The Complete 8th Edition Yachtmaster

If you are a comparative newcomer to the world of sailing, you may think it odd that a chapter on handling under sail should precede one explaining how best to benefit from auxiliary power. Should you have come to cruising from dinghy sailing, however, it will seem entirely natural. There are even a few of us left who learned our sailing in cruisers without any power unit at all, save a sweep or a quant pole. In fact, sailing a yacht of moderate tonnage in close quarters can be as easy as motoring, so long as one or two rules are borne in mind.

The most important elements of boat handling revolve around the various circumstances in which you may want to stop, or get under way.

The only thing that can stop a sailing vessel – other than the undesirable intervention of a rock, shoal or quay wall – is her own skin friction and air resistance. Acting against these are two forces that induce her to keep moving: the forward drive of her sails and her own momentum. You can shed the first of these easily enough if you think about what you are doing. Momentum depends upon such variables as how fast you are going when the power comes off, and how much air resistance is stacking up against it. It also depends upon the displacement and hull form of your vessel. For a given craft these latter two criteria are, of course, fixed. Their effects are predictable once you know her habits, and they are generally referred to as the manner in which she ‘carries her way’.

An old-fashioned, heavy yacht seems to keep going for ever if she is luffed up to a lightish breeze from 5 or 6 knots. I have seen an Eight Metre carry her way, head-to-wind, for more than 100 yds (91 m). She finally stopped with her mooring right under her spoon bow. The bowman was lying on the foredeck ready to stretch down, pick it up and secure it. At the other end of the scale come ultra-light trailer-sailers. I once luffed one of these up to a mooring in a strong breeze during a period of my life when I was usually sailing a 6-ton fin-keeler. I didn’t expect the boat to go far, but she stopped dead miles short of the buoy so that I had to tack back up to it for my next try.

Clearly, judgement is required to bring your yacht to a standstill right where you want her. Fortunately for most of us who are blessed with a higher degree of mortality than my Eight-Metre skipper, we can keep the judgement factor to a minimum by making sure that before we take the power off, by dropping the sails, easing the sheets, or luffing head-to-wind, we line up with rule number one:

When manoeuvring under sail, always go as slowly as you possibly can without losing control.

However, we’ll go into this in more detail later in this chapter. Before even beginning to think about the boat, you must be aware of what is going on around her. You need an accurate lead on the wind direction, and it’s important to determine the relationship between this and any tidal stream or current. Get either of these wrong and you may as well have bought a motor boat. Happily, being right is just a matter of informed observation.

We have seen in Chapter 3 that when the true wind is blowing across a moving boat, the apparent wind that results is affected not only in strength but also in direction. It always comes from forward of the true wind until the boat is on a dead run. With the wind well aft, the apparent wind speed will be less than the true wind. As it approaches a point just abaft the beam they may become similar, and as the true wind comes on to or forward of the beam, the force of the apparent wind will always exceed it.

It follows that if you want any accurate information about the true wind, it is no good looking at the burgee, the wind indicator or your instruments. You are sailing (or motoring for that matter) in the apparent wind that is being experienced by every item on board, from the ensign through your own senses right up to the fanciest electronic transducer. Other than a linked function computer, only your eyes can tell you what you want to know, which, when you consider that they didn’t cost you a cent, represents remarkable value.

Where there is no current, moored yachts will be lying head-up to the true wind. If there is a flag ashore, you can check that, but a far more accurate device is available at all times when there is light to see it. As the wind blows on the face of the water, it marks it with tiny ripples which run at right angles to its direction. Don’t use the waves to judge. They may be being bent by other forces. Just use the ripples. Train yourself to be aware of them at all times. They’ll never let you down.

When it comes to boat handling, the one thing you do not do if you want to gauge the tide is consult the tide tables. Look at any fixed object with water flowing past it, including a moored or anchored vessel, and you’ll see a bow-wave. That tells you all you need to know.

If you are running up a river and there’s nothing around that will indicate whether or not the tide has turned, you can often put the boat beam on to the direction of the river and see which way she is being set by observing the bank dead ahead of you. The answer should be immediately obvious, even if you are turning in your own length. If it’s not, you can only conclude that it is slack water.

If you’re going to sail into a crowded harbour, or up a narrow river on a breezy day, it will probably pay to shorten sail before you get there. Manoeuvrability is severely restricted by a large genoa, as is visibility. So get rid of it, either by rolling half of it away, or by changing it for a smaller, higher-cut sail. Reef the main if necessary, but have nothing to do with your genoa, except on the gentlest of days.

