The Book of the Sailboat: How to rig, sail and handle small boats

by A. Hyatt Verrill

In a heavy sea there is the added danger of the boom catching in a wave and “tripping” and either upsetting the boat or jibing as a result. If your boat yaws, if the boom kicks up badly, or if there is much of a wind, don’t try to sail before the wind but sail partly side to it and go about every little while and thus zigzag towards your destination as shown in the sketch. If, while sailing before the wind or with a beam wind, you should desire to alter your course and bring the sail over the opposite side, don’t turn away from the wind and jibe the sail, but haul in the sheet, turn into the wind and swing about in a circle until the sail is on the opposite side and you are headed in the desired direction. This manner of turning about when sailing free or before the wind, is called wearing ship and to perform the evolution neatly and in a sailor-like manner will require some practice, for the sail must be hauled in and the helm put over at the same time and in perfect unison.

If the helm is put down too quickly the sail will flap and thrash and the boat may not come about, whereas if the sail is hauled in too rapidly and the helm is not thrown over promptly the boat may be tipped dangerously. Sometimes, however, it becomes necessary to jibe, while at other times a sudden shift of wind or some other cause may make a boat jibe despite every effort to prevent it.

When it becomes necessary to jibe, or if it is seen that it cannot be avoided, haul in the sheet just as rapidly as possible and just as soon as the boom passes the center of the boat pay out the sheet smoothly and quickly so that there will be no sudden jerk or pull as the wind swings the sail over. If there is much wind blowing it is a wise plan to lower the peak of the sail before jibing and when sailing before the wind dropping the peak will often make the boat sail better.

In sailing before the wind it is very important to have the boat ballasted or “trimmed” correctly. If there is too much weight near the bow the boat will invariably yaw and may bury her nose and swamp herself. On the other hand, if there is too much weight near the stern she may steer badly, but this is never as bad nor as dangerous as having her down by the head. If the boom has a tendency to jibe, to swing badly or to kick up, it often helps a great deal to bring down the side over which the boom swings, by placing passengers, cargo or ballast on that side. If you are using a centerboard boat the board should be hauled up when before the wind and many boats will sail better with a beam or quarter wind when the board is half up, but the only way to determine when the board should be partly up, fully up, or down is to experiment. Some boats come about more quickly with the board up; others refuse to come round unless it is down, and some sail better with the board down, even when dead before the wind. When tacking or sailing on the wind the board should always be down, however.

As a rule a boat should be trimmed so that the stern is a little deeper than the bow and while the effect of a badly trimmed boat is more evident when sailing before the wind, yet in sailing on the wind a little fault in the proper distribution of weight may make a vast difference in the behavior of the boat.

When you have become thoroughly accustomed to handling your boat on the wind you may try tacking or sailing to windward or against the wind. As I have already explained no boat will sail directly against the wind, but by sailing as close to it as possible in one direction, then turning and sailing as close as you can in the opposite direction and repeating the operation at intervals progress may be made directly towards the wind.

This is known as “tacking” or “beating” and while it requires considerable skill and practice to beat to windward to the best advantage yet it is not difficult to learn to tack and one can only become proficient by practice and by becoming thoroughly familiar with the boat.

Some boats will sail far closer to the wind than others and every boat has a certain point at which she will sail to windward to the best advantage. The nearer the boat is headed into the wind the closer or “flatter” the sail must be “trimmed” or hauled in and there is always a point at which the vessel loses headway and falls off the wind. For this reason it is a waste of time to try to sail too close to the wind and the objective point will be reached far quicker by heading off more and obtaining greater speed and making frequent tacks, than by attempting to head nearer the direction you desire to go and then losing almost as much as you gain by the boat’s sliding to leeward.

The idea is to keep your boat pointed as near the wind as she will sail well and the sails should be trimmed in until quite flat each time you tack. Then, as the boat swings over on the other tack, the sail should be eased off a bit to obtain headway and the boat should be again headed towards the wind until the edge of the sail begins to flutter and wrinkle. This shows you are sailing as close to the wind as advisable and to sailors it is known as sailing full and by. Every few moments the boat may be brought a trifle closer to the wind and then eased off so that the sail is always filled and yet the edge, by its fluttering, shows the helmsman that the sheet is trimmed properly.

Some boats have a remarkable power of “eating into” the wind in this way and although headed quite a bit off the wind will progress almost directly into the wind’s eye. If the wind is quite stiff a great deal may also be gained by luffing up from time to time, or in other words bringing the boat directly into the wind, allowing her to shoot ahead for a short distance and before she loses headway bringing her off until she catches the wind again.