Reefing the main sail.

[stewart711]

On reefing the main as the wind is increasing, more than once I have read "Get hove to. Then etc etc ...". My question is that on my boat, heaving to requires some wind reaction with the mainsail. I currently luff and reef, but I feel like I'm missing something.

Stewart

[John B]

In that context it just means get the boat stopped near enough, in a controllable manner so you can work with the sail. I prefer to keep some way on when reefing just to make sure the boat is still able to be steered properly.

A proper hove to is with a backed jib and the helm wound around to windward in order to stall the boat off for an extended period. parked in other words. Every boat will have its idiocyncracies but generally a full keel boat might stall right off and make say 1/2 a knot to leeward and creating a nice slick to windward. A fin keel boat will be more touchy and will probably fore reach a bit rather than a technical heave to, but its still part of the same process really .

[Ian McColgin]

If luffing and reefing works, stay with it.

For reefing and often in general I heave-to with the main seriously depowerd, like 50% luff and some stress on the topping lift picking the boom up a little. So the boat can be stabile about four points off the wind and making a squage drift. That way I don't have to keep minding the boat or running the engine.

The thing is, every boat heaves-to a little differently and much of the old-book advice on heaving-to does not work well with modern large fore-triangle boats. If your boat is a sloop with a masthead rig, especially if it has an overlapping (more than 100% of J) jib, backing the jib won't lead to a happy heave-to unless you also keep the main powered up, and maybe not then. It is worth while seeing if you can heave-to with either no jib and a partly depowered main or if you can totally depower the main and heave-to on jib (or forestaysail if you have both) alone.

Experiment.

[wizbang 13]

Fastest way to slow my big boat down is to point too high
reefing my sporty 23'er is a sporty event
Every boat is different and "practicing" is good but does not duplicate a lotta breez. Sea room and time are your friend

[John B]

One of the advantages of a roller furler is you can set your jib size to whatever suits your main , and get yourself a good heave to mode.

Hard to see but we had the main reefed down to less than a trysail here and the jib was just a scrap. Sort of fore reaching really I suppose and making 2.25 knots , not too bad for a fin keeler. Wind was 35 through 50 .




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