The Marinervideo
Defeat Fear at Sea : Learn to Heave To
8 April 2026 · 18 min · 133K views
Sailor braces on heeling boat in stormy seas
What this video covers
Heaving to solo in heavy weather aboard a 60-foot Bruce Spahr-designed race boat, Chris demonstrates the technique during a qualifying passage for the Global Solo Challenge, somewhere between the Canary Islands and Madeira.▶ 10:09 Running at 13–14 knots through the night under an advancing weather system, he chose to heave to rather than continue on a deteriorating course that would have pushed him southeast, away from his intended track.▶ 10:24 The setup: jib backed inside out to push the bow downwind, mainsail driving forward and slightly to windward, helm tied hard to starboard, with the three forces reaching equilibrium and the boat slipping sideways.▶ 2:03 Navionics confirmed 50 miles of lateral drift overnight while he slept in watches and monitored shipping by VHF.▶ 7:42 He explains why the technique works on flat-bottomed race boats — waves pass underneath rather than slamming the hull — and warns that a flat-faced wave can produce a violent "tank slapper" capable of throwing a crew member from a bunk.▶ 13:38 He also used PredictWind's GFS overlay to time the stop: waiting for the system to pass overhead would flip the wind direction and give him a favorable lift home.▶ 11:27 The practical lesson is that knowing your boat's heave-to angle in advance — tested in calm conditions with different sail combinations — converts an uncontrollable situation into a manageable one.▶ 11:59
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