Sailing

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Knots, Bends, and Hitches.

A MAN cannot be even an amateur sailor until he knows his ropes. A great number of knots, hitches, bends, et cætera, are employed by sailors; but the skipper of a small fore-and-after will find that the different manipulations of cordage which we will now describe will suffice his needs.

The ropes in ordinary use are what are known as hawser-laid ropes, and are thus put together. Several threads of hemp, called yarns, are twisted together to form a strand. Three strands twisted together from right to left form the hawser-laid or right-handed rope.

 What is called a cable-laid rope contains nine strands, that is, three ordinary right-handed ropes twisted together from left to right into one large rope. Right-handed rope must be coiled "with the sun" from right to left. Cable-laid ropes must be coiled from left to right.

The ends of all ropes should be whipped to prevent the strands from unravelling. This is done with spun-yarn or tarred twine. The twine is wound round the rope in such a way that both ends of the twine are covered, and so secured by the laps, and no knot is necessary. It is very easy to whip a rope's end, but very difficult to describe the process in such a way as to make one's self intelligible to one who has never seen it.

Where a rope is liable to be chafed, as in the eyes of the rigging, it is wormed, parcelled, and served. Fig. 2 will show how these operations are performed. Worming consists of laying spun-yarn between the strands, so as to fill up the spiral groove which every rope presents and obtain a smooth surface. Parcelling is wrapping narrow strips of tarred canvas over the worming, it is put on with the lay, that is,follows the direction of the strands. Serving a rope is the laying on of spun-yarn or other small stuff over the parcelling and worming. Service is put on against the lay of the rope. Before commencing to protect a rope in this way it should be stretched out as taut-as possible with tackle, and the worming, parcelling, and service should be laid on as tightly as possible. The service is hauled taut by a serving mallet. If the rope is a small one, it may be served without worming, as the grooves between the strands are not deep enough to cause great unevenness of surface.

 Splicing, by which the ends of ropes are neatly and permanently joined, is a necessary accomplishment of the yachtsman, and is easily acquired.

A Short Splice (Fig. 3). -- Unlay the strands of both rope ends for a little way. Interlace the three loose strands of one rope with the three loose strands of the other, so that each strand of one rope is between two strands of the opposite rope. Then force each strand under the next strand but one opposite to it, and draw all tight. Repeat this operation with each strand, and the splice is made; but to finish it off neatly, untwist each strand end, cut away half the yarns, and tuck in these reduced strands as before. A marline-spike or pricker is necessary to force open the strands under which the ends have to pass.

 When two rope ends are joined by a Long Splice (Fig. 4), the joined portion is no thicker than the rest of the rope, and will reeve through any block that will admit that rope; this splice is therefore very useful for repairing a halyard that has broken. Unlay the ends of the two ropes for a distance six times greater than for a short splice, and place the strands together as for a short splice. Unlay one strand of one rope for a considerable distance further, and fill up the interval thus left with the opposite strand from the other rope. Repeat this process with one strand of the other rope. Where the opposite strands meet divide them, take an overhand knot in them, and tuck them in as in a short splice; but before cutting off the half-strands the rope should be well stretched.

 The yachtsman will use the Eye Splice (Fig. 5) more frequently than any other. The end of the rope is bent round so as to form a loop of the required size and the unlaid strands are tucked into the rope exactly as in the short splice.

If one strand of an otherwise sound rope be cut through it can be replaced thus. Cut off about two feet of the injured strand. Take a somewhat greater length of a strand of the same size and lay it in the interval left by the the removed portion of injured strand, then proceed to halve the strands, knot and tuck in as in a long splice.

 A Grommet (Fig. 6) is a rope ring. Unlay a strand, without stretching it and so disturbing the turns in it. Form a ring of the required size by bending the end round on to the standing part. Then wind the strand twice round this ring, fitting it carefully into the crevices, so that the ring then presents exactly the appearance of the original rope from which the strand was taken. Where the ends meet, take an overhand knot with them, halve the yarns, and tuck them in as in the long splice.

We now come to the various useful knots, bends, and hitches, all easy to acquire, but difficult to describe in words. However, if the reader will study the accompanying diagrams with a bit of rope in his hand, he will soon discover for himself how these knots are formed. They all serve their purpose admirably -- that is, they are quickly made, are secure, and cannot slip, and yet are readily undone again.

We must explain that the standing part of a rope is the portion held in the hand; the bight is the loop made in tying the knot; the end is that extremity of the rope on which the knot is to be made.

 First we have the common Overhand Knot (Fig. 7 ), to which we have already alluded.

One overhand knot on the top of another will form a Reef Knot (Fig. 8), that is if the ends are crossed the right way; for otherwise it will be a granny (Fig. 9), the sailor's detestation.

The novice on board a yacht is sure to be unmercifully chaffed should he have assisted at reefing the mainsail, and a granny be afterwards discovered among the reef points.  The figures will show that in the reef-knot both parts -- the standing part and the end -- pass through the bight the same way, not one under and one above, as in the granny.

A Common Bend (Fig. 10) will bend two ropes together. Take up the end of one rope into a bight, and pass the end of the other rope through the bight round both parts and under its own standing part. A common bend also serves to bend a rope into an eye spliced into the end of another rope. The signal halyards are thus bent on to the burgee.

A Carrick Bend (Fig. 11) will bend two ropes together more securely than the common bend.

When it is desired to fasten one rope on to the middle of another rope, so as to haul upon it, a Rolling Hitch must be used, as this, when jammed, cannot slip down the rope, and yet it is easily cast off again.

 Fig. 12 represents a watch-tackle, witlh the tail of its upper block bent with a rolling hitch on to the ropeit is intended to pull upon, while the hook on its lower block is made fast with a Blackwall hitch.

A watch-tackle is a very handy tackle on board ship, and is used for a variety of purposes. A tail is strapped to the upper block and an iron hook to the lower block.

A very powerful purchase is obtained by using two watch- tackles in combination. This is done by making fast the tail of one watch-tackle to the hook on the lower block of the other tackle.

With a Blackwall Hitch a rope can be rapidly and securely fastened to a hook for a temporary purpose. The diagram will show how it is formed. The hitch is prevented from slipping by the jamming of the rope between its own standing part and the stem of the hook.

Two Half Hitches (Fig. 13) are very useful for bending a rope to a ring, a boat's painter to a post, and other purposes.

A Clove Hitch (Fig. 14) is employed to fasten a rope to a spar or to a stouter rope. In this way thc ratlines are hitched to the shrouds, and a buoy-rope is fastened to an anchor.

The Bowline Knot (Fig. 15) is somewhat more difficult to make than any of the preceding, but if the reader diligently imitate the form of the diagram with a piece of rope or string he will soon acquire the secret.

Where an easily running noose is required, a Running Bowline (Fig. 16) is useful.

A rope can be quickly bent on to a spar by means of Timber Hitch (Fig. 17), which does not readily slip.

 A Topsail Halyard Bend (Fig. 18) is still less likely to slip.

In this case a description may assist the diagram. Take three turns round the spar; come back round the standing part; pass under all three turns, then over the last two turns and under the first turn.

The most secure way of fastening a hawser to a mooring-ring or dolphin is by means of the Fisherman's Bend (Fig.19). This is also one of the best ways of bending a hemp cable on to an anchor ring. When used for this last purpose it is well to seize the ends as shown in the diagram.

New rope, especially manilla rope, is very apt to twist itself up into loops or kinks. This tendency to kink can be prevented by stretching the rope well before using it.

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Leeway and lateral resistance -- Heeling -- Balancing sails -- Tacking -- Action of rudder -- Longitudinal resistance -- Deep keel or centre-board

ANY object floating on the water will have a tendency to drift before the wind; but a boat, with its scientifically constructed hull, sails, and rudder, can be so guided as to sail with the wind on her quarter or abeam, or even close-hauled, as it is called, that is, with the wind meeting her at an angle of about forty-five degrees.

Fig. 20 represents the deck plan of a boat sailing close-hauled under two sails. The sails A and B are drawn aft with the sheets till they form an acute angle with the line of the keel. The wind, whose direction is indicated by the arrow W, strikes the sails at a very acute angle, so that they do not shake, but are just full.

The result of this pressure on the sails is that the boat is propelled forward and also sideways away from the wind, making leeway, as it is called.

If a boat has a deep keel, her lateral resistance to the water will cause the leeway to be insignificant. If the boat is of very shallow draught and so offers little lateral resistance to the water, she will not go ahead at all, and the entire force of the wind will be expended in driving her bodily to leeward. Lee-boards and centre-boards are fitted to shallow boats in order to obviate this.

The pressure of the wind on the sails, in addition to producing the above effects, heels a boat over. A sailing-boat is so constructed as to resist this tendency to capsize. Either she is made narrow and deep and is weighted with ballast as far as possible below the water-line, or she is shallow but of considerable beam. The deep and weighted boat will heel over more readily than the beamy shallow boat, but the further she heels the greater pressure of wind is necessary to make her heel still more, for the leverage of her ballast increases as she heels, and many boats with lead upon their keels are practically uncapsizable. On the other hand, the beamy shallow boat does not heel so readily, but after she has heeled to a certain angle she will capsize.

The pressure of thc wmd on the sails not only propels, drives to leeward, and heels over a boat, but, unless the sails are absolutely balanced, it tends to turn her in one direction or the other.

In Fig. 20 we have a boat with two sails. If the after sail is the more powerful, it is obvious that the wind will drive round that sail and the stern of the boat with it in the direction of the arrow c, while the head of the boat will run up into the wind. If, on the other hand, the head sail be the more powerful of the two, the bow will be driven off the wind and the boat will bear away.

