How to Heave To

Heaving To is one of the most important maneuvers you can carry out on your sailing yacht. This maneuver can be used for such simple tasks as "stopping for lunch" to "riding out a storm". Heaving to is a sailing yachts equivalent to a powerboat putting its engines in neutral. 

A power boats engines will be on a ready to go at a moments notice but there is no forward thrust, instead the boat drifts through the water at a slow pace. In a sailing yacht, heaving to accomplishes the same things; the sails are up and ready to power you forward, but the boat simply drifts along in the water at a slow pace. 

In the simplest form of explanations, heaving to is accomplished by backing the headsail. This means that the headsail will be sheeted on the windward sheet as opposed to the leeward sheet. During normal conditions, the leeward sheet is the working sheet and the windward sheet is the lazy sheet, but when heaving to, the roles are reversed and the windward sheet is the working sheet pulling the clew of the sail into the wind and backing the headsail. 

With the headsail backed into the wind, it will pull the bow to leeward and serve as an air brake to any forward movement. If the headsail were the only sail set at this moment, the yacht would be blown to leeward, jibed, and then set on a run. 

To counter this force, the mainsail is set to oppose the backed headsail. As the headsail pulls the bow to leeward, the mainsail comes into the wind and pushes the bow back to windward. This constant tug of war between the sails results in no forward movement. 

The mainsail is trying to turn the yacht into the wind while the headsail is pulling the yacht to leeward, the end result is the boat sits still and makes no forward progress. Since the wind is hitting the yacht on the beam to bow, the wind resistance offered by the yacht causes the whole system to drift in a leeward direction. As the yacht drifts to leeward, a slick of disturbed water will form on the windward side of the boat and this slick has wonderful properties that will be discussed later on. 

So, the basics of heaving to are: 

• The headsail is backed to windward
• The mainsail is set to leeward
• The helm is turned to windward

In the simplest of measures the combination of these three settings will make the sailboat heave to or at least come to a stop. 

If you are in the middle of a body of water with no risk of collision with land masses or other vessels and you want to stop for lunch, simply tacking without switching the headsail will usually bring the yacht into a hove to position.  The yacht will be sailing along quickly, and then it will pretty much come to a halt and begin to drift backwards at a very slow pace.

This technique is frequently taught as a standard maneuver during a Man-Over-Board recovery, by heaving to, the yacht will stop and the victim can swim towards the yacht or crew members who are still on board can devise a method to retrieve the victim as they slowly drift to leeward. 

In both of these situations, the yacht will stop or at least greatly slow its forward progress through the water which can satisfy the needs of a yacht who wishes to stop for whatever reasons. If you are wondering why you can't just release your sheets and let your sails flog to stop the boats movement if you wish to come to a stop during a lunch break or a MOB recovery situation. The answer has two important points. 

First, flogging sails will cause a lot of noise and the sheets whipping through the air can pose a serious hazard to your yachts gear and crew members. If you are trying to relax during a calm meal on a nice day, the sound of sails beating in the wind might not be what you had in mind. In the more stressful situation of the MOB recovery, the flogging sails will add stress, confusion, and anxiety to an already stressful situation. Hearing commands and relaying information will become very difficult over the noise of the flogging sails.  

Second, flogging sails will quickly work harden the fibers in the sailcloth and lead to early destruction of the sails. A sail violently flogging in a storm will rip to shreds in a few minutes! Deliberately setting your sails to immediate destruction will ruin any plans to sail further when you are ready. For these reasons, heaving to is a much better protocol as it will stop your vessel and protect your sails.

While heaving to during a storm, you need to capitalize on the lateral drift of the yacht through the water which will create a slick of disturbed water to windward. The slick of disturbed water that will appear to windward will settle and calm any approaching breaking wave and transform it into a gentle, though large, roller. If you are fore reaching slowly, you will move out of the protective slick and the bow of your boat will be at risk of being hit by a breaking and boarding wave. If you can remain in your slick, you will be able to rid out a storm without having to take any water over your deck.

