Be sure that your boat has oars, oarlocks, a boat-hook, a compass and a lantern on board, for these simple things may save your life and they will come in useful scores of times. If you go on long cruises or sail any distance from shore you should also have a keg of fresh water in the boat at all times, for one never knows when an accident may happen and the boat may be kept out to sea for many hours at a time and if such an event does occur you will give heartfelt thanks for your foresight in providing drinking-water.
Finally there is the ballast. If the boat carries inside ballast it may be in the form of iron or lead bars, cobble stones or sandbags and these should be looked over, cleaned and put in good shape. If the sandbags leak, mend them with strong thread and give them a good coat of paint; if stones are used wash them in fresh water and let them dry before placing in the boat, and if iron bars are used, chip off the rust and give them a coat of asphaltum varnish, or some good metal paint.
When pulling up the boat for the winter or placing her “out of commission” always drain all the water out of the hull. All weeds, shells and marine growths should be removed from the bottom and the planks should be scrubbed off and the keel blocked up so that it rests on a firm support at several points, as otherwise it may bend or buckle from the boat’s weight.
The inside ballast should be taken out and placed aside; the running rigging should be taken down, coiled and hung in a safe dry spot; all the equipment should be taken from the boat and stored away and the sails should be soaked in fresh water, dried thoroughly, rolled up and stored in a dry loft or similar place.
A little care and trouble taken in such matters will save a vast amount of time, trouble and expense when ready to put the boat in the water, for dampness, dirt and rust will play havoc with the woodwork, ropes, sails and other parts of the boat if left alone over winter, while marine growths and old paint are far easier to remove from the bottom when wet and fresh than after they have dried and hardened during the months in which the boat is hauled out.
If you use a mooring this should be taken up in the fall and stored over winter, for ice will often carry away a mooring buoy and chain which will resist the most severe storms. If the stone, anchor or other object used as a mooring is too heavy to be taken up the mooring buoy should be taken from the chain and a cheap wooden spar or pole should be substituted. This will resist the action of ice and winter storms better than the keg or can buoy, and if it is lost it doesn’t amount to much and the chain can usually be picked up again by a grapnel.
In order that you may be able to locate your mooring, if the buoy is sunk or carried away, you should make a note of cross bearings (see Chapter VII) so that you will know the exact spot where the mooring is located.
There are many forms of moorings for small boats, among them large stones, heavy pieces of iron or metal, such as old furnace-pots, old car-wheels, old railroad-rails and discarded machinery, while large anchors, and especially “mushroom” anchors, are widely used.
It doesn’t make the least difference what is used for a mooring as long as it is heavy enough to hold the boat securely, but it must be borne in mind that an object under water weighs far less than when out of water and hence you should always use an object which you are sure is large and heavy enough to hold your boat in any wind or weather. A mooring should weigh at least three times as much as an anchor and six or eight times as much is none too heavy.
From the mooring a heavy iron chain should lead to a buoy and the chain should be long enough to allow for the rise and fall of tide and yet have some slack at all times.