Although shortening down can be helpful, it doesn’t pay to be over zealous. The wind may be lighter in the harbour than out at sea and a boat that is grossly undercanvassed can be a disappointment to handle. She may even let you down.

Dropping one sail altogether is often a winner if your rig will balance without it. A gaff cutter will sail slowly without her all-powerful staysail, so long as there is a jib on the end of the bowsprit. Ketches and yawls may go well enough with main or mizzen stowed, and so on. The only way to know is to experiment with the boat in question.

Often, it can be handy to execute a manoeuvre under mainsail only. It’ll be no help if you have to stop with the breeze abaft the beam, of course, because you won’t be able to spill wind (see below), but when approaching a mooring, a man overboard or an anchorage in slack water it can be a winner.

To succeed under main only, a boat must have a reasonably sized sail. Yachts with huge genoas and artificially small mains will not perform well, but a boat with a more balanced rig will sail beautifully, if slowly, so long as the sheet is eased well off when closehauled. The tendency is to oversheet, because, with a jib set, the main is often not far from the centreline. With no jib to bend the air on to it, the main can be set much further out. This increases forward drive and balances the helm, so don’t fall into the trap of pinning it in.

So long as the wind is forward of the beam, you can control your speed perfectly by easing sheets until the sails spill wind. If you try this closehauled you’ll go sideways as your speed drops, so be careful. When the breeze is on or abaft the beam, a conventional yacht can’t lose any way with her mainsail set. The boom presses on the shrouds even with the sheet slacked right off, and the sail fills just the same. In marginal cases it helps to dump the kicking strap or boom vang, allowing the upper part of the leech to fall away. The result of this feature of mainsails is that if you ever need to stop with the wind from aft, you have no choice but to drop the mainsail and proceed under headsails, spilling wind as necessary. This becomes important when manoeuvring in tides.

As a temporary expedient in light or moderate airs, you can sometimes shed way by sheeting the sails in so hard that they lose all drive. This technique can be quite useful, but it must be treated with caution because it can play havoc with the balance of your helm.

Another way of ditching drive from a main or mizzen is to scandalise it. This shocks the sail into a state of refusal by doing something really horrible to it. Let the kicker or vang right off, overhaul the mainsheet to the knot, then drag the boom end skywards with the topping lift.

However slowly you approach the buoy, you’ll usually have to come head-to-wind at the end to luff off the last of your way. A skilled skipper in a boat that is well known to him can luff from quite a distance and come to rest at the buoy. For most of us, this is simply too much to ask, but the matter does not have to finish there. If you set up the approach so that you are close-reaching towards a point a few yards downwind of the buoy, your task is extremely easy (Fig 5.1). Spill wind to slow down when you are still some distance away. Proceed, making as little way as you can, but watching all the time for signs of the keel stalling, which can happen with the wind forward of the beam if you go too slowly. As the keel stops functioning properly, the boat’s head falls off the wind and you find yourself pushing the tiller to leeward (vice versa with a wheel) to correct her. What you should be doing if you feel this starting to happen is heaving in the mainsheet. The extra drive from aft will usually put the boat back on to the rails so that you can soon ease the sail out with the boat under control once more.

When you arrive immediately downwind of the buoy, let the sheets off altogether and luff, ensuring that the person on the foredeck knows which side to pick up. Actually, the ideal state is to remain slightly ‘below’ head-to-wind and pick up between the stem and the leeward chainplates. Don’t forget that if you have lost rather too much way the boat may refuse to luff if asked with the helm alone. If this happens, be ready to haul in the mainsheet to give her a leg up.

Some craft will execute this manoeuvre under mainsail only. This is a desirable characteristic because the people on the foredeck won’t be beaten around the ears by an unruly jib clew.

Fig 5.1 Mooring under sail – no tide. Approach on a close-reach, spilling wind to control speed. Luff off the last of your way and pick up the buoy on your lee bow.

Fig 5.2 Mooring under sail – wind with tide. Approach the buoy on a close-reach, crabbing across the tide and checking way by spilling wind. Use transits to ensure you are not swept downtide. Come head to tide for the pick-up.

The principle is the same here as where there is no stream, except that when the boat is moored she will still be moving relative to the water flowing by. You don’t, therefore, have to luff to a standstill. You have only to bring your speed down to that of the tide, which makes life considerably easier, as you retain control of the boat throughout the manoeuvre (Fig 5.2). With the no-tide situation, control diminishes to zero when you lose the last of your way.

