you must be able to hove to in bad weather. know how.
sailing from Ireland to Spain, across the Bay of Biscay,
we found ourselves on 4 occasions pounding into huge seas in
heavy winds. we were taking a beating. heaving to made life
bearable. we have a ketch. double reef the mizzen, drop the
main, and about a foot out on the jib. that trip took 9 days
instead of the 5-6 planned, but we were safe.
Rickf