Sure..... when hove to in extreme conditions I find that its ususlly
better to heave-to more 'on' the main than on a jib ... so that the
boat slowly backs down and stays with its turbulence slick (caused by
slipping the keel... such turbulence in the water will cause a
brteaking wave to actually break long before it gets to the boat.

My issue with stern hung rudders is that when running off in heavy seas
is that they take a pounding from stern boarding waves. Its all in the
'geometry' of the attachment making the rudder very vulnerble to huge
generated forces simply by 'trigonometry'.


In article ,
Dave wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:46:45 GMT, Rich Hampel said:

are very vulnerable to breakage if the boat slips
backwards such as when hove-to

Could you explicate? I don't recall ever slipping backwards while hove to.
General a very slow forward motion.

Were you thinking of a situation where you've got large waves at right
angles to the wind direction?