The scooner heaves to admirably,
which is necessary to reef her in a wind. She does fore-reach
at a couple of knots, however, so heaving to close to a windward
shore may result in running aground before all the reef lines
are tied!
Before heaving to, you should
be sailing to windward normally. The end of the foreboom is secured
in position--an occy strap or shockcord to the staysail ring on
the sidedeck works fine--so that it is not free to swing to the
other side. If you don't do this, the boat will end up tacking
herself out of the hove-to position.
Once the foresheet is secured,
start a normal tack with the helm well down. The boat will come
to the wind and the secured foresail will be taken aback, which
is what you want. Keep the helm down (tied with another occy strap
if necessary) and the mainsail will be in reach for reefing. Pressure
on the foresail will tend to push the boat off the wind, and the
down helm will tend to bring her up to the wind. She'll gill and
fill like this, not forever, but until the slow forward motion
this imparts runs you into something. She'll also behave better
if you get the jib in rapidly.
To reef, someone should be handling
the peak and throat halyards, which need slacking off a bit. Tie
the throat reefing pendant and the tack pendant first. The tack
tie can go through the grommet at the full sail's tack. The clew
pendant is best led through holes in the reinforcing strips along
the boom, and tied under the boom.
Then tie the individual reef
ties under the foot of the sail (not round the boom), working
in from each end.
Once finished, set the main
up again, free up the foresail, back off the wind and you're off.
Total time from heaving-to to sailing again, five minutes once
you're practised.
| General tips | Sail configurations | Rigging to Sail | Handling sheets | Tacking & Gybing | Heaving to and reefing | Jib oddities | Large crews | Light Schooner home page |