Chapter 14

Were Off! #2

Our situation is this: the main and jib are both trimmed to port. If we swing the bow to port to bring the wind over the stern, we must smartly slack off the main-sheet as we make the turn so there is no chance of the wind getting on the wrong side of the sail. Get this point firmly in your head. When you turn into the wind— that is, luff—you are reducing the pressure on the sails. You are, in effect, pushing out the clutch and putting on the brakes. But when you turn the stern of the boat into the wind, you are getting yourself into a situation that can easily result in gobs of trouble unless you are careful, for you are turning to bring more, rather than less, pressure on the sails. But that is only half the story. When running before the wind, your mainsheet will be slacked off so the boom is almost at right angles to the center line of the boat. The total swing of a boom can be over an arc of close to 160°. If you allow the wind to get on the wrong side of the sail, the boom will come across the boat like a bat out of the seventh pit of hell. When the boom comes to the end of its tether, there will be a shock that is apt to knock out your store teeth, wreck the rigging, and take the mast out of the boat. This is a nasty old meany called a jibe.

Where were we? Oh, yes. We were still on the broad reach with the wind from starboard. We were swinging the bow to port so the wind would be aft. A second before you pull the tiller to windward, start paying out the mainsheet. In fact, the two acts should be simultaneous. Do not over-steer. If you turn beyond the correct new course, there is a chance you'll jibe. So far, we haven't paid much attention to the jib, for the ordinary jib isn't of great importance when before the wind. Forget it until we are settled on the new course with the wind aft. Then you may be able to sheet the jib so that it fills on the side opposite to the mainsail (Fig. 4). The larger and lighter the jib, the better chance you have of doing this.

If the maneuver has been done correctly, the boom is now at almost right angles to the hull and our greatest concern is to steer so the boat remains in such a position that the wind cannot stage a sneak attack and get on the forward side of the mainsail, causing a jibe. All this supposes that it was possible to change the course at right angles to the previous reach. What if we cannot maintain such a course? Some obstruction may be ahead, as in Fig. 5. In that case, an intentional jibe may be required. This stunt has all of the anticipatory pleasures of playing with matches in a gunpowder mill. On the reach, the wind was to starboard. As we turn for the run, the boom must go to starboard. We can do the job without bloodshed provided we grow several extra pairs of hands and use the old bean.

Close-hauled on the port tack. Wind is blowing over port bow and sails are set to starboard. Crew is hiked to port to keep boat on even keel.

On the reach, the boom was at an angle of something like 45° to port. As you pull the tiller to starboard, come in with the main-sheet fast. Unless you can haul on a line so fast that it throws off sparks, you had better leave jibing to the speed merchants. In fact, you had better stay ashore, for the Coast Guard will get sick of towing you home. If you do the job in a seamanlike manner, you will bring the boom directly fore and aft as the stern swings into the wind. Let the boat swing over until the breeze catches the sail on the port side and then pay off quickly so the boom goes to starboard just about as far as it can go without touching the shrouds. From now on, we try to get the jib pulling and then settle back to the most uninteresting point of sailing. Not only is the boat moving slowly, but because the 'wind is with us, we have little sensation of moving. For all the fun you are having, you might as well go to sleep, but don't do it—you must remain alert against the possibility of an accidental jibe.

The boom is now to starboard so that any turn toward port is a simple matter. You can bring her up for a reach on the port tack with no more effort than moving the tiller and taking up on the main and jib sheets. Such a course will eventually bring us back more or less to the mooring. However, if conditions make it necessary to direct the course to starboard, we must again jibe. This is a good time to mention a time-consuming, but sometimes necessary, variation of the jibe. To jibe intentionally in a light breeze is simple once you have gained a bit of experience and have shaken the lead out of your pants. But to jibe in a heavy breeze taxes the skill of the expert. In fact, unless there are helpful hands to get in the mainsheet quickly and then pay it out again as the boom comes over, a jibe in a heavy breeze may be too risky. Here is a way you can accomplish the same results with lots more comfort.

