I am on my summer cruise in the Bay Area and had some time to burn offshore Monterey so I thought I would try heaving to. I am very happy to report that I was able to do so quite successfully in my F 30. I used a simple strap to hold the self tacking jib boom to weather and fussed around with the rudder angle/main trim until I achieved a stable hove to attitude with the classic “slick” developing to weather. I recently read Pardy’s “Storm Tactics” and it was a bit mystical seeing that slick develop just as they said it would. Mind you I did all this in 10 to 15 knot winds so it was pretty benign, however I assume with appropriate reefs I would be able to achieve the same results as the winds increase. In any event, it is certainly a viable way to “Park” the boat a for lunch or whatever. I imagine I was doing a knot or so to leeward with no forward speed. Very cool.
Hiya…I am reading this 13 years after the post. I purchased my 1987 Freedom 30 2 years ago amd love it for what I do mainly which is day sail and do short 2-3 days trips from Bellinham WA to the San Juan islands.
This is the first self tacking rig I have had and wondered exactly what you do to “heave to” with camber spar jib? Thx in advance…anyone?
I remember that day well.
With regard to heaving to in an F30 mull.
I was out testing in a moderate swell, maybe one meter, and fairly low wind speeds so this was not an extremis test by any stretch.
I started out on stbd tack. I went forward and used a strap with snap shackle to lock the jib/camberspar to port. I then tacked the boat and back winded the jib. At that point it took some juggling of main trim and rudder to find a good combo which stopped the boat and put her into the classic hove to attitude about 50 +/-degrees off the wind and drifting to leeward at about a knot or so. It was very cool.
Hard to say how this would have worked out in heavy air/rough seas as I have not tested in those conditions. The worst weather I have faced was 40 gusting to 45kts with a pretty scary seaway. I just ran up the storm jib (and third reef) and kept going.
Having said this, the storm jib hanks onto the forestay and is managed via sheets run through blocks on the toerail and to the two winches at the companionway.
Had I needed to, I would have been more comfortable heaving to using this rig where I could adjust or free the jib for a tack from the cockpit as opposed to having to go forward unlock and relock the self tacker.
You may think a storm jib is a big deal but it is actually a handy sail to have available. I damaged my camberspar in the weather mentioned above so having the small, basic and heavy duty sail was very useful and I had it up for the last several hundred miles of that passage. A storm jib costs about $350-400 not including a long sheet.
The bottom line is you’ll need to get out there and do some testing. Several folks here have had success and hopefully they will chime in with how they did it so you have a few options to try
Much thanks for your comments and insights!!