Sailing

by E. F. Knight

If an open boat is being pulled across the breakers on a bar so as to make a harbour, or is being rowed towards the shore before a heavy surf, a drogue or even a bucket towed astern will keep the boat’s stern back and prevent her from broaching to.

If a small boat be blown right out to sea and it is impossible to bring her back to the shore either by rowing or sailing, a floating anchor can be made by lashing the oars, the mast, and the yard with the sail bent on it, together. The sail must be loosed and a weight can be attached to its foot so as to sink it and offer more resistance to the water. A short rope secured to both extremities of the raft forms a span to the middle of which the cable is bent. Such a floating anchor breaks the sea in a marvellous manner, and small boats have been often known to ride out the most furious gales in this way.

Beaching Boats in a Surf, etc.—The National Lifeboat Institution has published a very useful series of rules on the management of open boats in rough water, these rules being founded on information gathered from all parts of our coast as to the practice of the local boatmen and fishermen.

I. In Rowing to Seaward.

As a general rule, speed must be given to a boat rowing against a heavy surf. Indeed, under some circumstances, her safety will depend on the utmost possible speed being attained on meeting a sea. For if the sea be really heavy, and the wind blowing a hard on-shore gale, it can only be by the utmost exertions of the crew that any headway can be made. The great danger then is, that an approaching heavy sea may carry the boat away on its front, and turn it broadside on or up-end it, either effect being immediately fatal. A boat’s only chance in such a case is to obtain such way as shall enable her to pass, end on, through the crest of the sea, and leave it as soon as possible behind her. If there be rather a heavy surf, but no wind, or the wind off shore, and opposed to the surf, a boat might be propelled so rapidly through it that her bow would fall more suddenly and heavily after topping the sea than if her way had been checked; and it may therefore only be when the sea is of such magnitude and the boat of such a character that there may be chance of the former carrying her back before it, that full speed should be given to her. It may also happen that, by careful management under such circumstances, a boat may be made to avoid the sea, so that each wave may break ahead of her; which may be the only chance of safety in a small boat; but if the shore be flat, and the broken water extend to a great distance from it, this will be impossible.

II. On Running Before a Broken Sea, Or Surf, to the Shore.

The one great danger, when running before a broken sea, is that of broaching to. To that peculiar effect of the sea, so frequently destructive of human life, the utmost attention must be directed. The cause of a boat’s broaching to, when running before a broken sea or surf is, that her own motion being in the same direction as that of the sea, whether it be given by the force of oars or sails, or by the force of the sea itself, she opposes no resistance to it, but is carried before it. Thus, if a boat be running with her bow to the shore and her stern to the sea, the first effect of a surf or roller overtaking her is to throw up the stern, and as a consequence to depress the bow; if she then has sufficient inertia (which will be proportioned to weight) to allow the sea to pass her, she will in succession pass through the descending, the horizontal, and the ascending position, as the crest of the wave passes successively her stern, her midships, and her bow, in the reverse order in which the same positions occur to a boat propelled to seaward against a surf.

This may be defined as the safe method of running before a broken sea. But if a boat on being overtaken by a heavy surf, has not sufficient inertia to allow it to pass her, the first of the three positions above enumerated alone occurs—her stern is raised high in the air, and the wave carries the boat before it, on its front, or unsafe side, sometimes with frightful velocity, the bow all the time deeply immersed in the hollow of the sea, where the water being stationary, or comparatively so, offers a resistance, whilst the crest of the sea, having the actual motion which causes it to break, forces onward the stern or rear end of the boat. A boat will in this position sometimes, aided by careful oar steerage, run a considerable distance until the wave has broken and expended itself. But it will often happen that, if the bow be low, it will be driven under water, when the buoyancy being lost forward, whilst the sea presses on the stern, the boat will be thrown end over end; or if the bow be high, or if it be protected by a deck so that it does not become submerged, that the resistance forward acting on one bow will slightly turn the boat’s head, and the force of the surf being transferred to the opposite quarter, she will in a moment be turned round broadside by the sea, and be thrown by it on her beam ends, or altogether capsize. It is in this manner that most boats are upset in a surf, especially on flat coasts, and in this way many lives are annually lost. Hence it follows that the management of a boat, when landing through a heavy surf, must, as far as possible, be assimilated to that when proceeding to seaward against one, at least so far as to stop her progress shoreward at the moment of being overtaken by a heavy sea, and then enabling it to pass her. There are different ways of effecting this object—

1. By turning the boat’s head to the sea before entering the broken water, and then backing in stern foremost, pulling a few strokes ahead to meet each heavy sea, and then again backing astern. If a sea be really heavy and a boat small, this plan will be generally the safest, as a boat can be kept more under command when the full force of the oars can be used against a heavy surf than by backing them only.

2. If rowing to shore with the stern to seaward, by backing the oars on the approach of a heavy sea, and rowing ahead again as soon as it has passed the bow of the boat; or as is practised in some lifeboats, placing the after oarsmen with their faces forward, and making them row back at each sea on its approach.