DaySailer.org Forum

I read about an interesting technique for sailing into a harbor or up to a dock when the wind stands towards the land. The idea is to heave to and then use tiller and mainsheet adjustments to fine-tune the drift angle. (When you heave to, you'll drift at about 150 degrees to the wind, but at low speed, with more mainsheet tension you'll move more forward, with more tiller, the opposite).

One would need the right geometry, so that an oblique approach can be made to work - it's easier when the goal is simply to hit the opening of a wider and protected harbor - a long narrow channel downwind still wouldn't work.

I've managed to heave to the DS in a variety of conditions, but have had it fail at higher wind speeds. Heaving to involves the balance between the backwinded jib trying to swing the bow downwind and the tiller steering the boat back upwind. The main is usually just barely sheeted in.

Here's a clickable thumbnail of a diagram:

I suspect that in higher winds, what happened is that the full jib overpowers the tiller and the boat turns downwind. Sheeting in the main should help with the balance, but too much and the boat just starts sailing. A roller-furled jib could be partially furled, perhaps. (Something to think about if I ever get one).

But when it works, it's magical how much calmer the boat is and how stable (there's no need to adjust the tiller or jib).

Here's a diagram of the parallel parking while hove to method:

I've actually tried this maneuver toward the end of last season, when I needed to "parallel park" at a dock downwind and right angles to the wind, with a single small space between two other boats.

Everything worked fine, except I mis-estimated the direction of the drift, and unfortunately it wasn't in the direction where a bit more mainsheet would have given the desired correction. (I would have been well positioned to dock alongside one of the boats). Figuring out a good starting position for this maneuver will take some practice.

I had such hopes when I read the title of your post...

Alas, it doesn't solve my problem because my boat's lee berth is down between two long docks with fingers sticking into the channel. Long before I got the boat hove to I would have piled up on my neighbor's West Wight Potter.

My current strategy when the wind is out of the north is to scan the lake for the Santana 23 that occupies the slip across the channel from me. If he's on the water, I make for his empty berth. I can drop the sails in his spot and then drift with bare poles the few yards across to my spot.

If the Santana is at berth, I can try rowing in, or I can approach under just the jib. Or I can just apologize profusely to the owner of the Potter. Typically, I end up doing that in any case.

Talbot, sorry to disappoint You are right, this is not the generic case.

The situation I describe is the one I faced on the dock of a restaurant that I like to frequent when the weather is nice. Nice weather correlates with a wind direction that is onshore at that location (and a limited number of free berths..). So, I guess I'll get more practice.

At the launch, the channel to the open water is long, but it's just wide enough to allow tacking or the strategic U-turn, with collateral damage limited to times when I forget to put the CB down.

Because the dock at the launch is in the wind shadow of a nearby building, I don't bother taking down the main. Mainly because it's so awkward having the cockpit full of sail. If necessary, I sheet it in hard during the approach to cut down on speed. If the dock itself was more exposed, I'd just use the jib.

My secret weapon and handbrake is the paddle - held vertically it dumps excess speed efficiently.

When I first learned about heaving-to, I was told that the boom should be at about 30 degrees to centerline, with the boom end just outside the gunwhale, but the more I do it, the more I realize that just letting it out almost to the stays works best. With full vang on, it won't flog. CB full down. The boat goes more sideways than forward, but doesn't heel as much. If the conditions get wicked, and the end of the boom starts kissing the O2, I reef ...

H2O, not O2. Sorry, got high altitude skydivin' on the brain! ;-P

TIM WEBB wrote:H2O, not O2. Sorry, got high altitude skydivin' on the brain! ;-P

Tim, as long as you don't' try to backwind your jib or heave to, while you're up there, coming down fast, you should be OK.

About your post:

When I first learned about heaving-to, I was told that the boom should be at about 30 degrees to centerline, with the boom end just outside the gunwhale, but the more I do it, the more I realize that just letting it out almost to the stays works best. With full vang on, it won't flog. CB full down. The boat goes more sideways than forward, but doesn't heel as much. ...

I didn't have anybody teaching me how to do it, so I had to figure things out from various descriptions. The problem is that some descriptions make sense and you can remember enough of them on the water to be of some use - and some don't. What you and I have left out, is how to get into the hove to state.

I usually start with a slow tack, leaving the jib cleated. As soon as the bow comes through the wind, I push the tiller to the new leeward side. The jib will be backwinded, and if I haven't done so, I'll let out the main.

In stronger winds, this sometimes fails for me - I can't get the boat to balance. Since you mentioned "wicked" conditions: have you successfully hove to the DS when the wind was strong enough to require a reef?

Tim, as long as you don't' try to backwind your jib or heave to, while you're up there, coming down fast, you should be OK.

<laugh> Yeah, that would be a bad thing! ;-P

So true: if we could remember half the things we learn here while on the water, we'd be doing so much better ...

Yes, I start to heave to with a slow tack, wait for the backwinded jib to push the bow around, then lash the tiller over slowly. Otherwise sometimes it won't stay hove to, or it'll just keep going all the way around. I've found that adjusting the tiller angle helps with the balance.

