If you are sailing with the wind a-beam and a squall smites you it may not be necessary to lower the mainsail at all. Ease the sheet right off so as to spill the wind, and you will pass safely through the ordeal without parting a rope yarn.
In getting under way or in working up to anchorage in a crowded harbor or roadstead the yawl rig is one of the handiest known, for by having the mainsail furled the speed of the boat is reduced so that you can pick your way among the craft without danger of collision or striking flaws. So many famous cruises have been made in small yawl-rigged craft that there can be no doubt about their adaptability for such work, and to the man anxious for more ambitious achievement than merely sailing in rivers, bays and sheltered harbors, I most certainly would recommend the rig.
Despite the yawl's certain safety for single handed cruising, I am not in favor of sailing by myself. I prefer a congenial companion to share whatever pleasure or peril may be encountered. Of course one must exercise some wise discrimination in the choice of a cruising companion; for when once at sea there is no way of ridding yourself of an objectionable mate except throwing him overboard, which would not be exactly fair to him. Besides, he might throw you overboard, which would be bad for you. There are, however, hundreds of good yachtsmen and boatmen who have made long voyages alone and have written charming accounts of their nautical expeditions. John McGregor's "Voyage Alone in the Yawl Rob Roy" and E. Middleton's "Cruise of the Kate" (also a yawl) are two entertaining books of sea travel which I heartily recommend to those who contemplate sailing by themselves.
While I am in favor of a catboat for general purposes in the neighborhood of New York, yet when long distance trips are to be made the yawl rig will, on the whole, be found preferable.
That keen sportsman, Mr. W. H. H. Murray, is a firm believer in the yawl rig for cruising. In Outing for May, 1891, there appeared a most valuable article from his facile pen entitled "How I sail Champlain." The Champlain is of sharpie model, thirty feet on the water-line. She is of remarkably strong construction, her oaken keel being sixteen by twenty inches amidships and tapering properly fore and aft. Through this keel is sunk a mortise four inches wide and sixteen feet long, through which the centerboard works. This "fin" is of oak planking thick enough to easily enter the case when hoisted, but leaving little space between it and the case when in use. The centerboard is sixteen feet long, four feet deep forward and seven feet aft, and it has fifteen hundred pounds of iron for ballast. Mr. Murray says: "When the centerboard is lowered this mass of metal is eight feet below her water-line, and guarantees a stability adequate to resist any pressure which the wind can put upon her sails and the sails withstand. Of course I am speaking with the supposition that the boat receives, when under stress, judicious management."
The centerboard, which weighs two thousand pounds, is lifted by a "differential hoist," by means of which "the helmsman, with one hand on the tiller, can, if need occurs, with the other easily run the heavy board rapidly up into the case. The value of this adjustment can only be appreciated by a cruising yachtsman. It places him in perfect control of his craft under all conditions of varying depth of water and difficult weather. In a heavy seaway; in rapidly shoaling water on an unknown coast; when suddenly compelled to beat up against a swiftly flowing tide; or when finding himself unexpectedly near a reef, unobserved through carelessness or not plainly charted—this hoist is simply priceless. It is not over expensive, and can easily be adjusted to any yacht."
YAWL IN A SQUALL
The cockpit is roomy, and, because of its high coamings, is also deep. The cabin is sixteen feet long, the forward half being permanently roofed. The after-half of the cabin is constructed, as to its roof, in equal divisions. The forward-half is tracked, and the after-half is grooved to run upon it. Mr. Murray finds this arrangement most convenient, as it gives to the yacht such coolness and comfort as cannot be obtained in a cabin permanently roofed. The whole roof is so fitted to the coamings that it can be quickly and easily removed and stowed, leaving the yacht to be sailed as an open one, decked from stem to midship section. This arrangement is an admirable one for harbor sailing in bright weather or for racing.
Regarding the handiness of Champlain Mr. Murray says: "All yachtsmen know what a disagreeable job it is to reef a sloop or cat-boat in rough water, and from this cause many skippers will delay reefing as long as possible and often until too late. And because of this many accidents happen yearly. In this respect the yawl rig shows to the greatest advantage and commends itself to all sensible yachtsmen. For when the moment has come to reef, if the boat is running free her head is brought up to the wind, the mizzen and jib sheets trimmed in, and with the main boom well inboard the pennants are lashed and the reef points tied down, when she is let off again and goes bowling along on her former course. In Champlain the three reef cringles on the leech of the mainsail are all within easy reach from the cockpit, and the skipper, without leaving the tiller, can lash the pennants, and hence, with only one assistant, the three reefs can successively, if need be, be tied down. Indeed, so well do the jib and mizzen sail work in unison, that unless the wind is very puffy and variable, the helm can be lashed and she will hold her course steadily onward while the skipper is tying down the after reef points. It is a matter of pleasant surprise to one not accustomed to this rig how easily and rapidly a reef in most trying conditions can be taken in the mainsail of a yawl whose sails are well balanced.