Skip is a great teacher...perfect explanations

This technique saves your life. It was ingrained in me when I was young. I will still watch this video six times and know it by heart before I even ever go out again. They make it look fun and easy, and it's not hard, but it's something you have to be able to do instinctively if you are ever in a position to really need it. I will be sailing a ketch, I will adapt the mizzen to help me with the mail and the stormsail in balance.

great video. Done exactly that a number of times. One thing was missed - heaving to is not something possible to do when close to a lee shore as the boat will slowly creep across and downwind. It's a open water technique only.

That was excellent! Thanks Yachting World and the crew of Pelagic!

Thank you! This is the best description so far. I am most amazed to hear that some boats won't heave to at all! Now I can go out and try again but with a whole new approach to the exercise.

Thank you Skip for these videos. Your like sailing with an encyclopedia.

If you look at the body language of his crew you will see they are calm and at ease knowing they are in very safe hands. Master mariner for sure 👍

It is useful even in mild weather, just hove to for a few minutes to make a drink, prepare food and use the heads all on the level.

Thank you Skip for a great video and for making sure everyone is tethered to the boat. Great seamanship by example.

He makes it look so easy .. great temperament too.

This reminds me of when I was in college and decided to join the debating team, but someone talked me out of it.

Bertie's doing all the work in this series! :)

He makes it look so easy and enjoyable which it probably is after you have done it a few times.

Awesome ! I kitesurf and do this in strong wind to relax at a snails pace calmly while the water goes crazy Practise this technique so it’s memory when needed

Great instruction on how to heave to. Very simple instructions for each step and he's correct each boat has its own"sweet spot" so have to play with the helm a bit

We use this technique on the Viper 640 in between races on heavy wind days to give the crew a break and to stay near the start line waiting for the race sequence to start.

This is level-up sailing... Great share, I hope you are all well.

an animation of this would help greatly I believe I personally did not comprehend any of this

Every time I'm on a yacht I heave.

With a good boat as my old Dockrell is she will keep a trusty course on her own even in strong winds and rough see. And she also heaves too so well. I fell safe in all conditions.

Nice manoeuvre. Yesterday we had a jammed infurling main sail and we reef to in nice way maintaining 1.7kt drift, boat was a Hunter 33, wind 18 to 25kt and waves at 3m. We manage to solve the problem calmly.

It would have been nice to see your speed on the chart plotter or some type of GPS both before and after. Thanks!

This might as well be a podcast. You've got this obviously skilled sailing crew, a good boat and a good camera and editing crew - why not show what is actually going on with the sails? This is the first time I have seen anything in this series but you definitely need a RIB or fastboat to shoot video from.

great videos with Skip Novak, best in the internet

That’s miraculous. I try to heave to every time I sail a boat with a fore and aft rig. Just good to practice.

Judging by the look of the sea the wind was not strong enough for heaving to, bug still it was a good demonstration, and the comment were good. No bullshit talk. Thank you. Subscribed. Bloke from Aus.

That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL!!!!!!!!!

How will the Staysail Sheets last working on the starboard shrouds? Seems like they'd be sawed through after a time wouldn't they? Wouldn't want have the sheet part in a blow.

Skip, would you consider the same heave to tech in heavy weather in a moderate displacement 30 foot sloop?

I couldn't see what they boat was doing, I have no idea what he just did

I've worked on boats my whole life I am a captain of a large vessel and new to sailing I've lived on my sailboat 3 years now. I cant imagine leaving the helm tied off and just leaving it unattended for any length of time in adverse conditions

Would be nice if you filmed the sails in your videos to give an idea of what the jib and main sails should be like during your "heaving to" demonstration.

Cup of tea, get in! :-) Thanks for sharing your knowledge Skip and crew. I have just added this video to our playlist Essential Sailing Knowledge. Fair winds! Chris & Rossella 👍

Id Love to sail up that far yet, Whirl Pools give me the Creeps LOL Saw lots up of them all was well just creepy LMAO :) Video has very nice footage of what Im missing Thanks for Sharing

Acknowledging your sailing prowess, you spent entirely too much time watching the skipper Novak 'explain what is happening' WITHOUT showing the mainsail trim angle and the results on the boat. Someone should have picked up on that before posting the video in my humble opinion.

Who is the interpret of the intromusic?

In a book I read on heavy-weather sailing, it said the ideal angle to the swell was 50 degrees. That was using a sea-anchor. I don't know if it applies to being hove-to.

What are the two drums with green ropes on the ground for?

What are the reels of green line?

Great video I’m a new sailor. My question is if you ease the main, how do you not accidentally jibe if boat gets tossed around in the waves or if the wind changes direction

What about boat direction? L&L Pardey say that to heave to effectively, the boat should move directly downwind, leaving a protective turbulent slick upwind.

Thank you, so much -- I was wondering how to do that! Tacking is useful when its needed and done on purpose -- not when it messes up whatcha got going on perfectly. I REALLY LOVE THE TIE OFF OF THE HELM TRICK, I CANT WAIT NOW!!!!! JUST FOUND YOUR CHAN -- SUBBING NOW, FAIR WINDS :)

The thing is, this weather is always like this here so if you heave to and stop pointed into the wind you will wait forever.

with the legs?

You don't tack to back the stay sail because you want the boat a certain direction to the waves first to make things more comfortable...ive done it 3 times now in the Biscay for 15 hrs each time,,,,can make it really nice if done right

So the ruther gets actualy blocked by the rope because the angle of the ship against the wind wants to turn the ship to a half wind position?

Why was the camera not showing the sails???

Great vid thanks, but what’s with the tragic music? -With the right equipment and switched on crew this looks like a lot of fun, very encouraging!! 😊

So, I get the part about giving the crew a break but he also used the chance of breaking something as a reason to heave to. How does this lessen the stresses on the rigging?

so moving fwd or drifting backwards into the wind ? trying to learn.

