On Yachts and Yacht Handling

by Thomas Fleming Day

Years ago, when I was a lad, a very fast and narrow steam launch was left by her crew on a shelving bank close to where we were anchored. When the tide dropped she fell over, and as her crew did not return we tried to save her, but the bottom was too soft to allow working on, and she filled at the flood. On the next ebb we bailed her out, and with a little engineering and a lot of labor got her righted up.

We took two big joists and lashed them across the boat, but so poorly fitted was she with cleats and other things to make fast to that we had to bore holes in the deck to pass the lashing and secure them to the frame. The ends of the joists stuck out about fifteen feet on the high side. Under these ends we laid another timber, parallel to the boat's length, in the mud and ballasted it with stones and iron. To this timber we lashed two tackles, one from each joist. Then as the tide made we hove slowly down on them, and she righted up.

If the bottom had been hard we could have parbuckled her, but it was impossible to do it in the deep, soft mud. This boat had a high and heavy boiler, which made the work harder, as it levered her down.

If you can float another boat alongside of a launch in this fix you can lift her by parbuckling, or you can do it from a dock if the wall is high and near enough. To do this, take a stout line, made fast, from the near side over the deck and right under the keel; then lay your floating boat alongside as close as possible, and bend this line to the latter's throat halyards. Heave taut on it and belay.

If possible get two lines, one forward and one aft, having separate tackles. As the tide makes keep heaving in the slack, letting your floating boat draw in sideways to the launch. This strain will aid the water in lifting, as the launch will have to rise with the floating boat. If the launch is very heavy or of scant beam, like the steam craft I mentioned, you had better use joists or spars to help the leverage.

I once took a launch off a rock by this same plan, when hours of heaving on hawsers had failed to move her. Another plan is to lift a boat by lashing empty barrels to the side by passing slings under the keel. If the boat is neaped so that sufficient tide cannot be got to lift her, you can fill and sink the barrels, bunghole up; then shorten up the slings and pump the barrels out with a hand-pump. This barrel trick is only performed when a boat is bilged and full of water.

Let me say here that all small power boats that cruise in strange waters where the bottom is hard should carry either a screw or hydraulic jack, and a good stout piece of square timber. If you get aground in places where there is little or no rise of the tide you have something to start in the wrecking business with. A jack and timber are also useful if anything happens to the wheel and you want to get the stern raised.

To show the danger of forcing a boat off a rock let me cite one instance: A 50-foot sloop of the old flat-floored centerboard model struck on a stone when going free with a moderate wind. The sailing master kept his sails up, and with this pressure and a warp dragged her over and off the rock bow first. She had no sooner gone clear than she filled and sank.

When floated and docked it was found that she had a hole in her bilge big enough for a dog to crawl through. The first blow had started a butt; this caught, and in dragging over the plank was bent back and ripped away from the frames. Had he taken in sail, and pulled her off stern first, she would have floated long enough to have got into harbor.

Having considered accidental stranding, let us now consider voluntary stranding—that is, the running of a vessel ashore to save the vessel or the life of her crew. Let us suppose that you are caught on a lee shore, and for some reason cannot claw off. You are bound to go ashore anyhow, and in order to give the boat and people a chance decide to run in and strand her.