In coasters and fishing smacks, a topsail is set over the mizzen.
All those advantages which the yawl possesses over the cutter are magnified in the ketch, and in addition to this, the vessel can sail well under head sails and mizzen, and can turn to windward under these, a performance impossible for the average yawl, with its pocket-handkerchief of a mizzen.
Old Peninsular and Oriental and other large steamers’ lifeboats can be purchased for a few pounds in the London Docks; for it is the custom to condemn them and sell them for what they will fetch after a certain number of years’ service—or rather idle rest in their davits—whether they be sound or otherwise.
These boats, generally built of double skins of teak, are marvellously strong, and are perhaps the best sea boats of their size in the world.
The author once timbered and decked one of these boats—thirty feet long by eight feet beam—and converted her into a ketch yacht, in which he recently sailed to Copenhagen and back, encountering plenty of bad weather on the way.
After his experience, he can strongly recommend those who desire a cheap, strong cruising boat that will go through almost any sea, to do the same.
As these lifeboats are of shallow draught, it will be necessary either to fit a centre-board or false keel on the vessel. The author’s craft has lee-boards; but he is aware that the amateur will seldom face the prejudice of his yachting friends, professional or amateur, and adopt this simple and very efficient method of stopping his vessel’s leeway. But let us tell him that a little doubled-ended craft of polished teak, with neat, polished oak lee-boards is anything but unsightly, and is the very boat for the Zuyder Zee and shallow Dutch waterways, where no one will ridicule his lee-boards, provided they be properly made.
CHAPTER VII.
HOW TO SAIL A YACHT.
To get under way from mooring or anchorage—Setting sail—Close hauled—Tacking—Missing stays—Waring—Squalls—Shifting jibs—Jibing—Scandalizing mainsail—Hove to—Reefing—Returning to moorings—Running aground.
Each rig has its own little special tricks of sailing differing from those of other rigs; but the main rules are the same for all, and one who has thoroughly grasped the mechanical laws that govern the relation of a boat’s sails, hull, and rudder to wind and water, and has learnt how to sail one sort of craft, can discover for himself, by reasoning and experiment, what methods must be employed on a boat of a different rig.