* tlindly wrote, On 3/18/2007 8:04 AM:
....
What has been mentioned [back-haul the jib and tie the rudder over]
is the way that everyone learned in school because all schools teach
with a sloop, but if you get a ketch there is a method to heave-to
using the mizzen aswell. And below I pasted a bit from the oxford
dictionary showing a couple other methods. Why I bet there is folks
as traveled around the world and never knew you could use your
spencer to heave-to! hhahhahahhaaa

But the imortant thing about sailing is just kick back and enjoyit,
cause now God has all the power! Stop rushing [bet that's how ya
lost the leg???]

tom
=-==

c. heave to: to bring the ship to a standstill by setting the sails so
as to counteract each other; to make her lie to. (a) trans. with
the ship as obj. (b) intr. or absol.

a. 1775 DALRYMPLE in Phil. Trans. LXVIII. 397 Hove the ship to. 1833
M. SCOTT Tom Cringle xv. (1859) 357 'Shorten sail..and heave the ship
to', said the Captain. 1884 A. BRASSEY in Gd. Words Mar. 163/1 We
remained hove-to all the next day.
fig. 1887 STEVENSON Misadv. J. Nicholson iv, [He] was at last hove-to,
all standing, in a hospital.
b. 1781 BLAGDEN in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 337 Soon afterwards we hove-to
in order to sound. 1835 SIR J. ROSS Narr. 2nd Voy. vi. 79 This obliged
us to heave to. 1860 MAURY Phys. Geog. Sea xix. §807 Took in fore and
mizen top-sails; hove to under close-reefed main top sail and spencer.
transf. 1832 MARRYAT N. Forster iii, We must 'heave-to' in our
narrative awhile.


Thanks for that - very interesting. I looked in the 1802 edition of
Bowditch for a definition of "Heave To." There is a whole section on
variations of "heave" but nothing for "heave to." Perhaps this was
not common terminology for the ships Bowditch was concerned with.
However, it did have this:

"To Lie-to. To retard a ship on her course, by arranging the sails in
such a manner as to counteract each other with nearly an equal effort,
and tender the ship almost immovable, with respect to her progressive
motion or headway."

From a somewhat more modern source, "The Boatman's Manual" by Carl
Lane, 1942, the technique of lashing the tiller down and adjusting the
sails so the boat "goes to sleep" is described as "Laying To" but it
is mentioned in passing as being "hove to." Then, in the chapter on
small power boat handling, there is a section on "Heaving To" where it
explains that "small boats will not heave to without aid as a steamer
will, and a sea anchor, or drogue, becomes a necessity."

From 1943, Chapman's "Piloting, Seamanship, and Small Boat Handling"
uses "Heaving to" to describe the "helm down" technique for sailboats,
but for powerboats it is used when engines are used to keep the bow
into the wind, or when the boat is simple allowed to drift in whatever
orientation is most comfortable for the boat.