The sails of a boat should be so balanced that she has a slight tendency to run up into the wind; and to counteract this weather helm, as it is called, the steersman will have to keep the rudder slightly to leeward of the line of the keel.

If a boat carrying weather helm be left to her own devices in a squall she will at once do the right thing, luff up into the wind and be in safety; whereas a boat with too much head-canvas and carrying lee-helm will run off her course and put herself in a dangerous position.

A boat should not gripe, that is, carry too much weather helm, for steering will then be very hard, and the rudder, forced far over to counteract the helm, will act as a serious drag in the water.

In balancing the sails, it must be remembered that the further out a sail is on an extremity of a boat, the greater its effect in driving that end of the boat off the wind.

Sometimes a vessel's sails are not properly balanced because the ballast has not been stowed in the right place. It is obvious, for instance, that if ballast be shifted aft the weather helm will be diminished, for the stern of the boat will draw more water and so offer more lateral resistance, whereas the stem of the boat will draw less water, and will therefore be more easily blown round. A centre-board, again, is generally placed well forward, so it is found that when this is lowered the weather helm of the boat is considerably increased.

We have explained that a boat properly constructed and rigged can sail within forty-five degrees of the wind. Now, if it be desired to sail to some point more directly to windward than this, what is called tacking becomes necessary. This consists of sailing a certain distance close hauled with the wind on one side, and then turning round and sailing close hauled with the wind on the other side. A zigzag course is thus taken, each tack being at about right angles to the last.

 ? One diagram of Fig. 21 illustrates the process of tacklug with the wind right ahead, and in the other diagram the wind is a point or two off, so that one tack is longer than the other, there being, in sailor language, a short leg and a long leg. That the action of the rudder, when forced over till it is at an angle with the keel, is to act as a drag on that side and so deflect the boat's course, is plain enough. But it is not so obvious a fact that this action of the rudder in turning the boat is not to turn her bow round through the water, but to push the stern sideways while the bow is almost at a standstill. For the centre of rotation of a boat, that is, the imaginary pivot on which she turns, is always well forward.

In Fig. 22 >A is the centre of rotation. So when the rudder is put over to the right, the boat will revolve on the pivot A till she is in the position indicated by the dotted lines. It will be observed that the stern has moved about twice as far as the bow. The further forward the centre of rotation the greater will this disproportion be.

 It is very important to remember this effect when sailing very near any object such as a buoy, for while steering so as to turn the boat's head away from the object and avoid it, the stern is made to approach the object, and the very action that seems calculated to prevent a collision may become the cause of one.

Having shown what are the relations of the sails, hull, and rudder of a boat to the wind and water, and explained how a vessel requires either ballast or beam to prevent the wind from capsizing her, and needs draught to increase her lateral resistance and prevent her from being blown to leeward, it remains to add that the longitudinal resistance to the water must be diminished as much as possible, that the the boat can slip easily through the water and travel with speed.

 For this reason a sharp stem is put on a vessel, so that she can open a way for herself through the water like a wedge, and she is given what is called a fine run aft, so that her stern will not drag heavily. Again, the larger the area of the boat's greatest cross-section (Fig. 23), the more resistance that results and the slower she will travel. The area of the cross-section is diminished by making a boat of narrow beam, while the necessary displacement is obtained by increased length and depth.

Now, the difficulty arises that most of the qualities that ensure speed in a boat have a tendency to lessen her stability and even her lateral resistance. It follows that, while constructing a boat, a compromise has to be made between these three; and the problem as to how to produce the fittest craft becomes a very complicated one that has never been solved yet, and probably never will be.

Thus a long narrow shallow boat will run the fastest before the wind, but she will not turn to windward at all, and will capsize with great ease.

As it is recognized that beam is opposed to speed, it has been long the fashion in England to construct racing yachts extremely narrow and of great draught. Such craft do attain speed, but at the expense of all comfort, and when a heavy sea is running go through it instead of over it.

To come to the opposite extreme, we have the flat-bottomed very shallow and very beamy craft, with a deck plan not unlike a flat-iron -- a veritable skimming-dish. Provided with a centre-board, such a boat is well adapted for shallow and sheltered waters. The centre-board can be raised while crossing a shoal, and the boat will then draw only as many inches as a deep-keel boat of her size would draw feet. She will be very fast in smooth water, but in rough water she will pound heavily into the seas, and, having no good hold of the water and little momentum, will lose her headway and soon prove dangerous.

For real comfort and seaworthiness -- and some now maintain for racing purposes as well -- a boat that is something between these two extremes answers the best; that is, a boat that is moderately beamy and has a moderate draught of water.

Some years ago we sailed to South America in a yacht that well represented the class of vessel we are now speaking of. Her length was forty-two feet, her beam thirteen feet, and her draught seven feet six inches. Not being one of the narrow deep class, she was an excellent sea boat; indeed, she once had the reputation of being the best sea boat of her size in the Channel. Now the advocates of the narrow boats will contend that speed must have been sacrificed to obtain this comfort in heavy weather. We scarcely agree with these gentlemen; for this boat, though furnished with exceptionally small sails, could do her nine knots an hour, and on one occasion travelled two thousand sea miles in ten days.

The author also once owned a centre-board yawl of five tons, which drew between two and three feet without her centre-board. She thus combined the advantages of the shallow boat with the seaworthiness of a boat that is sufficiently immersed to have a good hold of the water.

This compromise between the deep-keel and the centreboard types of boat has long been popular in America, and probably the recent victories of the American yachts constructed on these principles, over our own crack deep-keelers will gradually modify the English views on this subject.

Most of our yachting men maintain that a long hole through the bottom of a boat must weaken her; that the great strain of the centre-board, concentrated as it is on one small portion of the keel, must render a large craft thus fitted ill-adapted to buffet witll a really heavy sea.

On the other hand, the American builders emphatically deny that a centre-board is a cause of weakness, and point to their noble pilot vessels and trading schooners, which are all provided with centre-boards, and which are exposed to every sort of weather.

It is unnecessary to dwell longer on this controversy; for though there is much divergence of opinion as regards large craft, there can be no question as to the advantages of fitting centre-boards into many kinds of small craft, especially in those that are intended for river sailing.

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Open and half-decked boats -- Ballast -- The centre-board -- False keels -- Lee-boards -- Counters, square and pointed sterns -- Battened sails.

THE following observations apply chiefly to small boats, which can be rowed as well as sailed, and be easily handled by one man -- that is, boats from the smallest size up to about eighteen feet in length.

OPEN AND HALF-DECKED BOATS. -- A small boat is often half-decked, that is, she is provided with a small deck in the bows and a narrow deck on either side, low coamings being carried round the inside edge. Such a boat must to a certain extent be safer than an entirely open boat; that is, if she be struck by a squall and heel far over, or again, if she run her nose into a sea, the water will flow off her decks instead of pouring into her and possibly swamping her. But a small boat is not a yacht, and she ought not to be sailed in so reckless a manner as to drive hcr bows or gunwale under and ship large bodies of water in this way. A quite open boat, if she be properly constructed, not over-ballasted, not over-canvassed, and of course properly sailed, will go through an extraordinary amount of sea without taking a bucketful of water on board; and not only this, but she will sail as fast if not faster than the half-decked craft of the same size staggering along under excessive canvas, with the water under her lee coamings. The slight additional safety, or rather inducement to recklessness afforded by the half-deck and waterways, is more than counterbalanced by several disadvantages. In the first place, this deck -- too narrow to walk along -- will occupy much of the already limited space available on board a small boat, and it will be in the way of and impede one working the sails or rowing to an extent that it is difficult to appreciate until one has tried the experiment. In the next place, this deck must be of considerable weight a serious disadvantage if the boat has often to be beached. And not only is the deck heavy in itself, but, situated as it is high above the water-line, it tends to make the boat top-heavy, and this must be counteracted by putting more ballast into her than would be required in an entirely open boat of the same dimensions. Now, if a small boat is intended ever to venture into rough water, the less ballast she carries and the more buoyant she is, the better.

We therefore do not recommend half-decks for the class of boat of which we are now speaking. When a boat is big enough to be a small yacht, and the half-deck forward covers a cuddy large enough to afford sleeping accommodation to the crew, the case is different, and the half-deck becomes a decided advantage.

BALLAST. -- A small boat's ballast, whatever form it may take, should be readily movable. Thus, if lead is used, it should be cast in small blocks of not more than half a hundredweight each, and in order that it may be lifted with ease, each block should be provided with a handle. Lead being very heavy, and therefore occupying little space in a boat, is the most convenient form of ballast, but it is also by far the most expensive. The iron half-hundredweights. with handles at the top, which can be purchased at any marine store dealer's, are nearly as convenient as lead weights, and are very cheap.

Battens should be nailed to the bottom of the boat to keep the ballast in its place, otherwise it might slide ta leeward in a squall and cause a capsize.

Stones and bags of sand are often employed as ballast but water contained in small barrels, or, better still, in metal tanks, shaped so as to fit closely into the bottom of the boat, is far the safest ballast that can be used. For if a boat provided with water ballast capsize and fill she will be no heavier than if she contained no ballast, and, consequently, she will not sink.

Another advantage of water ballast is that it can be pumped out to lighten the boat when a calm necessitates the use of oars, and be quickly admitted again when a breeze springs up and the sail is hoisted. Again, when the water-tanks are empty the boat is practically converted into a lifeboat, and if a sea fill her she will still float.

The advantages of water over other forms of ballast are so numerous that nothing else would be used in small boats were it not for the great amount of space it occupies, and so serious is this objection that one but rarely comes across a boat thus ballasted.