Getting the yacht to stop fore reaching can prove easy on some yachts and more challenging on other yachts, but regardless, it can be done. To get the yacht to stop fore reaching and remain in a hove to position, you need to play with various sail configurations to find the setup that works best for your yacht.  

In general, you want to maintain a balanced sail plan with a backed headsail and a set mainsail. This will be the best starting place for configuring your sail plan while hove to. Matching your sail size to the present conditions is also an important consideration.  

If you are heaving to in light airs for lunch, a full headsail and aims ail will work just fine. The yacht will be balanced and will probably hold its position just fine. If you are heaving to in a storm because of incliment weather, full sails would be a death wish for your yacht! Reefing your sails accordingly is very important as it keeps the amount of sails area exposed manageable and heaving to a controlled and predictable operation. A good rule of thumb is that you should heave to with the same amount of sail that you would be willing to fly if you were sailing in these conditions.  

Five knots of wind would allow you to heave to under full sail. Twenty five knots of wind would behove you to heave to under reefed sails. If you are planning to ride out a strong gale, storm sails would be crucial to your survival.

Once again, you will need to test out various sail combinations on your own yacht during strong conditions to see what works best for your setup. During strong winds you might not actually need a headsail set to heave to. Furlers, rigging, deck gear, and freeboard can act as a backed headsail and push your bow to leeward, precluding you from the need for setting a backed headsail. If this is the case, adding a backed headsail will cause your bow to be pulled off the wind and set your yacht beam to the seas. Ideally, you will wish to remain with your bow between thirty to forty five degrees from the wind as this will allow your bow to cut through the approaching waves and keep vessel motion under control. 

Behind the mast, you will want to fly a trysail, as this small scrap of sail cloth will keep your bow into the wind and the vessel's motion steady. I recommend starting with a storm jib and trysail set hove to, and if you find that you have trouble keeping your boat at the ideal angle to the wind, douse the storm jib and lash it to the deck. The bow will begin to turn up into the wind better and the yacht will ride through the seas more comfortably. 

With your yacht turned into the wind, it will attempt to tack. The backed storm jib or deck windage will keep your boat from completing the tack as it stalls and drifts back into ideal posture to the wind and waves. Since the yacht is stalled out as it tries to move to windward, it will be at the mercy of the windage on the entire yacht as it is slowly pushed to leeward as a whole unit. The boat will gently ride up into the wind and then fall off as it slowly drifts laterally through the seas. This lateral drift will generate the protective slick which will calm the approaching seas help you survive the storm in comfort.  

You might be concerned that the small amount of sail up will cause significant heeling and possibly knot the boat down! This is not the case. With the proper amount of sail exposed during a storm, you will be able to ride comfortably through the seas without much heel. We have ridden out several storms with strong winds and minimal heeling.

One storm we had in the ocean had winds of thirty seven knots for more than 14 hours. We attempted to sail during the storm but resistance was futile. We were uncomfortably heeled over while flying only our staysail and trysail. As soon as we hove to, the yacht straightened out and we were only heeled over around ten degrees. 

Another more violent squall hit us where we hove to under just our trysail for around an hour in winds of forty knots and were only heeled over around five degrees. While hove to, the yacht remains relatively straight and the motion of the vessel is very comfortable. There is no jerking or lurching which can cause some crew members to regurgitate their lunch and their morale. Instead, the entire experience becomes a waiting game, where you sit around and find things to do to pass the time as the storm blows over. 

A yacht that is hove to is pretty much the equivalent of a champagne cork. It may be tiny as the seas tower around it, but it floats along without a care as it rides over the crests without much motion. It doesn't move fast during the storm but it does float the whole way through. Heaving to during a storm will convert your yacht from a finely tuned machine that soars through the waves into a cork that floats along mindlessly. Once the storm has passed and the sea state calmed, you can set your sails for performance and race towards your destination once more without any damage nor loss of morale. 