Luffing a Raven one-design knockabout. The jib is beginning to back wind and the mainsail is all aflutter along the luff. The boat is level.

Assume you are running with the boom to starboard. Conditions make it necessary to shift the boom to port for either a run in a slightly different direction or a reach. Bring the boat about to port. This will mean a turn of 180°, but you can help her around by smartly coming in on the mainsheet as she comes about. You will have to have considerable speed to do this properly. As she luffs, she should have enough headway to pass through the luff and bear off on a starboard tack. You must rapidly run off your mainsheet as she comes around so that when the circle is completed, your boom will be to port. If, during the maneuver, you lack enough speed to carry you around, you will have to bear off long enough to gain the necessary speed. This completed maneuver will have carried you in a complete circle, but you will end up heading in the same direction as you were originally except that the boom will be on the opposite side and ready for any further changes of course requiring that position of the mainsail. Technically, this is called wearing ship although many sailors refer to the maneuver as a Chinese jibe (Fig. 6).

A few paragraphs back, we set up three alternatives for the change of course from our original starboard tack. The first of these conditions—shifting from reach to run with the possibility of having to either jibe or wear—has been explored. The second possible change of course was to turn to starboard, toward the wind. If the wind has been coming from directly abeam, it is obvious that a right-angle turn to starboard will result in nothing more than a luff. Our turn must be either considerably less or quite a bit more than a right angle. In either case, we must maintain a course that is far enough away from the eye of the wind to keep way on the boat.

Suppose we want to sail well up to windward. We cannot do that directly. The best that we can do is to sail on one or more diagonals that will eventually end up where we Want to go (Fig. 7). Here, judgment plays a large part. To help understand the procedure, let us use the points of the compass. The wind is blowing directly from north to south, yet we want to sail north.

"We can do that by first sailing on a course about northwest on a starboard tack, then (after a length of time that only judgment can determine) coming about on the port tact and sailing awhile on a northeast course. Thus we can zigzag our way directly to windward. If we are not sailing directly to windward, it may be that the zigs will not be the same length as the zags. In sailor parlance, there will be a short hitch, then a long hitch. Obstructions, sand bars, and the like may make each of the tacks of different length. All the words in the world could not describe the proper length for each hitch, for every different condition of the wind, the water, and the ability of the boat to sail close to the eye of the wind will enter into the problem. On long trips in open water, the tacks might be several hours, or even days, in length. A small boat sailed in restricted waters may have to come about on another tack at intervals of a few minutes. The only rule is to maintain a tack as long as possible, for each time you come about, you kill your headway.

The third alternative we had, simply a variation of the second, was to come about at the end of our outward bound reach so that we complete a 180° turn and can sail back to the mooring on the opposite tack. No great amount of skill is needed. The only caution is to see that the boat has enough way on her to make the turn. In light breezes, a boat will often come up into a luff and then hang there. She is then in irons, she has missed stays. The best way to prevent this is to get enough speed on her before coming about so she will make the turn.

If she still fails to make it, there are two methods of forcing her around. One is to pay no attention to shifting the jib sheet until after she has passed through the luff. Normally, the jib is sheeted on the leeward side. As the boat comes about, the sheet will hold the jib across the wind to help swing her head. Once she has filled out on the opposite tack, you can slack off on this sheet and take up on the leeward one. As in jibing, you will appreciate a second member of the crew. His jobs are tending the jib sheets when coming about and overhauling the mainsheet during a jibe.

The second way of getting out of an unwanted luff is to reach up and press the boom in the direction you want to swing the bow. Small sailing boats will usually respond to this treatment. If not, you may have to go forward and haul the jib way over across the wind to make the bow pay off. The stunt of using the rudder as sort of a paddle will also help in very light airs with a small open boat.

Unexpected jibe. The skipper has dropped the tiller and is reaching to haul the mainsheet in fast while the crew ducks the swinging boom.