THE CENTRE-BOARD. -- In England the centre-board of a small boat is generally of galvanized iron; thus acting also, to some extent, as ballast In America wooden centreboards are more often used. If a boat has often to be beached or carried, lightness is an important object, and therefore the wooden centre-board is to be preferred. One objection to the centre-board is that its trunk or case occupies so much space in the interior of the boat. A telescopic or fan centre-board has recently been invented which folds up into itself when hauled up, and therefore requires no trunk. We believe, however, that this is only adapted for canoes and other very small boats.

FALSE KEELS. -- If the tyro lives by the sea it is very likely that he will commence his nautical career by becoming the proud possessor of some old yacht's dinghy or ship's boat, which, when he puts sail on her, runs before the wind to his complete satisfaction, but is too shallow to turn to windward. Now, to put a centre-board into a boat that has not been expressly built for one is an expensive and generally unsatisfactory job, but any carpenter can nail a false keel on to the old one, and so give the boat the necessary draught at a small expense. A false keel should be rounded up towards the bow and stern, and have its greatest depth some way abaft the middle of the boat.

LEE-BOARDS. -- The tyro will find lee-boards even less expensive and possibly more effective than a false keel, and when they are raised the boat will row more easily than if she were provided with the latter. There is some prejudice against lee-boards in England, and to eyes unaccustomed to see them on pleasure craft they appear ugly, but in Holland no boat or yacht is without them.

Large lee-boards are made in several sections, and are strengthened with iron bands, while they require a good deal of gear to support and raise them; but the author has found that with a small boat the following simple method of fitting lee-boards proved very satisfactory.

The shape and position of this lee-board is shown in Fig. 24. It is cut out of one plank and has no iron fittings, and it is between three and four feet in length. The inner side is flat The outer side, as represented in the diagram, maintains the thickness of the plank at the head and down the middle, and is thence planed away to a narrow edge. A rope is rove through a hole at the head of the lee-board and passing over the gunwale is secured to a cleat. Another rope rove through a hole at the bottom of the lee-board is led aft and serves to raise it, while the first rope serves as a pivot. When the lee-boards are not required they can be brought on board and placed at the bottom of the boat If the boat is wall-sided, that is, has perpendicular sides the lee-boards can rest against these; but if, as is the case with most boats, her sides fall in beneath, wooden pillows must be fastened on the outside of the boat to support the lee-boards and keep them at the right angle; or, and this is sometimes the better plan, battens of the requisite breadth are nailed on the lee-boards themselves. In working leeboards the lee one is lowered and the weather one hauled up, and when the boat is running both are raised. All those who are accustomed to the use of lee-boards speak well of them, and they certainly have some advantages over centre-boards, notably, that if the boat runs aground, they will not bend, break off, or strain the boat, as is often the case with a centre-board.

COUNTERS, SQUARE AND POINTED STERNS. -- Whatever it may be on a yacht, a counter or overhanging stern is not an ornament on a small boat, being, as it is, the very reverse of useful; and to the educated eye the useful and beautiful go together in boats, as they do in many other things. In rough water, if a sea strike a boat under the counter a variety of disagreeable results may ensue; for instance, the boat's bows may be driven under, or she may broach to, that is, be driven broadside on to the sea, and be swamped by the next wave.

A square stern, as is usual in small boats, is far better than a counter; but far better still, for a boat intended to be out in rough water, is the pointed stern. Such a boat is undoubtedly safer, especially when running before a sea, and we maintain that she will be faster as well. All lifeboats are thus constructed. The author was caught in a north-west gale in the Gulf of Heligoland last summer, and had to sail sixty miles before a high and dangerous sea. He was in a little yacht of three tons, which had a pointed stern. She showed no tendency to broach to, but rushed straight ahead across the steep sea in a fashion that gave us confidence and astonished us. Had she had the ordinary yacht's stern to present to those following masses of water instead of a graceful wedge offering little resistance, we should have had a very uncomfortable time of it. Many men dislike a pointed stern, and consider it ugly. However that may be, it behaves handsomely, and we should certainly recommend any amateur building a sailing-boat for coasting purposes to give her the lifeboat stern.

BATTENED SAILS. -- Battens of pine tapering at the ends, are sometimes fastened to the reef bands of balance lugs and other sails in use on small boats.

The object of battens is to make a sail stand very flat. Another advantage gained by the use of these is that if one is sailing a boat alone, a reef can be taken down in a moment with one hand while the halyard is being slacked off a sufficient length with the other. This is done by means of a line which, when hauled taut, draws the boom and batten close together. It is not necessary to tie down reef points in a sail reefed as above, but to do so makes a much neater reef.

Battens are of great service on the sails of canoes and very small craft, but they make a larger sail somewhat heavy and clumsy to handle.

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Spritsails -- Dipping lugs -- Standing lugs -- Leg-of-mutton sails -- The balance lug -- The Una rig -- Balance reefs -- The sloop -- Rules of open boat sailing.

THE SPRITSAIL rig is much used on small boats all round the coast of England. It is an exceedingly handy and safe rig, and the spritsail will set flatter and is better adapted for turning to windward than almost any other form of sail. It has no boom or gaff, but is extended by along diagonal spar called the sprit, which tapers away at the two extremities, the upper end of it fitting into an eye on the peak, the lower end fitting into a loop on the mast called the snotter.  The snotter (see Fig. 25) is a grommet which is placed round the mast, and then is seized in the middle so as to form an eye for the sprit.

In using this rig, the sail is hoisted first; one end of the sprit is inserted into the eye of the peak, and then the other end is inserted into the snotter. Lastly, the snotter is pushed up the mast as far as it will go, bringing the sail quite flat. It is well to have a tackle for hoisting the snotter and preventing it from slipping down the mast. lt is important that the snotter should be quite sound. There is a great strain on it, and should it break, the sprit end may drive a hole through the bottom of a boat or work some other serious damage.

A spritsail can be brailed up along the mast in a moment by means of a line leading through a block on the mast and passing round the sail. A glance at any Thames sailing barge at anchor will show how this is done.

An old ship's long-boat provided with a sprit mainsail, sprit mizzen, and jib, as in Fig. 26, is a very convenient sort of craft in which to take one's first lessons in sailing. When it blows hard the mainsail can be stowed, and the boat will sail under jib and Mizzen, or these last two sails can be taken in and the mainsail alone be left standing.

The mizzen sheet, it will be observed, is rove through a sheave-hole at the end of a bumpkin, a small fixed spar projecting from the stern of the boat.

The DIPPING L UG is a powerful sail very well adapted for sea work, and a favourite with fishermen and other professional sailors, but it cannot be recommended to the amateur; for at every tack the sail has to be lowered and passed round to the other side of the mast. This necessitates plenty of sea room, and would be an awkward operation to undertake while turning up a narrow and crowded channel. To handle a dipping lug with safety in a stiff breeze requires considerable experience both on the part of the steersman and of the hand or hands to whom the dipping of the sail is entrusted.

Any one who wishes to rig a boat in this fashion should read W.H.S.'s description, in the Yacht Racing Calendar and Review for this year, of a very useful invention of his, whereby the dipping of a lug is made easy and the possibility of bungling in tacking reduced to a minimum.

The STANDING LUG, though not so powerful a sail as the dipping lug, is far more convenient; as the sai1 has not to be lowered in tacking. The tack, instead of being carried forward, is brought down to the mast, where it is hooked on to an iron hook if the sail be a small one, and if the sail be a large one it is fitted with a tackle, so that the tack can be bowsed down after the sail is hoisted. The yard is swung at about one-third of its length, where it has a strop to pass over the hook on the traveller -- an iron ring on the mast to which the end of the halyard is attached, and which prevents the sail blowing away from the mast

In order to ensure a lug sail that will stand well, the peak should be cut high, as in the drawing. It is a common fault to cut the head of a lug sail too square. Such a sail can never be made to set flatly. A short beamy dinghy with one lug is a handy little craft for the amateur; but if the boat is a long one she will be better with a jib and mizzen, as in Fig. 27.

THE LEG-OF MUTTON SAIL. -- A very handy rig and one that requires no spars but the masts is that represented in Fig. 28. The masts though long are slight, as there is little strain on them. Each sail is hoisted to its masthead by one halyard, and its luff is kept close to the mast by hoops or more usually by a lacing. A boat thus rigged is possibly the safest of any, and is not easily capsized.

The rigs we have so far described are well adapted for a novice, insomuch as they need no booms. As soon as a sail is provided with a boom the danger of sailing is much increased. If you let go the sheet of a sail that has no boom -- a spritsail, for instance -- it flaps away from the mast innocently like a- flag. Put a boom on it, and you at once have a great surface of canvas extended rigidly and offering the greatest possible resistance to the wind. When running before a strong wind a jibe, and especially if it be an unpremeditated jibe, of a sail bent on to a long boom becomes a source of danger.

Thus a green hand or a careless person cannot be safely trusted with a boom sail on a squally day; but when the novice has acquired the rudiments of sailing, and employs that constant caution and watchfulness of his ever-open weather-eye which are indispensable qualities for a sailor, he will most certainly, and very rightly too, prefer the boom sail. For a sail that has no boom is most unsatisfactory if one wishes to get any speed out of a boat. When running free it curves into a bag, and only presents half its area to the wind. It never stands flat, except when the boat is close-hauled, and not always then, unless the sheet is led exactly to the right place; and though a sail without a boom jibes with greater safety, it is much more liable to accidental jibes than one with a boom.

