3. If rowed in bow foremost, by towing astern a pig of ballast or large stone, or a drogue, the object of each being to hold the boat’s stern back and prevent her being turned broadside to the sea or broaching to.
Heavy weights should be kept out of the extreme ends of a boat; but when rowing before a heavy sea, the best trim is deepest by the stern. A boat running before a heavy sea should be steered by an oar as the rudder will then at times be of no use.
The following rules may therefore be depended on when running before a heavy surf.
1. As far as possible avoid each sea by placing the boat where the sea will break ahead of her.
2. If the sea is very heavy, or if the boat is small, and especially if she has a square stern, bring her bow round to seaward and back her in, rowing ahead against each heavy surf sufficiently to allow it to pass the boat.
3. If it be considered safe to proceed to the shore bow foremost, back the oars against each sea on its approach, so as to stop the boat’s way through the water as much as possible, and if there is a drogue or other instrument in the boat which may be used as one, tow it astern.
4. Bring the principal weights in the boat towards the end that is seaward, but not to the extreme end.
5. If a boat worked by both sails and oars be running under sail for the land through a heavy sea, her crew should, under all circumstances, unless the beach be quite steep, take down her masts and sails before entering the broken water, and take her to land under oars alone. If she have sails alone, her sails should be much reduced, a half-lowered foresail or other small headsail being sufficient.
III. Beaching or Landing through a Surf.
The running before a surf or broken sea, and the beaching of a boat, are two distinct operations; the management of boats, as above recommended, has exclusive reference to running before a surf where the shore is so flat that the broken water extends to some distance from the beach. Thus, on a very steep beach, the first heavy fall of broken water will be on the beach itself, whilst on some very flat shores there will be broken water as far as the eye can reach. The outermost line of broken water, on a flat shore, where the waves break in three or four fathoms water, is the heaviest, and therefore the most dangerous, and when it has been passed through in safety, the danger lessens as the water shoals, until, on nearing the land, its force is spent and its power is harmless. As the character of the sea is quite different on steep and flat shores, so is the customary management of boats on landing different in the two situations. On the flat shore, whether a boat be run or backed in, she is kept straight before or end to the sea until she is fairly aground, when each surf takes her further in as it overtakes her, aided by the crew, who will then generally jump out to lighten her, and drag her in by her sides. As above stated, sail will, in this case, have been previously taken in if set, and the boat will have been rowed or backed in by oars alone.