A SIMPLE TREATISE FOR BEGINNERS UPON THE ART OF HANDLING SMALL YACHTS AND BOATS BY THOMAS FLEMING DAY Editor of “The Rudder,” Author of “On Yachts and Yacht Handling,” “Hints to Young Yacht Skippers,” “Songs of Sea and Sail,” etc. NEW YORK AND LONDON: The Rudder Publishing Company 1904 COPYRIGHT 1904 BY Thomas Fleming Day ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRESS OF THOMSON & CO. 9 MURRAY STREET, N. Y. UNIFORM EDITION RUDDER ON SERIES Bound in blue buckram and gold, 32mo. illustrated ON YACHTS AND YACHT

There is no difficulty in the learned writing for the learned, but it is extremely difficult to compose a work for the instruction of the ignorant. The more comprehensive and exact knowledge the writer has of his subject the more arduous is the effort to express his thoughts in such simplicity as will make it understandable to those who have little or no knowledge of the subject he treats. This is doubly so when the subject is one like sailing—an art whose language is wholly technical and almost

The first question before you start to learn to sail is: Do you know how to swim? If you don’t, you have no business in a sailing boat—in fact you have no business on the water. No parent should allow his boy or girl to have a sailboat until they have learned to swim. It is not difficult to learn to swim; any child can be taught that art in ten days, and it should be a compulsory course in all our schools. If people knew how to swim, nine-tenths of the drowning accidents that do happen would not

If you are going to learn to sail get a small boat. Men who learn in large boats seldom become good helmsmen. Another thing, do not learn in what is called a non-capsizable boat; get a boat that can be upset. The modern outside ballast, non-capsizable, finkeel or semi-finkeel, is a very easy vessel to handle, and it requires very little skill to sail them; as a fact, you don’t sail them; you simply steer them. The old-fashioned, inside ballast, capsizable, long-keel craft was a very different pr

Having picked out the boat that best suits your ideas and pocket, start right in and learn all about her. Study out her rig, and learn the proper names of everything from keel to truck. Nothing sounds worse than to hear a man who is sailing a boat call the ropes, spars, etc., by wrong names, and use in speaking of the boat and her actions unnautical language. One of the quickest and easiest ways to learn the nomenclature of the boat is to build and rig a small model. You will in this way not onl

The sides of a boat have two sets of names, the use of which is apt to confuse the green hand, but if you once clearly understand how these terms are applied you will experience no trouble in properly employing them. The right-hand side of a vessel when standing looking toward the bow is called the starboard side. The left-hand side of a vessel when standing looking toward the bow is called the port side. These names are permanent, and no matter which way the boat is turned the starboard side is

A boat or any vessel is steered by a contrivance called a rudder, which is hung like a door on hinges, and swings freely from side to side. This rudder is moved by a handle called a tiller, which is attached to the post and projects forward into the boat. The whole apparatus for steering the boat is called the helm, but in this chapter, when we speak of the helm, it must be understood to mean the tiller . When the helm is put, i. e., pushed in one direction, the rudder moves in the other. For in

Downhaul —A rope for hauling down a sail. Clewline —A line used to draw together a sail so that it can be easily furled. Halyards —The tackles by which a sail is hoisted. Guys —Are ropes used to support or control a spar, and are either permanent or shifting. On spars they generally act in opposition to the sheet. Topping lift —A rope or tackle for lifting and holding up the end of a boom. Sheet —The rope or tackle by which a sail is controlled or trimmed. It is made fast to the clew of the sail

Sailing on the wind, or by the wind, or close-hauled, is a purely mechanical action, the motion being the result of opposing two forces, the wind pressure and the water pressure. The wind pressing on the canvas forces the boat sideways, her form causes the water to resist this movement, and as it is easier for her to progress in the direction of her length she moves that way. Her sails being arranged so as to transfer this movement in the direction of the bow, she moves ahead. It is to prevent h

Sailing off the wind, or going free, is a different action from that of sailing on the wind. Sailing free is purely a natural movement, complicated by the fact that a vessel, owing to her weight obliging her to rest in the water, cannot move as freely as a fabric wholly sustained by the air. The fact that friction of the water retards her so that she moves at a less speed than the wind that presses her onward permits of her being steered. Another complication that effects the speed of a vessel g

By reefing is meant the means by which a sail is reduced in size by rolling up and tying part of it down to a spar. The sail that you will have to reef is the mainsail, as the jib on a small boat is generally too little to be bothered with in that way. You will notice on a sail, stretching across it from luff to leach, a band, or sometimes two or three bands, in which are inserted short lengths of small line. This is the reef band, and the small lengths of rope are called points, or knittles. At

You must not only learn to sail, but you must learn to take care of your boat, to keep her neat and clean, and have everything above and below decks in shipshape order. Nothing looks worse than a slovenly kept and dirty yacht; a boat with fag ends of rope hanging about, loose and tangled messes of gear, sails not properly stowed, and a general air of untidiness apparent everywhere. The first attribute of good seamanship is order. Therefore, if you want to be considered a skillful sailor, keep yo

To tack: When ready to tack first put the helm up slightly so as to give the boat a good full, then put it down slowly and steadily. As the vessel’s bow comes into the wind, right the helm, and then as she falls off catch her with the helm before she gets too far away from the wind. If the water is rough and the boat shows an inclination to miss-stay, give her a good full, slacking the sheet slightly to help her get headway, then as you put the helm down, haul in smartly on the sheet. To tack a

A sailing vessel, when running at night, carries a green light on her starboard side, and a red light on her port side. Such lights are generally carried in the rigging, about six feet above the rail. A rowboat must carry a white light in a lantern to show when in danger of being run down. A steam vessel carries the same lights as a sailing vessel, with the addition of a white light at the foremast head, or on launches on top of the pilot house. A steam vessel, when towing another vessel, carrie

A vessel when at anchor must keep burning a white light, throwing an unbroken flare in every direction; this light should be hoisted above the deck the height of the vessel’s breadth. All lights must be carried from sunset to sunrise; no other lights should be shown....

A steam vessel must be provided with a whistle operated by steam or air. A sailing vessel must be provided with a horn. In fog, mist, falling snow, or heavy rainstorms, whether by day or night, the signals described shall be used: A steam vessel underway shall sound, at intervals of not more than one minute, a prolonged blast. A sailing vessel underway shall sound, at intervals of not more than one minute, when on the starboard tack, one blast; when on the port tack, two blasts in succession, an

One blast —I am directing my course to starboard. Two blasts —I am directing my course to port. Three blasts —I am going astern. The vessel that blows first has the right of way. Passing through narrow channels a vessel must keep to that bank of the fairway which is on her starboard hand....

Aback —Said of a sail when the wind blows on the back or wrong side of it and forces the boat sternwards. Abaft —Towards the stern, as abaft the mast. Abeam —At right angles to the length of the vessel, as a dock is abeam when it bears directly off one side. Aboard —On the vessel, as come aboard, get the anchor aboard, etc. About —To go about is to tack. Adrift —Broken loose, as the boat is adrift, the sheet is adrift, etc. Aft —Back or behind, as come aft, haul the mainsheet aft, meaning to pul

The following books are recommended to the young yachtsman. From them he can obtain information of value, and a study of their pages will materially aid him in gaining a thorough knowledge of the seaman’s art: THE RUDDER The policy of The Rudder is to give to yachtsmen a thoroughly practical periodical, dealing with the sport of yachting in all its phases, and especially to furnish them with the designs and plans of vessels adapted to their wants in all localities. In each issue is a design of a