Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

When properly set up

Brendon will heave-to while heading with her head almost to the wind and waves drifting DDW staying in her wake. With a little more sail and less helm she will fore-reach off at about a knot or even two depending on how much tinkering I do. As you know, the basic difference between the two defensive postures is that while fore-reaching you're sailing slowly out from the protection of your wake. When I set up the boat for cruising I wanted to be able to roller furl the staysail as well as slab reefing it. I found that all of the modern roller furling systems came with an aluminum extrusion that holds the sail. I began looking around and eventually found an old system made out of Stainless Steel that used the stay to roll up the sail. These were the first generation "roller reefing" systems that didn't really work for reefing at all but would roll up a sail. In the old days it would have been considered "over sized." I took it to a machine shop and had it re-manufactured to like new condition and that's what I use on my staysail. Now I can roll up the staysail in normal conditions but in heavy weather I can roll it out and then slab reef it from then on. When heaving-to Brendon will be set up with the staysail slab reefed (or maybe not) and a deep, double reef in the main will be tied in. I have to say that it's a very deep second reef. Almost, but not quite, where a third reef would normally be placed. This is not perfect because my deep double reef is still more then I would like but I can tinker enough to get by (So far). When I have a new mainsail cut it will have a third reef but I had run out of money by then and have held onto my original main and never cut an additional reef in it. I could and it would work better but it's one of those "round to it's". That's why I fore-reach more then trying to actually heaving-to. I usually don't mind and most times even prefer forereaching over heaving-to. Most often, my situation is beating up a coast in really foul weather and not a mid ocean storm. Fore reaching allows me to put the boat on an off shore tack and gain a bit of sea room while I wait it out. That usually gets me a better angle on the wind when I start out again so I feel that I haven't totally lost the time and effort. In that situation I usually only have the staysail rolled out, not reefed and back sheeted tight, a double reef in the main, the helm turned up but not to the stop and the main sheeted in to where the boat and sea seem to like each other. Yes, she will point higher and fall off further when fore reaching.

Messages In This Thread