How to Heave to:

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IN a storm, want to take a break?

Heaving to is a safe way to deal with various and difficult situations

WHAT IS HEAVING TO?

When you are successfully hove-to, your sailboat will be in a stable situation with the mainsail and headsail still up. Your forward speed will be minimal and you’ll be sliding downwind slightly. This makes it an ideal strategy for the situations above. Essentially you’re under full sail but nearly stopped! Cool eh?

How Heaving to works

The mechanics of the heave-to situation is that the forward speed of the boat has dropped to a minimum because the headsail is back winded (aback) and the mainsail has been eased out far enough to reduce nearly all of the forward driving lift on the sail. The backwinded head sail creates a large turning moment on the boat to turn it downwind. As the boat turns downwind, however, the boat tends to pick up a little speed. As the boat picks up a little speed, the windward locked wheel causes the rudder to turn the boat back upwind, killing off the speed. It creates a little see-saw action. You can adjust the see-saw action by adjusting the set of the headsail, the mainsail, and the rudder angle. Each boat will see-saw a little differently in differing wind conditions and due to the distances of the rudder and the headsail center of pressure positions around the hydrodynamic pivot point of the vessel. Once the boat is settled, by making small adjustments to the angle of the rudder, the amount the mainsail is eased, and by the “depth” or flatness of the headsail, a skilled operator can make very useful adjustments to the exact way in which the boat is lying to the wind and seas. Practice practice practice! When that storm comes, you’ll be glad.