Chapter 15

We Graduate

The information thus far has pertained to tile smaller boats. It is difficult to draw a line between what most people call a boat and a craft logically entitled to be called a yacht. Actually, any power or sailing craft used exclusively for pleasure is a yacht. On the other hand, most of us think of a yacht in terms of a craft fitted for cruising and requiring more than the usual two-person crew. Sooner or later, most sailing enthusiasts get larger boats or at least have opportunities to sail them. There is no basic difference in method between sailing a 16-footer and sailing a craft 10 times that length. One man has put it in terms most of us understand. He said that sailing a small boat was like having a good wife, but that the handling of a big one was like having a harem—lots of fun if you can attend to all the details without undue strain.

The spinnaker is folded into a sausage-like roll before stops are tied at frequent intervals.

Below: Stops are pieces of knitting wool or twine that are tied three or four feet apart.

Below: The boom for the spinnaker has a metal fitting at the mainmast.

Below: The spinnaker's tack snaps to the outboard end of the boom.

For the sake of argument, let us call anything with an over-all length of 30 feet or more a "big boat." Such a craft will hardly be cat rigged and there is some question about her being a knockabout although there are many large boats that are true knockabouts. The chances are that she will be a yawl, a ketch, a cutter, or the latter's sister, a sloop. Where she differs mainly from smaller craft is that she will probably have several special sails for particular purposes. These may include spinnakers, balloon jibs, and a variety of other light sails that are hoisted when more speed is desired than can be obtained from the normal working canvas. Let us hasten to say that some small boats also have light and special sails. Many of the little one-designs can carry spinnakers. Most of them are also rigged with what is known as Genoa jibs.

To some extent, light sails cannot be too closely defined. For example, a balloon jib may be cut full enough to be used as a spinnaker. Even a Genoa can be set to act as a sort of semispinnaker. The following definitions are thus open to some criticism. A Genoa jib (Fig. 1) is larger than the fore triangle, which is what the triangular space is called that has the mast as its after limit, the deck as its base, and the forestay as its third side. An ordinary jib—in some cases called a staysail as it is hanked to the forestay—fits within the fore triangle (Fig. 2). A Genoa jib is cut with somewhat more of a belly than is a regular jib and its base, or foot, extends abaft the mast. Many a boat doesn't have any other headsail except the Genoa. The main difference between it and the ordinary jib is that usually, although not always, it is sheeted so that it leads outside the main shrouds. An ordinary jib is inevitably sheeted inside the shrouds. Except on rare occasions, the Genoa must be sheeted outside the shrouds for, being longer on its base, it could not be flattened properly without chafing against the wire rigging.

The ballooner (Fig. 3) is an oversized Genoa with baggy knees. Being cut fuller, it is seldom used unless the wind is blowing from a point abaft amidships. In other words, the ballooner is hardly a proper sail for beating to windward because its bagginess prevents it from being sheeted as flat as is required for sailing when the wind is blowing from anywhere forward of amidships. Thus the ballooner is a true light sail and should be kept stowed in the locker until the weather conditions and your desire for speed make the labor of setting it worthwhile. A ballooner is usually set in stops; that is, it is folded into a sausage-like roll and tied at frequent intervals with knitting wool or light twine. With the regular working jib still pulling, the ballooner is hoisted and its sheets are led outside the shrouds and made fast to cleats. When the course is such that the ballooner can be set, it is broken out by a sharp pull on the sheets. The light ties break and the sail fills with a grand boom and starts pulling like a plow horse. The working jib is then taken in.

The spinnaker boom is set on the side of the vessel opposite to that on which the main boom is carried. Below: Spinnaker in action on a Raven knockabout.

The spinnaker (Fig. 4) is handkerchief light, has a lot of belly, and is often called a bag. Like the ballooner, it is set in stops, but it is used only when the boat is running before the wind. Broadly speaking, it is set across the boat rather than fore and aft. To accomplish that, there must be a spinnaker boom. This is a light spar having a fork, crotch, or special metal fitting at its inboard end to fit the mast. The outer end of the boom has a snap hook to which the tack or outer lower corner of the spinnaker is made fast. The opposite corner, or clew, is attached to the spinnaker sheet, which is passed around the forestay and carried aft outside the shrouds on the side opposite to that on which the spinnaker boom is to be run out. A guy from the end of the boom is carried aft outside the shrouds on the side where the boom is to be rigged.

In setting, the spinnaker boom is laid on deck parallel to the center line of the boat. The spinnaker is hoisted in stops and the sheet and guy are carried aft. When planning all of the foregoing, you must decide which side of the boat the main boom will be carried on, for the spinnaker boom must be run out on the opposite side.

As the course is directed before the wind, the spinnaker boom is quickly run out, pointed as far forward as possible. A man aft takes up on the guy to bring the boom aft until it is more or less at right angles to the center line of the boat. A sharp pull on the sheet will then break the stops and the sail will fill with tremendous power. If cut very full, and made of very light canvas, it is often called a parachute spinnaker because when filled, it looks so much like its namesake. Once it is drawing, the working jib can be either taken in or, if you are expert, trimmed on the side opposite to the spinnaker boom so that some wind from the spinnaker is spilled into it.

The racing skipper must learn to carry and trim sails so that the wind is deflected from one sail to the other. The theory is simple. With a Genoa, for example, currents of air from the mainsail can be spilled into the Genoa and thus do sort of double duty. The same thing applies to other light sails and it is a real art, one that can only be learned by experience, to sheet your sails so that every last ounce of wind pressure is utilized. The only rule that can be followed is that every sail must be drawing. If a sail is not doing its share of the work, get it in fast for it is just interfering with those that are willing to work. Even the most experienced racing skipper constantly experiments with the setting of his sails to be sure that each is pulling to the utmost.

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