Heaving to on a cat

[Olorin]

We did it while crossing the Pacific a couple of times.
We furled the main completely, let out about 1/4 of the jib and back winded it, and lashed the helm in a position that balanced the boat.
We drifted back into the smooth water at about 1/4 knot.

[Paul Howard]

I owned a Manta 38 for 16years, sailed 60,000+nm and hove to many times, with winds gusting over 60knots, sometimes lay ahull with no sail up, depended on the purpose and conditions. I have owned a light weight daggerboard cat for five years and have hove-to several times, usually just to slow down in the dark, wind not more than 40knots. The fixed keels with about 4ft and a few inches draft is very different from the daggerboard boat.
The objective is always to get the boat to lie comfortably for the crew despite the conditions. If it is not comfortable it is not correct.
Fixed keels:
Most often hove-to with the appropriate amount of sail area as if we were sailing.
At 40knots, double reef main and about 2/3thirds of jib. As the wind gets higher, less jib and third reef in the main. Extreme is the 100sqft. storm jib and third reef.
The boat did not like to lay steady with just the main, though I had a monohull (did a circumnavigation) that would lie quietly with just the mainsail up.
When heaving-to you are balancing the windage of the jib and hulls/superstructure with the forward drive of the mainsail, adding just enough helm to turn to windward to balance everything, enough so the boat will not bear away and jibe (too much jib and not enough helm to windward) or to tack (too much mainsail drive and incorrect helm position).
Every boat is different and what works on one boat will not necessarily work on another as per sail area and amount of helm. Large breaking waves require different settings than flatter seas, as large waves will swat the bows and drive them to leeward and there is the danger of an accidental jibe if there is not enough helm to windward, but too much and the boat will tack as the boat falls away and the more aft the wind is the more drive on the mainsail. Being 200 miles off a windward shore is different that open ocean with a thousand or more miles of fetch.
My goal with that boat was to get her to make a course slightly to windward (after leeway) moving at a speed of about 1.5knot. The boat would lie about 45degrees to the wind, but fall off and round up, see-sawing back and forth (slowly) and sliding off the waves. I never felt there was a danger of capsize, even in large breaking waves and the boat slowly rose to the waves and they passed under her.
I have lay to a sea anchor, much more comfortable and more work, but heaving to with some sail up is less work when you want to get sailing again.
I also always heave-to when I reef the main as the slowed boat motion makes it so much easier.
On the daggerboard boat the lateral resistance can be adjusted, the rate of side-slipping. I only put the windward daggerboard down, about 3/4 of full depth, the other board up. This boat has a square top mainsail, so lots of sail area high up, so needs deep reefing to lessen the forward drive of the mainsail. The bows are lower and there is less cabin windage, and the fractional jib is smaller, so requires more (proportionally) jib. The jib is also on a self-tacking track, thus needs to be tied to windward.
By adjusting the three components (four on the daggerboard boat) of windage to keep the bows from going up into the wind (combined jib and cabin windage), forward drive of the mainsail, and helm angle (about 1/3 to 1/2 to windward) she will lay quietly and you can be comfortable.

[Bullshooter]

Originally Posted by contrail

it is often possible to heave-to with only the main up. The main can be stalled to achieve the same effect. I have done this to sail sideways down the fairway between to lines of moorings.

Contrail,

Can you elaborate on how to stall the main? I am picturing something like a jibe preventer to back wind it, but that doesn't seem right.

[Bullshooter]

Thank you guys. Food for thought.

[Moontide]

Have a Lagoon 470 and have found a small main, small jib overtrimmed, traveler all the way to leeward and helm locked to to windward the boat will sail a very slow S pattern. When main fills it will head up and when the main starts luffing and loses power the overtrimmed (or even backed a little) jib will bring the bow down until it repeats the cycle. Have only tried this in close to 50 knots to test it but think it would do the same in more wind. The boat rides very easily in substantial seas with the waves coming off the windward bow.

[contrail]

Originally Posted by Bullshooter

Contrail,

Can you elaborate on how to stall the main? I am picturing something like a jibe preventer to back wind it, but that doesn't seem right.

Sure. On any boat, if you are sailing under main alone, you need to ease the main; it sees more or less clean wind, and a clean wind angle, as opposed to when there is a sail, the jib, forward. The jib "turns" the wind appreciably as the wind passes over it. With main and jib, the two sails are trimmed differently, because the wind direction is different. When sailing with just the main, the luff should be aligned more or less as the jib luff (if present) would be. If you are trimmed correctly, with both sails, and then you furl or drop the jib, you need to ease the main to keep sailing efficiently. Fail to do that and the the sail stalls and, next thing, we are reading a post that says that such and such a boat can't be sailed under main alone.



To stall the main, you simply make this mistake deliberately. The sail begins to loose its forward drive and increase it's leeway. Since a cat will typically sail at a slightly wider angle to the wind, that means there is a bigger angle that you can turn toward the wind, thus increasing the stall. With a monohull, the margins are much smaller between sailing, stalling, and luffing.



Try the following: sailing under main alone, bring the boat right into the wind so that it luffs, stops forward progress, and starts sliding backwards. Put the rudder over one way or another, but you won't start sailing again unless you ease the main. The main will just force you back into the wind. But, if you ease it sufficiently, as you go backwards, the bow will fall off until the sail can actually make forward progress, and off you go. This is very apparent in dinghies and cats. Play with it and you will understand what I meant when I referred to stalling the mainsail.