THE BALANCE LUG. -- The favourite sail for small centreboard craft in England is undoubtedly the balance lug. Most of the racing boats on the Upper Thames are fitted with this sail; some have jibs, others jibs and mizzens, besides the mainsail; but we will confine ourselves to describing the single-sail centre-board dinghy, which little craft is perhaps unrivalled for the purpose of single-handed sailing on a river.

A handy boat is one fifteen feet long, with five feet beam. She should have a flat floor, and therefore shallow draught. The mast is supported with wire shrouds, and is fitted into what is called a tabernacle, that is, a wooden case for the heel of the mast, having a pivot through it, on which pivot the mast is easily lowered when the boat is passing under a bridge.

The sail, as is shown in Fig. 29, is hoisted on a yard similar to that of a standing lug, but the foot of the sail is laced to a boom, and extends some distance in front of the mast. One end of the tack is fastened to the boom, where it crosses the mast, and the other end of it is secured to the mast.

The tack is a most important rope in a balance-lug boat, for after the sail has been hoisted with the halyard and it is required to give that last haul on the sail which brings it to its proper tautness, a much smaller amount of power will do this when applied to the tack than if applied to the halyard. An efficient tack purchase is what is known as a watch tackle, which is represented in Fig. 12. When after sailing a while the ropes have stretched, and the sail is no longer flat, it is with this tackle, and not with the halyard, that one sets it up again. A balance lug requires more frequent setting up to preserve its flatness than any other sort of sail.

In a small dinghy, no purchase is needed for the halyards; the sail will lower more easily and quicker without one. The tabernacle also is unnecessary, as the mast can be easily unstepped.

The sail is kept close to the mast by an iron traveller; but if the sail be cut with a high peak it will be found that the traveller has a tendency to prevent the sail from lowering completely. A traveller is also liable to jam if the mast is not kept well greased.

 On this account the iron traveller is dispensed with on most of the Upper Thames boats, and instead of it, a line is fastened to the yard, which passes round the mast and is rove through an eye on the yard. When the sail is up, this line is hauled taut, and prevents the yard from blowing away from the mast. This method will be understood by referring to Fig. 30.

A well-cut balance lug properly hoisted should be nearly as flat as a board. The fact of the tack being some way down the boom prevents the pressure of the wind from lifting the after-end of the boom and so forming a belly in the sail, as is the case with the ordinary fore-and-aft sail. A balance-lug sail is always rigid; the boom and yard can only move together, and this rigidity renders it somewhat unfit for rough water, where it is apt to considerably strain mast and boat.

The balance lug is rather an awkward sail to lower, and as it is impossible to brail it up, or lower the peak, or trice up the tack to temporarily reduce the canvas in a squall, as can be done with other rigs, the sail has to be lowered bodily if the boat is overpowered by the wind. Thus, if one is overtaken by a violent squall while running before the wind, the balance lug is perhaps the most dangerous sail one can have on a boat.

So as to facilitate reefing, a grommet is sometimes placed on each reef cringle at the luff of a balance-lug sail. In taking down a reef, the fore end of the boom is thrust into this eye and an earing is thus dispensed with.

The usual method of fitting the sheet of a balance-lug sail is to fasten one end of it to one side of the stern, and then to lead it through a single block strapped on to the boom, and through another block fastened to the other side of the stern.

THE UNA RIG. -- Whereas the balance lug is the favourite English rig for small river craft, the Cat or Una rig is generally preferred by the Americans, and it undoubtedly possesses some important advantages over the other rig.

The cat boat (Fig. 31), being intended for very shallow waters, has the least possible draught. This boat, consequently, has great beam, and is often quite flat-bottomed. The centre-board is of wood or iron. The mast is stepped much more forward than in a balance-lug boat, and carries one large sail laced to a boom and gaff. The cat boat, in our opinion, will turn to windward in smooth water even more smartly than a balance lug, and as a rule will row more easily, for the displacement is very small, and in consequence of the stability given by the great beam, little, often no, ballast is used.

In England, it is usual for a Una boat to have but one halyard, which serves to hoist both peak and throat. We prefer two halyards, one for the throat, one for the peak, the latter leading aft, so that it can be let go in a squall, and thus reduce the sail by one-half.

The author had recently a good deal of experience in an eighteen-foot cat boat among the quays of the Gulf of Mexico and on an extensive lake in Florida, and he came to the conclusion that for such work the cat rig was far handier than the balance lug, especially when, as was often the case, there was a large party of ladies on board.

This was an entirely open boat, carrying no ballast, and having a wooden centre-board. She was therefore very light for her size, and could be rowed with singular ease.

The lake was subject to sudden and violent squalls, and it was very convenient to be able to let go the peak halyards without leaving the tiller, and have them up again in a moment as soon as the squall had passed, without disturbing the passengers in the least. Had the sail been the uncompromising balance lug, the whole sail would have had to be lowered in a body on to the heads of the passengers.

A topping lift, always belayed so as to feel the weight of the boom, is indispensable in a cat boat, else the end of the boom would drop into the water when the peak was lowered.

Strong winds would spring up suddenly on this lake, so that the boat would be quite overpowered even under close-reefed sail, and it became impossible to tack home until the wind dropped. Neither was it possible to row back, for the very lightness of a cat boat renders her a troublesome boat to pull against the wind. She is blown over the surface of the water before the wind, despite all the efforts of the oarsman. Now, as the swamps which surround this lake also made it out of the question to land and walk home, one was liable to find one's self weather-bound among the dismal cypress swamps at the further end of the lake for three days at a stretch while a " norther" was blowing. The author almost entirely did away with the chance of such an unpleasant adventure by putting what is known as a balance reef into the sail, a plan he strongly recommends to all those who would sail Una boats or small sloops on broad waters liable to sudden storms.

The BALANCE REEF (Fig. 3) extends diagonally across the sail from the throat to the clews. In taking in this reef, the jaws of the gaff are lowered till they touch the boom, and are there tied. The fall of the throat halyards will do for this purpose. When the reef has been taken down and the peak is hoisted again, it will be found that the gaff is nearly parallel to the mast, and a very snug little triangular sail is formed, under which the boat will tack or run -- with boom well topped up -- with safety; and the moment the peak halyard is let go, down the sail will fall into the bottom of the boat without making any fuss.

The boat we are speaking of was remarkably cranky, but she would behave well in a strong gale under her balance reef.

The balance reef is much employed by our fishermen and coasters, but scarcely ever on board yachts. I believe that many amateurs consider this, together with some other useful wrinkles, to be unyachty.

From what we have said, it will be seen that the Una rig offers many advantages over its rival, the balance lug, but it likewise has some serious disadvantages.

The Una boat is not easily capsized -- the beam prevents that -- but she soon becomes altogether overpowered by sea and wind. Like all flat-bottomed boats, she pounds heavily into a head sea and is very wet. The weight of the mast, being so far forward, makes her somewhat liable to run her nose under water and fill. She steers wildly too before a sea, and will broach to more readily than other boats, while the length of her boom renders an accidental jibe dangerous.

THE SLOOP. -- Boats and small yachts are often sloop-rigged.

There is considerable discrepancy of opinion as to what constitutes the difference between a sloop and a cutter. At any rate, the generally understood distinction among boating men in England is, rightly or wrongly, that whereas a sloop's forestay is carried to the end of a fixed bowsprit or an iron bumpkin, the forestay of a cutter is carried to the stem of the vessel; and thus the sloop can only set one large foresail, instead of a foresail and a jib as a cutter does.

We will adopt this definition of a sloop, which is represented in Fig. 32. As the rig is in every other respect the same as that of a cutter, we will reserve an explanation of its different parts till the next chapter, wherein the cutter rig will be discussed.

The sloop rig is not one to be altogether recommended, except for racing purposes on a river. For cruising purposes, if the boat be a small one, one of the rigs above mentioned is preferable to the sloop rig. If the boat be a good-sized one, it is better to make a cutter or yawl yacht of her at once; for a sloop's big foresail is an awkward sail to handle in rough weather.

The following important rules apply to the sailing of open boats, such as we have described in this chapter : --

Carefully coil your halyards after hoisting sail, so that they will not get entangled and jam if you have to let go in a hurry.

See that your mainsheet is coiled out of every one's way. Many a boat has been capsized owing to a man's leg getting entangled in a sheet.

Do not belay your mainsheet, but hold it in your hand; if the strain be great, take one turn with the sheet round a cleat or pin.

Sit to windward while steering.

If struck by a squall, luff up to it, or ease the sheet, or do both.

Always luff up in the wind before hoisting or lowering sail.

Never climb the mast of a small boat. If anything is wrong aloft, lower the mast to set it right.

Belay a halyard by taking a few turns round its cleat. Do not put a half-hitch on the top of the turns.

Do not jibe in the middle of a squall, if you can avoid doing so. If a jibe is unavoidable, lower your peak first; haul in your mainsheet, and pay it out on the other side, so as to lessen the jerk as the boat jibes.

If it is blowing hard, and all your crew are sitting to windward, remember that a sudden drop in the wind may cause the boat to capsize to windward. Unless your companions are experienced boatmen, do not carry so much sail as to necessitate their all sitting to windward.

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The bowsprit -- Backstays -- Main halyards -- Tack tricing line -- Lacing mainsail to boom -- Maintack tackle -- The gaff -- Foresheets -- Forehorse -- Jib sheets -- Mainsheet-horse -- Topsail -- Spinnaker -- Strops for blocks, etc. -- The YAWL. -- The KETCH.

AS this is a treatise on small craft, we will speak of the cutter, yawl, and ketch-rigged yachts only, for the schooner rig is only adapted to a larger style of vessel.