Heaving to is a crucial skill that should be learned, honed, and mastered. It can mean the difference between weathering a storm and surviving a storm. Likewise, it can prove to save your yacht and extend range by granting you the ability to sail in any condition that nature may throw at you.

Broken Garlic Mincer

A new garlic mincer needs to be added to the list of kitchen gadgets that we need to pick up. Our old garlic mincer made out of cast aluminum had its last meal one night. I was crushing cloves of garlic for a recipe when I came across a tough stem that I didn't feel like removing. As I crushed down the clove, the handle snapped!

The broken handle snapped down on my pinky finger and pinched the end of it creating a potent blood blister under my skin.

The blood blister will heal, but the garlic mincer will not. The search is on for a heavier duty garlic mincer.

Sunsets Aboard

One of my favorite parts about living aboard are the sunsets. These magical ends to the day, light up the darkening sky with a variety of colors. The city buildings are silhouetted before a sky of blazing reds and oranges.

The best sunsets occur in the fall on a cool day when the sky is filled with whispy clouds that light up the sky like streamers. The air is cool and brisk air makes you feel refreshed as your day winds down to an end.

You can just relax in the cockpit and watch the sun go down as the coolness of the night sets in as quickly as the light leaves you. The boats gently bobs as the subtle swell carries you up and down, slowly lulling you into a happier state of mind.

This is the perfect closure to any day. All of your cares and worries vanish with the sun over the horizon as you mind clears itself with the cool brisk breeze.

This is what living on a boat is all about. You have less things and live in a smaller space so that you can enjoy more of your time and relax in the cockpit as the sun sets behind the city. There are no worries nor deadlines because you are on a boat and life is good.

People always want togo near water to watch the sunset because it calms and relaxes them. Well living on the water lets you be in a perpetual state of calmed and relaxed.

If I ever get over worked or stressed out, sitting on the throne in the cockpit and overlooking the darkening sky will alleviate any concerns.  Sunsets really are the best way to sum up life aboard. All of your cares and worries fade away into darkness and all you are left with a feeling of peace as the boat gently rocks your worries away.

Ropes on a Boat

They say that there are no ropes on a sailboat. Ropes exist in spools at a chandlery and magically transformed into line the moment it comes onto the sailboat.

The truth is, not all ropes turn into lines! There are actually four ropes that exist on a sailboat:

1. Bolt Rope
2. Foot Rope
3. Tiller Rope
4. Bell Rope

A bolt rope is a rope sewn into the luff and foot of the sail to aid in securing the sail to the spars. Bolt ropes help reinforce and strengthen the sail, giving it a very firm attachment to the spar that will help it set much better.

A foot rope is a rope that runs the length of a yard (those horizontal spars on square riggers) that sailors stand on while they raise, reef, or lower the sails. These ropes are very important because the crew will be standing on these ropes while they work high up in the rigging.

A tiller rope is a rope used to tie off the tiller. This is used when the sails are balanced and the tiller can be left in one position. Rather than stand at the tiller to keep it in the same position, all you need to do is tie the tiller off. A tiller rope is run arthwartship from one side of the cockpit to the other. As the tiller rope goes by the tiller, it will be wrapped around the tiller a few times and then over to a cleat on the other side of the cockpit. The wraps on the tiller should be set close to the end of the tiller, that way if you need to take the helm in a hurry, all you need to do is slide the loops off the tip of the tiller, giving you the helm in a hurry.

A bell rope is a lanyard that is attached to the bell's clapper. The bell rope is used to sound the bell by pulling on the rope repeatedly. 

When you look at the list, you can see why many sailors feel confident is saying that there are no ropes on a boat. With the decay of square riggers and tall ships, yards have been replaced by booms with no foot ropes. This has led to the mental decay of the existence of foot ropes in the rigging.

Sailors don't work on their own sails anymore, so they probably don't realize that their roller furling sails have a bolt rope that slides into the luff groove of the aluminum extrusion. If they did notice the bolt rope, they would probably forget about its existence in a few years since most sailors never lower their furling sails until something breaks. The forgotten bolt rope has made its way onto the most modern and luxurious yachts since roller furling is the wave of the luxurious future.

