Heaving-to a Sun-Cat

[Joseph]

Having never sailed a cat rig before I wonder about its ability to heave-to. In a sloop this is achieved by backwinding the jib, luffing the main and adjusting the tiller to leeward. I'd appreciate knowing what experienced Sun-Cat sailers would recommend in order to heave-to in 15 - 20 kt winds 

[Les]

Joseph, take a look at www.catboats.org, find the "Catboat Sailing Manual" and open it, then go to pages 21 & 22 for some techniques. Hope that helps.

[Les]

Joseph, ignore my last post, the catboat site has changed. Use this link and find pages 21 & 22.

http://www.go-embedded.com/Sailing%20manual.pdf

[Joseph]

Thank you Les. I followed your advice and download and read the "manual". Quite revealing. As for heaving-to I found four accounts, seemingly referring to different cat boats. The four accounts seem to agree to the following:

1.   While in close or beam reach
2.   Let go the tiller
3.   Luff the mainsail
4.   Raise the centerboard
5.   Trim mainsail until boats starts to point up
6.   Lash the tiller to leeward (in stronger winds)

This appears a more passive way of heaving to than the more dynamic heaving to achievable in full keel sloops... It also raises other questions:

1.   With the main luffing, what causes the boat to point up when the tiller is loose or to leeward? Is the windage in the hull and rig enough?

2.   Without centerboard, how bad is the leeway while hove-to?

3.   Raising the centerboard for heaving-to appears counter-intuitive. Is it really required? What happens if it is left down?

4.   With the partially trimmed, or even with it luffing, how easy is it to reef it while heaving to?

5.   Can heaving-to be achieved without the main luffing (perhaps, since the mast is forward, the windage of the hull and the drag of the wind on the luffing main could be enough to bring the bow to leeward provided that the centerboard is down as to bring the center for lateral resistance (i.e., the centerboard) behind the center of force (i.e., in this case, the mast). Then placing the tiller to leeward would counteract this movement and keep the boat in more dynamic steady-state more similar to that achievable in sloops?

I would greatly appreciate if anyone could shed some further light on the above.

J.

[mrb]

In your #1 question look to procedure 5--trim mainsail until boat starts to point up.  As I read those lines I do not see the boat pointing up while sail is luffing, but will point up as sail is trimmed.

That said, I do not have experience heaving to in a cat rig, however one thing I do is practice heaving to with each boat as I have had them and I do refresher drills periodically. I also practice reefing often.

Sounds as if you have had experience on sloops and have some idea how to handle cat, now the best thing to do is practice in before a bad situation arises.

Melvin 

[Joseph]

Thank you MRB.

Yes, I can see your point. And this brings me back to one of the other questions:

If one of the main reasons for heaving-to is to reef the main (in a sloop, trust me, it is! I've been there...), and the main in a cat needs to be trimmed in order for the boat to heave-to, then from my experience in sloops, reefing a cat while hove-to may be very difficult if not impossible. Hence the question above, whether it is possible to heave-to a cat without trimming the main, provided - I assume - that the centerboard is lowered. Otherwise I surmise that it might be quite difficult to reef a cat underway without starting the motor or running bare pole.  My hope is to be proven wrong by more experienced cat-boat sailors.

Practice... yes, but first I'll have to order my cat, which I won't be able to do for a few more months.

J.

[Potcake boy]

Spent two days on a cruise in the Keys a short time ago on my friend's SC. We needed a reef so we allowed her to simply lie ahull beam onto the wind and proceeded with the reef. Seas were quite lumpy but performing the reef was no more than the usual challange, and we had no mishaps as a result. Remember a monohull vessel will lie beam to under bare poles, tiller unrestrained, board up or down. Board down will lessen drift but will probably increase rolling in a bumpy sea. One other small note: you need your reef line run well forward on the boom to avoid the need to hang out on the leeward side to reach it.