With the object of familiarizing the reader with the names of those portions of her rigging common to nearly all boats, we have already, in Chapter I, given a slight description of a cutter. We will now enter upon a more detailed explanation of this rig as applied to craft of under ten tons.

A cutter's bowsprit is not a fixture, as it is on the small boats we have so far described, but is made to slide in and out. It can be run in altogether when no jib is set; and when the large jib -- for a cutter should be provided with two jibs at least -- is shifted in a breeze for the smaller jib, the bowsprit can be partly run in. It is a great relief to a vessel plunging into a heavy sea thus to relieve her of this overhanging weight.

The bowsprit passes between strong wooden bits on the deck and through an iron ring covered with leather, bolted on the stem, called the gammon iron. When the bowsprit has been run in to the required distance it is kept in its place by the fid, an iron bolt which passes through the bowsprit and the bits.

It is essential that a bowsprit run in easily without jamming, so the gammon iron should be made large, and the fid should be a stout one, else the pressure of the bowsprit will soon bend it, and it will be impossible to draw it out.

When the bowsprit is reefed, the bobstay and the bowsprit shrouds have also to be shortened and tautened up with the tackle attached to them.

The tack of the jib hooks on to an iron traveller on the bowsprit which is hauled out to the required distance with the jib outhaul.

The backstays or runners (see Fig. 1), support the mast when the vessel is running before the wind. The lee runner must be always slacked out, so that the boom can run out sufficiently far.

 Most of a cutter's halyards consist of systems of pulleys giving more or less mechanical advantage as the sail is large or small; but it must be remembered that the more powerful the purchase employed, the longer the time occupied in hoisting and lowering the sail and the greater the friction and chance of the halyard jamming, so a purchase that will just enable one hand to hoist a sail with moderate ease is all that is necessary. Small yachts are often over blocked.

For example, a cutter's throat halyards generally consist of a luff-tackle purchase, the double block on the mast and a single one on the throat; but in a very small cutter a gun-tackle purchase of two single blocks (see Fig 33) will suffice.

A gun-tackle purchase is also generally used for the jib halyards and fore halyards of a cutter under ten tons.

The tack tricing line serves to trice up or draw up the tack of the mainsail and so considerably reduce its size in a squall. It is convenient also to be able to trice up the tack so as to see ahead better while sailing into a crowded harbour. Where the sail is small, the tack tricing line is fastened on to the tack of the sail, passes through a single block on the gaff close to the jaws, and thence leads to the deck. Where the sail is large, a gun-tackle purchase is used.

In large cutters, the clew of the mainsail is hauled out on the boom with a traveller and tackle. In smaller boats, where the clew can be hauled out by hand, it is generally permanently lashed to the end of the boom. This plan is apt to pull the sail all out of shape, for if the clew has been hauled out sufficiently taut when the sail is dry, it will be stretched overmuch when the sail is shrunk with rain. Thus, even if no traveller be used, it is well to have the clew lashing so arranged that it can be easily cast off or slackened.

In America, the foot of a cutter's mainsail is invariably laced to the boom. There is some prejudice in this country against this method, so far as sea-going boats are concerned. There can be no doubt that a sail sets flatter when its foot is laced, and another great advantage gained is that a much lighter boom can be employed; for the lacing divides the strain throughout the whole length of the boom, instead of concentrating it at the two extremities. The buckling or bending of a boom is also much lessened by this method, and consequently the sail is flatter in a strong wind.

In our opinion, the sole objection of any importance to lacing the foot of the mainsail is that in doing so, that very handy rope the tack trice must be dispensed with.

The tack of a mainsail is generally hauled down by means of a maintack tackle, generally a luff tackle purchase, but in smaller cutters a short rope spliced into the tack of the sail is sufficient, which can be made fast to the boom or to a cleat on the mast.

The gaff travels up and down the mast on the jaws, which are generally of wood in small cutters. But as thenecessary strength is obtained by iron jaws of much less thickness, these are the best: they look neater, fit closer, and the halyards are not so liable to get jammed between them and the mast.

 The jaws are prevented from slipping from the mast by the parrel, a line with beads of hard wood threaded on it, which passes round the mast from one horn of the jaws to the other.

The boom is sometimes fitted to the mast with wooden jaws like those of the gaff; but an iron gooseneck, a joint that gives play in every direction to the boom, is far preferable. We will remark here, once and for all, that whenever we mention iron work of any description, we speak of galvanized iron. No other should be allowed on board a yacht under any pretence.

The hoops by which the luff of the sail is kept to the mast are sometimes of iron covered with leather, but wooden hoops are perhaps preferable for a small yacht, and are less liable to jam.

The simplest arrangement for the foresheets is as follows. Two single blocks are fastened to the clews of the foresail (a double block may answer as well). One end of each sheet is spliced into an eye on deck, then the sheet is rove through one of the blocks, and back through a lead to its cleat aft. Fig 34 illustrates this method.

A horse for the,.foresheet is a great convenience on any boat which has decks large enough to work upon. The horse is an iron bar which crosses the deck just before the mast, with a traveller running on it to which the foresheet -- only one sheet is necessary when a horse is used -- is made fast.

The foresail thus works itself when the vessel is tacked, and there is no danger of its blowing away forward, as there is with the jib and also with a foresail when no horse is employed.

In order to haul the foresail to windward and flatten it in, two bowlines leading aft like fore or jib sheets are employed.

The sheets of the head sails of a small cutter should lead aft and belay to cleats within reach of the helmsman.

The jib has two sheets, one on either side of the mast, one of which is hauled in and the other slackened out, according to the tack the vessel is on.

 When the jibs are small the sheets require no purchase, but each should lead either through a ðN single block on the gunwale or a comb cleat (Fig. 35) on the deck. It is important that this fairlead be exactly in the right spot, for on this depends whether the jib stands flatly or becomes a loose bag. The right spot can only be determined by experiment.

Where the bulwarks are high, it is sometimes found advantageous for the jib sheets to pass through holes in them.

A knot should be tied at the end of each jib sheet, so that in case the sheet gets loose by accident it cannot escape through the fairlead.

The foresheets require a purchase, more especially when no horse is used.

There are several methods of fitting a mainsheet. It usually travels on a horse, and the advantage of a horse is, that in tacking the boom is hauled down directly into its right place, and cannot lift and so give a belly to the sail, as is the case where there is no horse. Fig. 36 represents the usual fitting of a mainsheet with horse and two double blocks. For a small cutter, one double and one single block -- the single block on the horse -- would be sufficient, and in a small yawl even two single blocks would do; for it must be remembered that though mechanical advantage is gained by a number of pulleys, friction is increased and time lost. Now it is very important at times that a mainsheet be rounded in or paid out smartly.

The cleat to which the mainsheet is belayed should be as nearly as possible in the middle of the deck or transom, else the boom will have more sheet on one tack than on the other.

 It is in our opinion a mistake to put a topmast with its complication of gear into a small yacht, especially as a good-sized topsail can be set without a topmast at all. An inspection of Fig. 37 will show how this is done. In the first place the yard is laid on deck and the sail is laced to it. Then the end of the halyard is bent on to A, a position which has been ascertained by experiment, and which is marked, or better still, has a cleat on it to prevent the halyard from slipping. (See Fig. 18 for the topsail halyard bend.)

Then the sheet, which passes through a sheave hole on the peak and a block under the throat, is bent on to the clew of the sail. Next the downhaul, B, is bent on to the heel of the spar.

The sail is hoisted with the halyard till A is close up to the sheave hole on the mast, and while it is hoisting, a slight strain is kept on the downhaul to keep the spar perpendicular. The downhaul is next hauled down as taut as possible and belayed to a cleat on the mast. Lastly, the sheet is hauled in till the sail is quite flat.

A topmast slides through two iron caps on the foreside of the mast. It is hauled up by the heel rope, which is fastened to the heel of the spar and passes through a sheave hole at the masthead. The topmast, when hoisted, is kept in position by an iron fid. The topmast shrouds are spread out by the crosstrees, of iron or hard wood, projecting at right angles from the masthead. The topmast stay is carried from the head of the topmast to the end of the bowsprit. The topmast is also supported by preventer backstays leading aft. In jibing, the lee preventer stay must be slacked out as well as the lee runners.

Two sorts of topsails can be set on a topmast -- a yard topsail, by which a large area of canvas is obtained, and a jib-headed topsail. In a good-sized yacht it is well to have both. The jib-header can be used in strong winds. When out at sea in really bad weather, it is often of great advantage to set the jib-header over a reefed mainsail, for the wind still fills it, and the steerage way is preserved while the reefed mainsail is becalmed in the trough of the sea. By means of a jackyard, which extends the foot of the sail beyond the end of the main gaff, the area of either a jibheader or a yard topsail can be increased.

When a cutter is running before the wind, a jib-headed sail, called a spinnaker, can be set on the opposite side to the mainsail. (See Fig. 38.)

The spinnaker boom is fitted to the fore-side of the mast by a gooseneck, and if the sail is intended for cruising purposes only, the boom should, when topped up along the mast with its topping-lift, be able to pass under the forestay.

The spinnaker halyard passes through a block on the mast, and the clew of the sail is hauled out to the end of the boom by an outhaul, while the tack can be made fast to a cleat on deck.

In order to prevent the spinnaker boom from swinging fore or aft, it is stayed or guyed with a fore guy leading to the stem, and an after guy leading to the stern. These guys also serve to trim the boom to the required angle.

Most of the blocks now used on yachts have iron strops to them; but it is still necessary that the amateur sailor should know how to strop a block.