[Mr B]

I only did it once, I was in 6 metre following waves at night in Bass Strait,
when a huge wave came over the back of the boat and crashed down on the whole boat,
I was in well over 40 knots of wind, Following,
The cockpit covers took the brunt of it,
Ripped out the stitching in most of the covers,
Filled the cockpit with water, washing me across the cockpit and almost over the side,'I slammed into the seat on the other side of the boat and injured my back,
I was doing about 3 knots on the motor, The drive leg acts as a drogue and keeps me on track,
Im a cork and sit on top of the water, I have the windward side centre board down about halfway,
The boat goes between 0 Knots and 10 knots, depending on the waves,
Autopilot keeps it almost in a straight line, Hahahaha
But then the autopilot stopped working and I had been hand steering for about six hours or so,
I had heard about heaving too in a storm from on here in CF, But didnt believe it could be done,
Being exhausted, I decided to give it a go,

I left the motor running at about 3 knots, and went inside and sat down,
No sails up in these winds,
Incredibly enough, My boat just kept going on its own, I was very surprised at how well it just cruised along on its own,

I finally got directed to go behind Gabo Island and drop anchor till the gale blew itself out,
That was from the VRS from Mallacoota that was directing me on the VHF,
I got informed that the wind was 70 knots on the VHF as I was finding an anchor spot behind Gabo Island where I anchored for four days,

Some bloke that lives on Gabo Island came down with a light and directed me to the reef halfway along the island where good anchoring is secure,

Cheers, Brian,

[Training Wheels]

Nice story, but where’s the hove to part?

[Rimica]

There is a lesson here that we learned the hard way. The load on the clew of a cat large mainsail is much larger than the load on the tack. This is why a one line reefing system on a cat is a difficult proposition. The reefing line clew points are the weak links because of that clew load. Chaff kills the reefing line at that point. I now always tie a Dynema loop around the boom and the clew point to take the load and release the reef line a bit to take the tension off. The reef line becomes the safety.

[Bullshooter]

Rimica,

Are you saying that after you have reefed the main, you then tie the loop around the boom and through the reefing grommet?

[Rimica]

Yes that is what I do. The loop is made of a Dynema core to which I added an extra Dynema cover for chaff protection. The issue for me was the chaffing of the reef line after sailing several days on a given reef point.

[boatman61]

Unfortunately on some makes there is no reefing grommet just a block on a webbing loop.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by Rimica

Yes that is what I do. The loop is made of a Dynema core to which I added an extra Dynema cover for chaff protection. The issue for me was the chaffing of the reef line after sailing several days on a given reef point.

Rimica (& Boatman) getting to the end of my boom in that kind of weather is a job for superman, not me. But after chafing through numerous reefing lines, & playing with a block on the 1st reef kringle, we had our new sails sewn with full blocks at all 3 reef points on the leech. They make blocks specially to be sewn onto sails for this. No problems with only a single bit of webbing strap, & no rope chafe either. Given the way our reefing lines lead, 2 of those blocks are on one side of the sail, & the 3rd on the other.

BSer, we've hove-to once in our old tri, as we arrived off the San Blass too late to make it in before nightfall. Reefed main, backed jib, bit of helm, & she sashayed gently down the coast, rocking back & forth. About midnight I came up & flopped us over to the other tack, as we were sashaying a bit faster than I wanted.

But another option is a sea-anchor parachute. We've carried one for 20 years, but never had to deploy it in anger. The long rope is supposed to cut the waves, making them break before they get to the boat, so they're not as sharp. Like a liferaft, it's something we carry for emergencies that we hope we never have to use. We've heard it can make life quite peaceful, but deploying & recovering it is much more work than simply heaving-to.

We did find ourselves surfing down 20' seas in 40+ knots of wind off Columbia in 2003. I was younger & more stupid then, so didn't trail warps or anything to slow us down (only a scrap of jib out for steering) but we really should have had a drogue or something trailing to slow us down. I really don't want to go 23 knots in this boat ever again!

A big, long rope, in a big bight with both ends tied to big aft cleats will not only slow you down but will cut the waves to make them break behind you, so you don't get pooped. You can hang things on the rope to increase the drag, but you'll likely lose them when you try to recover the rope, as the loads are so high you pretty much have to let one end go & then pull it in from the other end.

[Rimica]

There is another solution to the reefing line chaffing. Facnor in France has come up with a latching mechanism. Looks expensive but it is clever. If you google "Hook de Ris Facnor" you will get to the page. This is a demo video at the bottom of the following article: https://voilesetvoiliers.ouest-franc...4-31d412a010c6

[CATJAVA]

I heave to a lot since sailing on JAVA, 48ft Crowther cat, for over 15 years; 2x across the Pacific, West coast Americas to SE Asia. I never like to enter a bay or island I haven’t been to in the dark, so usually heave to 20nm distant from land & wait for the sun.

It is easy for me. Since I have lots of windage on my bows to push them off the wind, I only need my main for balance so don’t use my jib. Goes like this: roll up the jib, center the main so we don’t fall off too much, and center the wheel. If you don’t center the main, you will point farther off the wind&waves, making for a more rolly ride. If you don’t center the wheel you can get pushed off port or stbd if u get pushed back by a larger wave or wind gust if your helm not centered. My boat is usually balanced in most winds with 2nd reef in main. But it really depends on wind speed. Less wind means less reef needed for balance.

You really need to play with it & practice to get some experience with YOUR cat. I know by now that I may get pushed back overnight by 5-6 nm max, but usually make 10-12nm into the wind. I usually check out my position once or twice a night. Once u get comfortable with it you’ll ask yourself why more cat sailors don’t heave to more often? Nothing like a comfortable meal or nap just bobbing up and down! Evan