However I'm not sure the procedure described for heaving to for a cat boat yields the same result as you get heaving to on a sloop rig. One aspect of the sloop rig procedure is that it is driven dead down wind and leaves a flattened sea in it's wake (this is not debatable as I have used the technique myself many times). This smooths the ride and the constant press of the sail greatly reduces rolling. This is not a rebuke of the method for a cat boat because it sounds like it works just fine, but not to be equated to the ability of a sloop to backwind her jib to prevent turning into the wind, and thus sailing forward even a short distance.

As usual this is my opinion and I do invite other points of view.

Try it - you'll like it - if not you get your money back.

Ron

[Joseph]

The following excerpt (from THE CATBOAT "The Sailboat Manual", Rudder Pub. 1925) casts some further light on this topic:

http://www.the-rudder-collection.com/articles/the%20catboat.html

"The auxiliary catboat is better in bad weather than the boat not fitted with power. In a reefing wind the engine can be started and the boat kept under power while the sail is being lowered and one or two reefs tucked in. This prevents the boat falling off into the trough of the sea."


So, from the postings and the quote above I tentatively conclude that reefing of a cat while underway can be done either a) while lying a-hull (sail luffing, tiller unrestrained) with the wind abeam or b) under auxiliary power with an autopilot or a helmsman keeping the bow at an upwind angle. I also conclude that the kind of "dynamic" heaving-to attainable in a sloop by opposing the backed jib to the rudder which causes the seas to flatten to windward, is probably not possible (or perhaps only possible in strong winds as even sloops can be made to heave-to while lying a-hull if he wind is strong enough). In sloops this effect on the seas is usually maximal in full-keel boats and is therefore likely to be minimal in a centerboard cat.

Happy sailing to all...

J.

[cavie]

I stopped reading the  link when I read that a cat rig will sail closer to the wind than any other type of rig. Now, we all know that aint right.

[Joseph]

Maybe a cat rig could sail closer to the wind than any other type of rig...  in 1925?

[cavie]

Was not thinking of when that was published. My bad.

[Joseph]

For those that may have seen the several and beautiful sailing videos of Hitchhiker796 in Youtube, you may have noticed the use that he makes in his Sun Cat of a jib with a loose luff (i.e., not hanked to the forestay). Perhaps a jib like this might allow a Sun Cat to heave-to in sloop-style? 

I also wonder the effect that such a jib may have on the balance of a boat designed to sail without it (i.e., the center of force must shift further forward from the center of lateral resistance which should reduce weatherhelm? even cause leehelm?), does it increases pointing ability? Does it allow for an easier ride (i.e. without the main) when running and gybing in high winds?

Has any one else ever tried it?

And what would Clark Mills have said about this significant modification to his design...?

[hitchhiker]

I haven't tried the sloop type heaving-to, so I will try it.

I usually use a small jib but I love SunCat as it is, simplicity is her good point.
Even when I leaf the main, I try to use the jib as long as possible.
The main reason is the additonal boat speed. I don't think the jib enables her to
point better to the weather.
I usually heave-to with the peak haryard loosened and main-sheet and tiler let alone.
I keep the centerboard down because I think it prevents her from drifting leeward and
it keeps her point windward.

[Joseph]

Hitchhiker,

Your posting summarizes it all. The only thing missing is one of your beautiful videos with Mermaid while hove-to...!
And while you are online:
How do you rig the foresail halyard at the top of the mast?
I seem to see the jib-sheets either cleated at the roof of the cabin or attached to the handlebar, am I right?
Did you have the jib specially made? What are its measures and design?

Thank you and happy sailing!

J.

[hitchhiker]

Jib haryard is hauled up to the end of forestay on the mast, not to the mast-top.
I put a block there and haul the jib haryard back to the bottom of the mast.

Jib sheets are drawn through the handrails to the cram creats which are on the cabin wall.
No blocks are used, just through the handrails.

The jib sail is the one for the 13feet dinghy called Sea Martin made by Yamaha.
Since the luff length is limited, you can't have a large jib sail.
If you haul the jib haryard from the top of the mast, you can have a larger sail, I think.