If it be a tail block for which the strop is required, this can be done by making an eye splice in the piece of rope that is to serve as the tail. The common form of strop is a rope grommet coated with canvas.

The above strops are liable to stretch considerably, and for blocks, such as the mainsheet blocks, which have a tendency to slip out, the author has found that grommets of wire rope make serviceable strops. These, too, should be coated with canvas or leather and afterwards painted.

Selvagee strops are now much used for blocks, are very strong, look neat, and are easily made.

 To make a selvagee strop, drive two spikes or nails into a board, their distance apart depending upon the size of the required strop. Then make fast one end of a ball of rope yarn to one of the nails, and wind the rope yarn round and round the two nails, hauling each turn very taut until the strop thus formed is stout enough. Tie the yarns together at intervals, and the strop will present the appearance shown in Fig. 39. Leather should always be wet when it is sewn on a strop, for it will shrink when dry and stretch tightly round the strop without showing any wrinkles.

The best form of block for yachting purposes is the patent iron-stropped block; the lignum vitæ shell being fastened over the strop.

Iron blocks should never be used in a small yacht. They are only necessary on large craft, where chain halyards are employed.

Where a tackle is used, as in the backstay runners, it is advisable that one of the blocks should have a swivel hook. In this way, all turns will be taken out of the tackle, and jamming will be prevented.

The difference between a cutter and a yawl is that the latter has not so big a mainsail as the cutter . the main boom does not project over the stern, but is all inboard, thus permitting of a small mizzen-mast being stepped right aft. (Fig 40.)

A yacht rigged as a cutter will, under most circumstances, be faster than if she were yawl rigged; so, in racing, a yawl is granted a certain time allowance when competing with "single-stick" craft. But for cruising purposes, the yawl rig is undoubtedly the most comfortable, the most handy, and requires fewer hands to work it.

A yawl's mizzen is generally a standing lug, sometimes a leg of mutton sail; in either case working on a boom with a sheet leading through the end of a short wooden or iron outrigger or bumpkin projecting over the stern.

For single-handed sailing, the yawl is much to be preferred to the cutter, as the following examples will show.

Should it come on to blow, it is much easier to reef down on the short boom than on the overhanging boom of a cutter.

It is not so often necessary to reef a yawl's mainsail as a cutter's; for, instead of reefing, the mizzen can be stowed and smaller headsail set, or she can be made to sail under mainsail and foresail alone, or under mizzen and foresail alone.

If it is required to take a reef in the mainsail, the sail can be lowered on deck and reefed at leisure by one hand; while the vessel, hove to under foresail and mizzen. is allowed to take care of herself. When one is alone on board a cutter, and it becomes necessary to reef, the task is a difficult and often a dangerous one.

 As the mizzen of a yawl is sometimes just before the rudder head, the tiller must have a curve or loop in it, so as to allow of its being put over to a sufficient angle. An iron tiller is therefore generally used. (See Fig. 41)

A yawl's mizzen is always a very small sail, and in a large majority of yachts of this rig it appears ridiculously small, and can have only an inappreciable effect on the vessel.

But in a ketch (Fig. 42), which differs from a yawl in having a still smaller mainsail and shorter boom, with a mizzen mast stepped further inboard, the mizzen is a much larger and more serviceable sail.

For real cruising on broad seas in all sorts of weather the ketch is the best of all fore-and-aft rigs. It is the rig of many of our coasters, and of nearly all of our deep sea fishing boats. A ninety-ton ketch-rigged fishing smack, such as one may see hundreds of, any day, tossing about on the steep seas of the Dogger Bank, is as fine a sea boat as any sailor's heart can desire.

No bumpkin is needed for a ketch's mizzen sheet, as the mast is so far inboard; the sheet works on a horse on the taffrail or merely through a block bolted into the deck as far aft as possible.

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.

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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.

Let us imagine ourselves on board a yawl yacht of five tons-lying at anchor at the mouth of a tidal river. We will now describe the principal manoeuvres that must be employed in getting her under way and sailing her.

To get under way may appear a simple matter enough: yet to do so safely often taxes the skill of the cleverest sailor.

If the wind is moderate, and we have plenty of sea room, and no vessels are brought up near to us, the process is easy. We hoist all sail, haul up the anchor, and by holding the foresheet to windward cant the vessel off in the required direction, then trim the sheets, and away we go.

But supposing that a strong tide is running under us and a fresh breeze is blowing in the same direction as the tide, it will not do to get under way after this fashion, more especially if other vessels are brought up not far astern of us; for the yacht will begin to drag her anchor when sail is hoisted, or at any rate some time before the chain is a-peak; the result being that before she can be canted and got under control she will drag astern and get foul of some of the other craft. And even if she does not do this and her sails fill, she will shoot ahead over her anchor and make it impossible to get it up.

Our best method of getting under way under the above conditions would probably be as follows. First the anchor is hove short, so that the yacht is nearly over it. Then the mainsail or mizzen, according to the strength of the wind, is hoisted. Then, while the anchor is being smartly got off the ground and hauled on board, the foresail is hoisted. The tide passing under a vessel while she is at anchor gives her steerage way; so, just before the anchor leaves the ground, the tiller is put over to cant the vessel on the desired tack, the foresheet is trimmed, and thus we get way on our craft without any delay, and are able to avoid the vessels that surround us.

If there is but little wind, a strong tide under one, and a crowd of vessels brought up close astern, it sometimes happens that the following method is the only one by which one can get away clear. Let one hand get the anchor up till the chain is nearly straight up and down and the yacht commences to drag slowly. Let him, by giving her chain or taking it in, keep her going thus, never letting her drag fast. As the tide is running by the vessel faster than she is dragging astern, she still has steerage way; thus the helmsman is enabled to steer her, so as to avoid the different craft. As soon as she is astern of them and the road is clear, the anchor is got on board, the sails are hoisted. and away she goes.

If the wind and tide are in opposite directions, and the tide has most effect on a vessel at anchor so that she rides with her bows against the tide, it is often advisable to heave the anchor short, and just as it comes off the ground to set mainsail or foresail and run before the wind.

Do not set too much sail and get speed on your vessel before your anchor is on deck, or you will get it caught under your stem, and have to luff up so that a hand can clear it.

If a yacht is not anchored, but made fast to a buoy or other moorings, from which one can slip in a moment, the problem of getting under way is much simplified; for one can carry the mooring line to either bow, or to the quarter, or even astern, so as to direct the vessel's head in the desired direction. Then the mooring can be slipped, and sail hoisted simultaneously, and the vessel will get way on at once and can be steered clear of everything.

The amateur, if he puts his mind to it, will in time be able to reason out the best method of getting his craft under way under every contingency of tide, wind, and surrounding obstacles. The manoeuvre is often a difficult one but luckily the novice has generally time to sit down quietly on deck and reason out his method before commencing operations, which is far from the case with most of the manoeuvres which have to be performed when one is under way.

While we are on the subject of getting under way we will describe how the sails are to be set.

The mainsail, when furled, is tied up with small ends of rope, called tyers. First cast oH the tyers. Then top the boom a little with the topping-lift and slack out the main sheet. Seize both main halyards together and hoist till the throat is nearly up. Then belay the peak halyards while you swing away at the throat till it is taut, and belay the throat halyards. Then hoist the peak and belay the peak halyards. Then coil the halyards neatly close under their cleats.

After coiling halyards, always capsize them, that is, turn them over so that the end of the halyards is under the coil. If this precaution is not taken, and a sail is lowered in a hurry, the coil will probably be dragged up to the masthead, possibly jam somewhere in a block, and prevent the sail from lowering further until some one has gone aloft to undo the mischief.

Having now got our boat under way -- say under mainsail and foresail -- we proceed to hoist our other sails as we sail close-hauled down the river. It is blowing fresh, and there is a look of more wind in the sky, so we will dispense with the topsail (the method of setting this sail has been already described), and get the mizzen and second jib on her. We are supposing that there are three jibs on board, so the one we have decided to use is the medium one.

The method of setting the jib requires some explanation. In the first place, we take it for granted that the bobstay and bowsprit shrouds have been hove taut before we got under way.

Lay the jib on the deck forward with its tack ahead. Hook the tack on the traveller, and the jib halyard on to the head, and then fasten the jib sheets on to the clew. The jib sheets are often attached to the sail on a small yacht by spring hanks; but these are somewhat liable to become unhooked when the sail is shaking in stays. Sister hooks, which must be seized together with yarn -- moused, as the operation is called -- or have a stout indiarubber ring round them are preferable. Toggles and shackles are also sometimes employed for this purpose.

The jib is now all ready for hoisting. First haul out the tack on the traveller to its proper position, and belay the outhaul. If the jib is a biggish one and may touch the water while it is being hauled out, hoist on the halyard at the same time just sufficiently to keep the jib clear of the water. When the outhaul is belayed, hoist the halyards taut and belay them. Then trim in the lee sheet.

We are now close-hauled, sailing full and bye, as it is called, that is, the sails are full while the vessel is sailing as near to the wind as she can. The steersman should stand on the weather side of the vessel. To sail a yacht to windward with the greatest advantage requires considerable practice, and the novice is sure at first to yaw her about a good deal, now keeping her off the wind too much and now luffing till all the sails are shaking and she loses her way.

The burgee or vane at the masthead will tell him when he is bearing away too much, and the luff of the mainsail will shake when he is sailing as close as he should.

The luff of the mainsail is generally lifting slightly when a yacht is sailing close hauled; but the best way of steering full and bye is by the feel of the wind on one's face; and this is of course the only method of doing so on a dark night.

