Tanzer 16, Heave To -- just for fun

Tanzer 16, Heaving To -- just for fun -- May 28, 2015 --  Brian Mrachek indicated that he would have to prove he could heave to before next year's big open water race in Florida.  (See previous post.)  Since I wrote this post we have tried heaving to in 20 knots--not good.  See below.  jim 6/22/15

Since Tony and I had a little time on our hands before the first start of our three races last Thursday night, we thought we would give it a try. I have done this on keel boats ranging from 21 to 30-footers, but never tried it on a dinghy.  Basically you try to set the sails so the boat will try to fall off, then the rudder will round it up, then it will fall off, round up, fall off, round up...over and over.

We had about a six-knot breeze with a Genoa and set the boat up like this:

It worked great--better than I had expected. The boat was essentially parked.  This works much better than just letting the sails luff, and it is far less annoying.  Plus we seemed to make much less leeway. Might be interesting to try it in stronger winds.

higher winds:  We tried heaving to in some brisk winds, 15+ steady and gusts over 20 knots.  No Go!  With that amount of wind we were just tossed around and blown over.  With the sails tight. the gusts just wanted to knock us down.  Thank you Mr. Tanzer for putting lots of buoyancy in that beamy rounded hull.  jim