizzen sheet in. It was a good strong mizzen. And we tied the helm full down. So it worked nicely in fifty knots. Another interesting thing was, she held her head up better when we put the center board all the way down. That got some grip on the water up near the main mast and she hung on nicely. Later on when the wind lightened up, forty-knots, we weren't too worried when her head fell off a little bit, her head fell off. But the seas weren't breaking dangerously, so it worked fine for us. Other people I've talked to about ketches said their boat wouldn't heave-to unless they had a trysail on the main. So this is another option you may have to resort to if you have a ketch. If I heave-to in a schooner in forty-knots of wind, my first instinct would be to deeply reef the main or use a long-footed trysail here, tie the helm down about 30, 20 to 30 degrees, and if she staid with her head up into the wind nicely, fine and good. But, if she tried to tack, then you may have to resort to using your foresail sheeted forward or your fore-staysail sheeted in this manner to hold the bow off and steady. ``

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