The only drawback is the requirement to exercise more judgement in order not to end up hopelessly downtide of your destination, but this possibility can often be obviated by making use of a transit. Line the mooring buoy up with a suitable object in its background, so that the two remain in line as you approach on your close-reach. You are then guaranteed to arrive at the right place. If they start moving relative to one another, you can correct with sheet, helm or both.

This system of observing and rectifying any sideways motion holds good right across the whole boat handling agenda. As we shall see, it is also of vital importance in pilotage, collision avoidance and, to a lesser extent, navigation. A sailor without a transit, or ‘range’, to assist his daily chores is like a radio with a broken aerial.

The only satisfactory way to stop a boat in relation to a mooring, a dock or just the seabed (if you were coming to anchor) is to bring her in uptide. If you approach a buoy with the tide behind you, it will be necessary to make a sternboard equal to the speed of the stream before you can stop. Even if you were able to achieve this, the effort involved far outweighs any conceivable benefits.

The result of this immutable fact is that, when you are picking up a buoy with the wind blowing against the stream or current, you must approach it downwind. Since you cannot control downwind boat speed with the mainsail up, you have no choice but to stow it and come to the mooring under headsail alone. The manoeuvre is now a pushover. You can work the headsail sheet like an accelerator pedal in your car and produce whatever speed you need to creep along (Fig 5.3). The only complication comes if it is blowing hard. Then you may find that the flogging sail is generating so much windage that it drags you along too quickly, even with the sheet eased right away. If so, you’ll have to roll up most of the sail and use the furling line as well as the sheet. If you don’t have a roller reefer, drop the sail well down the stay, then have the foredeck crew hold its leech out to catch as much wind as you need. If even that is too much sail, you have no choice but to blow down on to the buoy under bare poles and grab it as you go by. You can do no more…

If you’re lucky you’ll find yourself in a position to close-reach up to your mooring with the tide right on your nose. This is the best of all possible worlds. Often, though, the facts confronting you are less ideal. With the breeze somewhat abaft the beam, it may be obvious that you must treat the manoeuvre as a ‘wind against tide’ pick-up. Sometimes, the situation is just plain ambiguous. Whenever you are not clear which it is, or on any occasion when the wind is unsteady in direction and may shift so as to embarrass you, apply the second great maxim of boat handling: When in doubt, drop the mainsail.

Most modern yachts will jog along merrily enough without it, and once it is stowed, your chances of a serious debacle are reduced by a quantum jump.

Fig 5.3 Mooring under sail – wind against tide. Come on to a close-reach and drop the mainsail. Approach the buoy from an upwind/downtide position, controlling way by spilling wind or rolling away part of the headsail. Lose the last of your way alongside the buoy.

The same principles apply to the boat handling side of anchoring. There is, however, considerably more to it, so anchoring will be discussed separately in Chapter 8.

There is nothing magical about sailing alongside. The only difference between this and picking up a mooring is that in the former case you grab a buoy that you hope is within reach on the lee bow, while in the latter you grab a dock or pontoon beside which the yacht is more or less stopped. The same systems are utilised for coping with various combinations of wind and current, with the added complication that if the wind is blowing strongly towards the dock, you will not want to sweep the quay with your main boom. The answer is: when in doubt, drop the main.

Have plenty of fenders rigged, and make sure you have a ‘stopping rope’ ready (Chapter 7) in addition to the normal dock lines. Go slow, don’t be shy, adhere to all the basic rules and never forget boat handling maxim number three, which states: Never enter any tight corner without having an escape route ready in case things do not develop as you hoped they might.

If the wind is blowing either along or off the berth, sailing out will present no difficulties. Just sort out the wind and tide combinations and use the jib alone if the mainsail won’t spill wind while you are still tied up. It may even pay to turn a smallish yacht end-for-end in order to present her to the conditions at a more desirable angle.

All of this is perfectly straightforward. The time you may experience difficulty is if the wind is blowing on to the dock, making it a lee shore. No boat can ever pull herself off a lee shore under sail alone. It is a physical impossibility. If you find yourself in this position, there is nothing for it but to haul out using external assistance. This may be from a friend who will give you a pluck off the wall, or you may be able to manage from your own resources. Ideally, you will tie your bow to a mooring or stake situated to seaward. You may even be able to warp yourself across the river, if your boat is tied to one bank. If none of these tidy solutions presents itself, you must lay out your kedge and haul off using that. Once you are clear of the lee shore, sailing out the anchor is usually an easy matter.

Sternboarding is perfectly possible in surprisingly large yachts. Ease the main sheet right off, shove the boom as far out as you can, and steer away downwind just as if going astern under power.