We have now come to a bend in the river where the wind heads us, so it becomes necessary to tack. The helmsman sings out "Ready about!" and the crew stand by ready to tend the jib and foresheets. The helmsman keeps the vessel a point or so off for a few moments, sa as to give her plenty of way; then singing out " Helm's a-lee!" puts the tiller slowly down -- slowly , be it remembered, and not too far down.

The vessel now shoots up into the wind, the jib sheet is let fly, the foresail still kept to windward helps to pay the vessel off on the other tack. The jib sheet on the other side; which now becomes the lee jib sheet, is trimmed in as soon as the vessel is turned sufficiently round. If the jib sheet be hauled in too soon, the jib becomes a back sail, and will cause the vessel to miss stays. Next the foresheet is passed over, and the yacht is rushing away on the other tack. The mainsail and mizzen have been taking care of themselves during this operation; but, if it is blowing hard, it is well to haul in the mainsheet and ease it over gently. If the yacht be a smart one in stays, it is not necessary to keep the foresheet to windward while tacking; jib and foresheet can be let go together.

A small amount of clumsiness in tacking a vessel will cause her to miss stays and get in irons, that is, she will lie up in the wind, all her sails shaking, and refuse to fill on either tack. She has now lost all headway, and commences to go astern. In order to get way on again, haul the head sheets to windward, which we will suppose is the port side. Put the tiller to starboard. As the vessel is going astern, the rudder will now produce the reverse effect of what it would were the vessel going ahead; so putting the tiller to starboard turns the vessel's head to starboard.

To assist her still further in paying off, slack out main and mizzen sheets; for these sails have a tendency to keep her up in the wind. When she has paid off sufficiently, trim the sheets, and she will soon gather way on the port tack.

Sometimes, in a choppy sea, a boat will refuse to stay, and it becomes necessary to ware her. To do this, slack out the mainsheet and bear away till the wind is brought on the other side and the sail jibes. Then luff till the vessel is close hauled.

Whilst tacking in a river, with the tide under one, it must not be forgotten that close under either shore there is generally much less current than in the middle of the river, sometimes no current at all or even a back eddy. The yacht must therefore not be taken in too near the bank before going about, for then her bows will be out of the tide while her stern will be in it; the pressure on her stern will prevent her coming up in the wind when the helm is put down, and she will consequently miss stays.

While we are tacking down this reach, the wind freshens a lot, and we are struck by several squalls, to which the helmsman luffs up, thereby lessening the force of their impact; but he must be careful not to luff too much or too long, else the yacht will lose all her way and get in irons.

It blows still harder, and our vessel is running her nose into the short choppy sea, so it is decided that we shift the second jib for the third or smallest.

To do this properly while one is under way requires an experienced hand. To take in the jib, let go the outhaul, and as the sail on its traveller comes inboard along the bowsprit, muzzle it, that is, clasp it in your arms; then letting go the halyards, pull the sail down on deck to leeward of the foresail. Untoggle the sheets, unhook the tack and head from the outhaul and halyards; secure these last to their respective cleats, so that they cannot blow adrift, and then carry the sail below. Get the third jib on deck, and set it in the way before described.

If we had been out at sea instead of taking a short sail on a river, we should have reefed the bowsprit when we shifted jibs, and thus have relieved the vessel of the. unnecessary leverage of this weight over her bows.

In the next reach, the river bends round so that we have to put the helm up and run before the wind. The lee-runner is slacked off and all the sheets are eased off.

Further on, the river bends round still more, so that we have to jibe. As the wind is strong, this must be done with certain precautions. First the peak is lowered. Then the runner is slacked off and the helm is put up. The mainsheet must be rounded in quickly till the boom is amidships, and then, as the wind strikes the sail on the other side, the sheet is paid out again. If the boom were allowed to jibe over by itself, and the mainsheet was not thus made to break the violence of the jerk, the boom would be sprung or some other serious accident would probably occur.

When the boom has jibed over, the runner which is now the weather one is set up taut and the head sheets are slacked out on the weather side and belayed on the lee side.

In the next reach, the wind is a little before the beam, so the sheets are trimmed in a bit. So stiff a squall now strikes us that our lee gunwale and several planks of our deck are under water; so, until it is over, the mainsail is scandalized. Scandalizing a mainsail consists of tricing up the tack and lowering the peak, thus much reducing the area of canvas.

The squall over, we hoist the peak and lower the tack again. The man at the tiller now complains that in this strong wind "the vessel is carrying enough weather helm to pull his arms off" The cause of this griping, as it is called, is plain enough. When we got under way our sails were nicely balanced, and the yacht steered easily with just a slight weather helm. But we have shifted the second jib for the third, thus reducing the head sail so much that the after sails are producing the most effect, and a lot of helm is necessary to counteract the vessel's tendency to run up into the wind. (See Chapter III, on the balancing of sails.) We must now restore the proper balance of the sails by reducing the after sail. We can do this either by taking in the mizzen or by reefing the mainsail, and as the wind looks more like freshening than moderating, we decide to take down one reef in the mainsail.

In the first place we heave our vessel to. To do this we slack away our lee foresheet and haul in the weather one while we flatten in the main and mizzen sheets.

The wind striking the after sails drives the vessel up in the wind; but the foresail being hauled to windward and becoming a back sail makes her pay off. By trimming the sheets properly the head and after sails can thus be made to balance each other, and the yacht will float on the water practically motionless, with her head to the wind, and remain so for as long as we please without any hand being required at the tiller.

We next lower the mainsail on deck, and remain hove to under foresail and mizzen. Having now much less after sail set, we must let the jib sheet flow and perhaps give the foresail a trifle more sheet to prevent our vessel from paying off too much.

And now to take down our reef. If the reef-pendant is not already rove, as it always should be on a short-handed craft, we proceed to reeve it. Fig. 43 will demonstrate how this is done. The boom has a comb cleat on either side of it. As we wish to take down only one reef, we reeve the pendant through the first hole of one of these cleats, a knot at the pendant end preventing it from slipping through. Then we pass it through the first reef cringle and down through the first hole of the other comb cleat.

Now we haul on the pendant till we have boused down the cringle to the boom, and then lash it securely.

Next the tack is secured to the first reef cringle on the luff of the sail, the foot of the sail is rolled up, and the first row of reef points are tied.

Having got our reef down, we hoist up our reduced mainsail, slack out the main and mizzen sheets to let the vessel pay off a bit, then let go the weather foresheet and haul in the lee one and proceed on our voyage. The sails are now nicely balanced again, and the man at the tiller no longer grumbles at the arm pulling weather helm.

In the next reach the wind is ahead, and we have to tack again; but the tide has turned and is running strongly against us so that we find we are making no progress. We therefore decide to return home. The helm is put up, the mainsheet is eased off, and we bear away to run up the river.

By-and-by we are close hauled, and we observe that our sails are standing very badly, the jib especially so, for its luff is bending round in a great bow.

The cause of this is that our ropes have stretched, and a pull on the halyards all round becomes necessary. While the steersman luffs up for a moment so that the sails shake, a hand swigs down the jib halyards and belays them. So again while a pull is being taken on each halyard in its turn, the steersman luffs up, thereby relieving the sail of the pressure of the wind, but without stopping the vessel's way.

And now we approach our moorings; the tide and wind are both with us. We lower our head sails, steer the yacht so that she takes a sweep round into the wind, and we haul in the mainsheet as she comes up. We bring her up head to wind, and she loses her way just as we are alongside the mooring buoy. A hand forward picks up the buoy rope with a boat hook and secures it. Then the mainsail and mizzen are quickly lowered, and we stow the sails at our leisure.

The method here described is the most usual one of coming up to moorings.

To perform this manoeuvre with confidence requires considerable experience. The moment at which the vessel should be luffed up into the wind and the nature of the curve she should be made to describe depend on a variety of circumstances. The strength of the tide must be taken into consideration, and also the tendency of the boat either to shoot far ahead or lose her way quickly after she has been luffed up into the wind.

A very slight mistake will bring the vessel up short of her moorings Then, having lost her way, she will drop astern with the tide and possibly get foul of some other craft before head sail can be set and way can be got on her.

We would therefore recommend the novice to always have his anchor ready to let go when approaching his moorings.

When the wind and tide are in opposite directions the manoeuvre is sometimes rendered easier; for then the vessel can be made to run before the wind up to her buoy under her mainsail, and then, the sail being scandalized, she will no longer be able to stem the tide, but will come to a standstill close to the buoy.

If the wind is strong, she can run up under her foresail only, which can be lowered as soon as the buoy is reached.

To come to an anchor, the usual method is to lower the head sails, haul in the mainsheet, and luff the vessel up into the wind till she stops her way; then let go.

Before coming up to the anchorage a few fathoms of chain should be ranged before the windlass, sufficient at least to allow the anchor to reach the bottom when let go.

It is best not to let go the anchor until the vessel has begun to gather stern way; then give her chain gradually until she has taken out enough -- ðthat is, under ordinary circumstances, about three times as much length of chain as the depth of the water. If the chain is allowed to run out all at once it will fall on the top of the anchor, a coil will get round one of the flukes, dislodge the other fluke from the ground, and the vessel will drag.

The end of the chain, especially if no windlass is used, should be secured to a bolt in the chain locker or otherwise; else a careless hand may let it all run overboard and thus lose both anchor and cable.

The chain should be marked at every five fathoms, by attaching a small piece of cord to the link. The loose end of the first cord can have one knot tied in it, the second cord two knots, and so on. The length of chain that is overboard is thus easily ascertained.