Tiller ropes are a thing of the forgotten past since pretty much all cruising yachts come equipped with wheel steering. Tillers used to be found on all vessels of any size. The larger the vessel, the longer the tiller to provide the leverage needed to control the rudder. Vasa, a Swedish warship build in the 1620's was 226 feet long and steered with a tiller! In the early 1900's, the New York 40, a 65 foot yacht was steered with a tiller. Yet, by modern standards, a tiller should only be used on yachts under 30 feet in length.

The reason cited for the switch to wheels on all yachts over 30 feet in length is that weather helm will tire the crew that needs to hold the tiller and that the force to control the rudder is too great. Using a wheel will remove a lot of the strain on the crew thanks to the mechanical advantage of the wheel mechanism. Tiredness from weather helm should not be a reason to move away from tillers, tiredness from weather helm should be used as a reason to properly balance the sails!

Regardless of size or sail balance, the move to wheels makes it easier to sell a yacht. When a land lubber first steps onto a yacht with a tiller, they may wonder how you steer this thing? Conversely, a wheel will make the yacht controls appear more apparent since they can relate to a wheel. Tillers also cause a lot of confusion since the tiller is moved in the opposite direction you want to turn the bow because a tiller/rudder system is a Class I lever. Wheels, on the other hand, are steered just like a car where you turn the wheel in the direction you want to move. 

The move away from tillers has also left the tiller rope behind in the past. Wheels are standard equipment on yachts and older yachts with tillers are converting over to the wheels, all the while the tiller rope is being lost to the past.

The last forgotten rope is the bell rope. Bells are a traditional sound producing device that used to be fitted on all cruising boats as a way to signal their presence. The horn and whistle replaced the bell on small yachts, but was still required on all yachts of 40 feet and larger.  This was the begging of the end for the bell rope in the realm of common knowledge. In the first half of the 20th century, most cruising yachts were well under 40 feet in length. These small yachts were made out of wood and production of a larger yacht would require much more material and associated cost to build and maintain. The transition to fiberglass allowed an explosion in length. As time moved on, the size of these yachts continued to grow. In 1961, Hatteras Yachts produced a 34 foot model and a 41 foot model. In 2017, the smallest Hatteras produced is 45 feet in length and extends up to 102 feet in length.

As the size of yachts has increased, you would think that the bell and its bell rope would become more commonplace. The thing is, as yacht size increased, the United States Coast Guard has actually become more relaxed about their bell requirement. Around 2010, the USCG revised their requirements and decided that vessels between 40 and 65 feet no longer need to carry a bell. As the size of yachts increased, the rules surrounding them became more relaxed which has cast the bell rope has fallen into disuse. Yes, larger vessels are being produced and they need to carry a bell with a bell rope, but these massive yachts make up a small percentage of the boating population. Most boats in the United States are under 18 feet long and powered by an outboard motor. This means that most boat owners do not need a bell and therefore do not know about a bell rope.

Ropes typically transform into lines when they come on board, but now you know the four ropes that stay as a rope on a boat: bolt rope, foot rope, tiller rope, bell rope.

Cooking Dinner

Living on a sailboat doesn't have to be a life of camping. All the creature comforts (that fit) of home are welcome in a sailboat, allowing you to live a happy and comfortable life without all the hassle of land based life.

While most people consider a grill to be something used while camping, a grill is never far away from your galley when you live on a sailboat. Magma grills are wonderful creations, they keep the heat in yet do not heat up their surroundings very much.

In the summer, the fiberglass around the grill will not get hot; in the winter everything remains very cold. This allows you to cook a steak on the grill in your cockpit without worrying about burning your yacht to the waterline. While cooking on a grill in the cockpit is not the ideal method of cooking, keeping a fire extinguisher close at hand and the flames small will minimize the risk of setting everything on fire. 

If your grill is radiating a significant amount of heat, you would then need to worry about starting a fire and should exercise much more caution when grilling aboard.