I've hove to in some pretty windy conditions, up to 15-20 kts. Over that I usually drop the sails and anchor until it dies down a bit. In fact, I usually heave to in order to reef. The lake I usually sail on is a long, skinny, east-west lake. The usual evening sail, with the sea breeze coming from the east, involves wing 'n' wing'ing from the ramp at the east end across to the west end, then heaving to, reefing if necessary (I reef a lot, since I'm only 160 lbs and usually singlehanded), and coming back east close hauled ...

My problem hasn't been the wind per se, but the waves the wind kicks up. On our lake, this is particularly true in a "mature" wind that's been blowing all day. The rollers really toss the boat around, and can slop right over the DSII's minimal freeboard.

I have not used heaving to as a heavy-weather technique but as a "drift-while-you-have-dinner" technique in winds under 12 knots. Above that, I usually head for the lee of an island if I need to take a break. But I'm open to additional lessons in seamanship.

--Talbot

TIM WEBB wrote:I start to heave to with a slow tack, wait for the backwinded jib to push the bow around, then lash the tiller over slowly. Otherwise sometimes it won't stay hove to, or it'll just keep going all the way around. I've found that adjusting the tiller angle helps with the balance.

I've hove to in some pretty windy conditions, up to 15-20 kts.

Tim,
given that I've had problems with combined about 3x the crew weight, I need to remember to check next time there's higher winds whether I'm doing this slowly enough. That could have been my problem.

Winds lined up with the long axis of the lake / body of water is pretty common here as well, except in one of my favorite spots where I always start against the wind. Another, the one with the restaurant pier that started this thread, has alternating wind, also along the long axis. Local curiosity: I don't need to look out of the window to know the dominant wind direction - if I can hear air traffic, it's one, and if not, the other.

Talbot,
how big is that lake of yours? I've sailed in "open" water where the "fetch" was between 4 to 10nm, but I usually try not to go out when I expect winds over 15kt. The DS seems to handle waves that build up under those conditions quite fine. It's not so much the waves that come overboard, but occassionally one will break in an unfortunate way and dump half a gallon of spray. I pretty much have to sit on the rail to catch anything. (I have full-height coamings, so none of the spray from the foredeck runs into the cockpit).

The time I more-or-less regularly ship water in the DS is in a narrow canal section where the powerboat wakes criss-cross worse than the waves in a swimming pool. Those are steep and confused enough to come over the transom, esp. so since my boat speed is low in that case.

Among the highest winds I've sailed in where on a smaller lake with limited fetch (1-2nm), though, so there wasn't any significant buildup. I've crewed on a smaller boat in those conditions and now I really know what they mean when they say the DS is a boat that sails "dry".

Sort of on topic. Last weekend I found by accident you can heave with just the main as well. It was lumpy conditions and I was soloing with just the main. I pulled in the main to center to point to wind so I could watch the Lightnings race for a bit and connect the jib. Usually this wags the tail as it tacks back and forth between starboard and port headings but the tiller got jammed full side. The main would try to bring it windward while the rudder thought lee was better. Much easier to raise the jib.

The next day under flatter conditions with equal wind I set a full heave by a bouy and played the main to give just enough forward lift to compensate for drift.

Back to waves and heaving to....
Our lake is about 4 statute miles. Just to be clear--the DS does fine under way in winds above 12 kt. Waves and spray are no problem when you're comfy in your bibs and the self-bailer is slurping away like a kid sucking up the last of a milkshake.

The problem is when drifting hove-to and semi-broached, trying to have a relaxed dinner while being tossed off the seats. We find it's often smoother to serve the meal on a downhill run. (Make sure you don't run out of lake before the last course.)

Thanks for all the tips. Will try them this week.

Dinner Downwind.

Now that's something I haven't tried.

Yeah, that downwind leg is bad for my wallet, too: without much to do, I'm usually looking around the boat/rig at things I want to fix/change! Luckily, I do run out of lake before it gets too bad ...

In fact, that's when I usually *do* think of things I've read on here that I want to try.

It's a great opportunity to pop that first cold cylinder too ...

GL, I hear ya on the air traffic: we live right under the approach to one of the runways at the local municipal airport, and all I have to do is listen to whether they're using that runway at all, and if they are, if they're taking off or landing ...

Interesting and timely post for me - I was out on Buzzards Bay last Thursday and Saturday with the DS. Thursday was dicey with the forcast at 10-15 knts, but actual conditions we estimated at steady 15 with long gusts to 20. Reefed the main, and with full jib had a hard time keeping control. Luckily, the bay was only running waves from 1-2 feet, but the fetch in our section (Monument Beach to Pocassett River) was about as long as you could see. No other sailboats in sight - should have taken the hint.

Used the Jib-only heave-to to drift off the ramp, and found it tough to control, and got blown into the mooring field before we could get the main up, and get some real steerage way that was controlable. One of the locals told me he saw the guy before us take 4 attempts to clear the moored boats, so I didn't feel too bad. No contact with any of the boats, but more grey in my hair!

Coming in after only about 40 minutes on the water, the wind had shifted a bit, and did try the reefed main and jib heave-to to skirt the mooring field, and this time got blown right past all the boats, but too close to the sandbar. Good thing the DS is not a keelboat!

Saturday, though, was a day of sailing that paid us back for all the anguish of Thursday, as the breeze was very steady at 10-15 knots and boy did we make use of it. Love this boat!