Our vessel being now moored or anchored, we neatly stow our sails, fasten the tyers round them, belay all halyards and sheets, and coil the mainsheet and the other falls. If the ropes are dry, belay them slack, for a shower would shrink them, and if they were belayed taut all the life would be stretched out of them.

In the course of our cruise we did not contrive to get our yacht aground, which was perhaps well for us, seeing how hard it was blowing.

When a vessel has run aground, the method of getting her off again varies with circumstances.

If the keel is in soft mud and we were not running before the wind when our vessel struck, we may get her off by slacking the main and mizzen right out, so that the wind does not press on the sails, or by lowering the mainsail and mizzen, while we haul the head sheets to windward, so that the head sails turn her bows round and drive her astern at the same time. If this is not enough to move her, we can assist the action of the sails by shoving her off with poles; also by making our crew run from side to side to roll her and so dislodge her keel from the mud; or, if she is only aground forward and the rest of her is afloat, by bringing the weight of all hands aft and so lightening the bows.

But if she has run upon a sloping shoal of sand or shingle, the above method will seldom prove of any avail, for the opposition of the hard bottom will prevent the keel from turning. Under these circumstances, our only plan will be to lower all sail and drag her off by the same way that she came on, that is, we must shove her astern with the poles and if that is not sufficient, take an anchor out in the dinghy and let it go in the deep water some distance astern, when we can haul her off with the cable. If the anchor holds well, we can in case our own strength is insufficient clap a watch tackle on the cable or pass it round the windlass so as to gain more power.

If we were running before the wind when we got aground, we must in this case also lower all sail and haul the vessel off stern first.

If the tide is dropping, there must be no delay in getting her off, or the water will leave us, and we will have to remain where we are till the next flood.

Be careful not to run aground on the top of high water spring tides, or you may be neaped as it is called, that is, you will not have water to float you off until the next springs, and must remain stuck in the mud for maybe a fortnight.

Many of our smaller and little-navigated rivers have narrow channels winding among extensive shoals. These channels are often but indifferently marked with beacons, so that a stranger attempting to find his way up them at half flood or later, when the shoals are covered, will in all probability run his vessel ashore.

His best plan is to remain at anchor at the mouth of the river until low water, he can then work his way up the channel on the young flood, when the shoals are uncovered and the channels easily distinguished. And even if he does run aground, the water is rising under him so that he will soon float off.

While sailing a small craft, if you pass close under the lee of a large vessel, you will find that she will take all the wind out of your sails and you will be becalmed. Look out, if the day be a breezy one, for the sudden blow with which the wind will strike you again when the vessel is passed. As your vessel will probably have lost nearly all her way while under the lee of the other, the first pressure of the wind will be entirely exerted in heeling your craft over.

Therefore lower your peak, or have your sheets ready to slack out while under the lee of the other vessel.

The spinnaker is the only sail on board our yawl whose management has not been described. When not in use, the spinnaker boom is topped along the mast, and secured by lashings to the shrouds. To set the spinnaker, cast off the boom lashings. Lower the boom over the side, keeping it still well topped up. Guy it with the fore and the after guys. Bend the outhaul and halyards on the sail. Belay the sheet loosely. First haul the sail up with the halyards. Then haul it along the boom with the outhaul. Then trim in the sheet.

Before we leave the subject of handling a fore-and-after, we will point out that if a vessel be sluggish in stays, it is advisable, instead of leaving the foresheet fast and keeping the foresail aback till the vessel has paid off on the other tack, to let fly the foresheet as the vessel comes up into the wind, thus taking the pressure off the head sails and making her come up the quicker; then, as soon as the vessel is in the wind's eye, to haul the foresheet in again, so that the foresail to windward helps the vessel round. Keep it to windward no longer than is necessary; then, as before, let fly the weather sheet and trim in the lee.

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Towing a dinghy -- Berthon boats -- To prevent a dinghy bumping against an anchored yacht -- Foul anchor -- Mooring -- The drogue -- The management of open boats in a heavy sea -- Management of a yacht in a rough sea -- Boarding -- Inventory.

IN the last chapter we have described the principal manoeuvres that must be employed on a small yacht. This chapter will contain a variety of wrinkles connected with the management of a yacht or boat which may be of service to a novice.

TOWING A DINGHY. -- If a yacht is running before a high sea, a dinghy towing astern is apt to rush violently down upon the yacht at intervals and possibly stave herself in. Some give a dinghy a long scope of painter under these circumstances, so as to keep her far astern out of the way. But the long painter allows her more play, and if she does swoop down upon the yacht and strike her it will be with far greater force than if the painter were short. The author, having no room for her on the deck of his yacht, once towed a dinghy all the way to Copenhagen and back, and though on several occasions he was running before a high sea the dinghy never inflicted the slightest injury either on herself or on the yacht. The method which he found to be the best in rough weather, was to tow the dinghy with two very short painters, one to either quarter of the yacht, while an iron half-hundred weight was lashed to the floor of the dinghy close to her stern. This weight steadied her so that she steered straight, did not yaw about, and did not run down upon the yacht. The short painters kept her nose right out of the water so that she could not be swamped. If a sea had filled her -- it never did -- it would have almost all run out over her stern again. The yacht, it may be mentioned, had a pointed stern, a great advantage when a boat must be towed. Overhanging counters have caused the destruction of many dinghys.

Few small yachts have accommodation on deck for a wooden dinghy. A Berthon collapsible boat, which can be easily stowed in the cabin or laid flat on deck is therefore a great advantage for a small craft. For, however safely a dinghy may tow astern, she greatly impedes the speed of the yacht.

When a yacht is Iying at anchor with her dinghy afloat, it often happens that the wind and tide being opposed to each other, now one and then the other influences the dinghy most, so that she wanders in erratic fashion as far as her painter's length will allow, now scraping along the yacht's sides, and now thumping into her stern, much to the damage of the new paint.

The patience of the novice is often severely tried by such tricks on his dinghy's part. Half a dozen times in the night he leaves his snug berth and leaps on deck to shift the dinghy's painter from one part of the vessel to the other, first to one side, then to the other, then to the bows, and then back to the stern again, but all to no avail, for as soon as he has turned in, the dismal "thud," "thud" recommences.

If the yacht be a large one, and the bowsprit be therefore sufficiently high above the uater, the dinghy's painter can be made fast to the bowsprit end, and the dinghy will thus keep clear of the yacht. But if the vessel is a small one and this plan is not practicable, the following method generally proves successful. Drop an iron bucket with a line attached to its handle over the dinghy's stern. The bucket sinking in the water will offer so much resistance to the tide that the dinghy will ride to the tide only, and the wind will not have power to blow her over the tide against the yacht's sides.

FOUL ANCHOR. -- If a yacht is at anchor in a tideway, the slack of the chain is very liable to get round the anchor and foul it when the vessel swings at the turn of the tide. It is therefore advisable to get in the chain at slack water until the yacht is right over her anchor. As soon as the new current has set in and the yacht has swung to it, the necessary amount of chain can be given her.

MOORING. -- If it is blowing hard, or the holding ground is bad, it may be necessary to moor, that is, to ride to two anchors in different directions. Having come to with one anchor, pay out chain and let the vessel drop astern until you have out twice the length of chain you intend to ride by. Then let go the other anchor. Slack out the last anchor chain and heave in that of the first till the same scope of chain is on each. Moor with open hawse towards the direction from which the greatest pressure of wind or current is expected, that is, with a line drawn between the two anchors opposite that direction.

The vessel in swinging round to the tide may get a foul hawse, that is, one chain may take turns over the other. By steering the vessel, setting a sail, or by other means adapted to the particular circumstances, so tend her while she is swinging at each turn of the tide that she never makes a complete revolution, but swings backwards and forwards in the same semicircle. Foul hawse will thus be avoided.

TO UNMOOR. -- Heave in on one anchor and pay out chain to the other, get the first anchor on board, then heave in on the other anchor. To ride easily in heavy weather put rope springs on the chain cables.

A coir rope makes an excellent cable for a small yacht. It floats on the water, and has plenty of spring in it, so that the yacht rides very lightly.

THE DROGUE. -- When a small yacht cruises on broad and stormy seas such as the North Sea, it is advisable to have a drogue or deep sea anchor among her inventory. Many a small fishing boat has been saved from destruction by this precaution.

A drogue is a conical bag of stout canvas sometimes having its mouth bent on to an iron ring. When a little craft is far from the land and so high a sea is running that she cannot sail or even lie to with safety, the drogue is attached by a bridle to a hawser and let go over the bows like an anchor. It offers so much resistance to the water that as the vessel is driven astern by the wind the strain on the hawser keeps her head to wind and sea, and she rides safely and easily. A tripping line is attached to the pointed end of the drogue so that it can be capsized and easily hauled on board.

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 tlie 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.

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 stot 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.

On the other hand, on the steep beach, it is the general practice, in a boat of any size, to retain speed right on to the beach, and in the act of landing, whether under oars or sail, to turn the boat's bow half round towards the direction from which the surf is running, so that she may be thrown on her broadside up the beach, when abundance of help is usually at hand to haul her as quickly as possible out of reach of the sea. In such situations, we believe, it is nowhere the practice to back a boat in stern foremost under oars, but to row in under full speed as above described.

MANAGEMENT OF A YACHT IN A ROUGH SEA. -- When sailing a small yacht in a rough sea certain precautions must be observed which we will describe as briefly as possible, for to handle a vessel properly under these circumstances requires a skill that cannot be imparted by books.

In the first place, do not carry on too much; for it will then be necessary to bear away or luff according to the seas, regardless of the wind; and if too much sail be carried this cannot be done.

A beam sea is the most dangerous. If you are obliged to sail in a direction that brings the