Going Hove-To for a quick break from the sea.
January 17, 2025 · 5 min · 9K views
What this video covers
Jerome Rand aboard Into Oblivion demonstrates heaving-to as a deliberate rest break during a bouncy, light-wind passage where the boat is pitching and rolling in four-to-six-foot seas with occasional larger waves.0:09 The setup: two reefs in the main and a staysail.0:40 He tacks the staysail to the windward side without releasing the sheet, eases the preventer, trims the mainsail to stop it luffing, then pushes the tiller to the downwind side.2:43 With the wind vane "Mongo" set, he fine-tunes two control lines so the tiller locks in position without a separate lashing.3:47 The result is an immediate reduction in rolling, noise, and cabin motion — the boat settles into a gentle fore-and-aft hobby-horse rather than a corkscrewing roll.4:36 For sailors without a wind vane, he notes the tiller can simply be lashed to the leeward side.3:12 In heavy weather the goal is a full stall so the hull side-slips and creates a windward slick.3:39 The technique works on a broad reach by first tacking the headsail, then adjusting helm angle — no special conditions required.0:51
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