מאוד מיקצועי ללא טעויות יפה מאוד

A newbie here, wondering what happens if the boat goes into a tack without any human intervention , will the boat end up trying to do a complete 360 turn in a circle if just left in that set up ? With tied steering wheel etc ? And is that dangerous ? 🙂

Great series! Does anybody know the name of the music in the beginning?

Do you heave-to on starboard tack so you are the stand-on vessel?

What’s the use off the 4 drums with the long green lines?

+1 for the cup of tea.

Sailor knowledge is truly incredible, u ither got it or yoer lost

More courage than I got.

Can you repeat this with proper storm conditions and really big waves. Then we can see how to heave to.

What are the large spools of line used for ?

You can just tell how many times he has done this.

Thats with a 'proper' yacht. How would a modern production line boat do it in those or stronger wind conditions.?

How long is it safe to leave it in this position? If its sea condisions like in this video

So you're pretty much close hulled but with the mail sail out ?

That cup of tea scene was soo cheesy! :) Great video though

Thanks for the explanation. What are the 4 coils of what looks like 500ft of 1/2" 3 strand poly rope in green just aft of the mast used for? I use to sail on the east coast and have never seen a boat equipped with it on deck.

What does windward mean?

I was surprised that the boat would point up as close as 30 degrees, as the small boats I have experienced tend to lie 60 degrees or more off. The technique is still effective, however.

what is the purpose of all the green rope on the coils....on the foredeck?

you forgot helm locked full to windward on the summary at the end

I wonder why you didn't just tack without touching the jib sheet? Saves a lot of hassle and energy.

Are we having fun yet ????

Am I the only one who sees a carcass hanging from the backstay?

What do you think of hanging from a sea anchor or a drag drifting a bit aft but always eyes to the wind? Oh! I see you have a video on that so I'm watching it next. Students look here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i9mCq9qYld-4g2g.html

I respect your sailing experience but not sure I would heave to at 40 plus storm prefer not to risk sails and rig when it easier to drop a sea anchor.

Looks like you still have way on, waves are hitting the bow, so you're not heaving too.

And guess what? Have a cup of tea!!!!

From a perspective of someone with zero experience trying to learn more, this video didn't show much. The explanation is heat if you're explaining it to oskeone who already knows how to do it...

All I saw was a bunch of people working winches and Skip standing and talking. Love Skip Novak, but this video had little to no educational value.

There wasn't anything in those cups! :)

I don't think this video actually shows how to heave to. I'm a rookie- so maybe a guy at the helm talking and then another guy on a winch is a good way to show rudder and sail positions vis a vis the wind. And even though I'm a noob, I've hove too many times. What's curious it almost teaches itself - of course you don't want to 'figure it out' near Cape Horn. I learned the basics. Then on a close reach in 3-4 feet seas I needed to use the head. That wasn't going to work. So let's try heaving to.... couldn't have been simpler.

Why back the staysail? Why not simply tack and let the staysail back itself? Doesn't make sense unless the staysail is too complicated to tack. Oh well...and why bother with all the trouble of rigging a staysail with all that complicated rigging? Why not put a storm jib up, which would achieve the same thing, or even furl the jib that was up in the first place? Looks to me like everything is deliberately complicated and labour intensive for no purpose.

I'd make my rope to the wheel easier to take off. The wheel on Jazza is pretty easy to deal with (skegged and un balanced). That looks like a probable catastrophe in a jive. Maybe should have checked the other comments first. Triggered.

Next episode: skip novak has a strong opinion on why the only good lamb is a dead lamb.

There was nothing in those mugs.

I actually saw nothing ! Missed opportunity, had the crew, weather and boat

C brake

I'm sorry, but this doesn't explain anything. I feel like he's just showing off his captain prowess. Now, I know I'm probably wrong about that... but me being somewhat on the novice side of the spectrum, this doesn't explain anything. This is probably an instructional video for someone who already has 80%+ idea already of what "heaving to" is.

That was so fake! There was no Tea in those cups! Am I right?! Am I right?! D:

Anybody that understands your technical jargon I'm sure already knows everything there is to know about heaving to. Why don't you explain it in plain English so you can get your message across to the people who really need this information.

How to heave to into a bag.

You just can't fake drinking from an empty cup

Heaving to under jib/staysail? This is your "heavy weather" technique? Really? With all due respect, putting a headsail broadside to a storm force blow will usually result in the headsail blowing up or the sheet parting, perhaps even rig failure. The boat will feel like it's being stomped on, the rigging screaming for mercy, and the ride will be rough. The trick to heaving to is to sheet as much of the leech over to the weather side as possible (I usually oversheet the jib and then tack over to starboard). This settles the boat lest you have a lazily sheeted jib not knowing whether to keep on sailing or not. The result, although fairly steady, puts the headsail up against the wind like a barn door. The catch here is that you can't use a storm jib or spitfire jib because the leech won't be able to backwind enough. In this video, the staysail barely backwinded enough to make it work (near the center of the mast). I doubt they took off much forward way. But even with a staysail, she's not going to hold up very well to 40+ kts. Heaving to in my book is NOT a heavy weather strategy unless it's done with a trysail. The video title is "Heavy Weather Tactics" but the only choice, apparently, is heaving to.

After 30,000 miles on yachts and 300,000 miles in the Merchant Marine, I can tell you these are NOT BIG SEAS.

Yup. All go down stairs and...puke.

Another Skip's wasting our fucking time. by an insurance company.... Drop the main, wheel or tiller to windward, and back wind the jib, end of story....

Unclear.

A bad example to learn from.

This is not a heave-to.