It is now time to get back to our mooring. Here is a situation where even the saltiest of the experts fall down on many embarrassing occasions. If we are to pick the mooring up, there is but one way that it can be done. We must sail the boat into a position so she can be luffed just before we reach the mooring. When luffed, she should slide up to a position where you can reach out and make fast. That is not always possible. Another boat may have come in and anchored directly to leeward of your buoy. There is then no room for you to come in, luff, and slide up alongside the mooring. Don't get desperate and attempt to make it on the fly, trusting to luck that you'll get a line made fast and the sails down. You can, with luck and good judgment, make it on a reach provided you head slightly to windward of the buoy and then let go both main and jib sheets at the correct moment. In this case, you have not luffed by bringing the bow into the wind, but you have accomplished the same objective by casting off the sheets so the sails swing into the wind. There is no maneuver in sailing more difficult than coming alongside a mooring or a pier without making a mess of things. No better advice can be given the novice than to take an old egg crate and anchor it out where there is plenty of room. Spend hours practicing coming alongside and making fast. Never, under any conditions, allow yourself or a crew member to lie on deck and try to hold a mooring when there is still way on the boat. More folks have been jerked into moist deaths by that bit of foolishness than can be counted.

When preparing to get underway, stow the boom crotch where it cannot fall overboard and where the running rigging cannot get tangled with it.

When the maneuver is made, pick up the mooring by using a short piece of line with one end fast aboard. As you drift alongside the mooring, run the free end of the line through the ring and make fast to a cleat in a hurry. Get the sails down and run a better mooring line at your leisure. If some smart marine-hardware salesman has sold you a boat hook with the idea that you can snag the mooring ring and stop a rushing boat, here are two bits of advice. First, cram the boat hook down his throat; then, withdraw it and throw it overboard. Boat hooks may be of some use but they are not intended for catching mooring rings like the gimmick that snaps mail sacks into a speeding train. The sacks can stand it, but you know what happens to their contents.

Suppose you cannot make the mooring by any variety of luffing? Is there a nearby boat to which you can make fast? Take it easy, bub, her owner may not chuckle with joy if you scratch her paint or gouge hunks out of her planking. But at least you will be fast to something so you can stow the sails and beg a tow over to your own mooring.

We should mention a stunt that has some advantages as well as some very bad points. This is the idea of leaving a length of line on your mooring. At the end of the line, there is a wooden or cork float sufficiently buoyant to hold the line on the surface. When you come boiling in, you have a better chance of picking up the line and making fast than you would have to catch hold of the mooring ring itself. This is bad medicine in any waters where there are other boats. Your length of line will not be evident to the man in a motorboat. He is apt to run over it, and, if he is lucky, cut it off with his wheel. A buck will get you 10 that he will get the line tangled in his wheel. If he takes that misfortune calmly and does not get after you with a shotgun, he must be indeed a gentleman of the old school. Even one of the sailing fraternity may foul the floating line with his centerboard or rudder with similar results to his blood pressure.

Before leaving this chapter, we should briefly discuss the use of both main and jib sheets. Broadly speaking, the more you flatten a sail by sheeting in, the faster the boat will go. This is nothing but basic theory. When the sails are sheeted in too much, the boat will slide to leeward or heel over more than she should. Heeling looks wonderful in pictures. We see action shots of a couple of boys hanging to the side of a boat while her mast is almost horizontal. The dear little acrobats are having a wonderful time and think they are going blue blazes. With few exceptions, they would be doing better by the boat and would be keeping their panties drier if they would slacken the sheets, get in the boat like human beings, and let her sail at a normal angle of heel.

You are seeking speed forward through the water. Making leeway and heeling so the wind is sliding over the sail get you nothing except perhaps space in the pretty-picture supplement of a boating magazine. Keep your boat moving ahead. Only judgment will tell you when the forward speed has dropped off because you have flattened sheets to the point where your boat is way off her water line. On the other hand, in very light airs where she isn't heeling at all, she will often do better if your crew sits down to leeward to provide at least some heeling. This is because most sailboats make better speed when slightly heeled.

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