OR SURF BOATING. 265 



your companion be ready with the painter, 1 sitting on the 

 middle thwart (not further forward), and the instant before the 

 boat strikes put down the helm and sheer her up against the 

 beach aground. Your friend should by this time be over the 

 bows, holding the boat by the painter, to prevent her listing 

 out towards the sea, and you will get rid of your iron or stone 

 as fast as possible, casting it out of the way of the boat up the 

 beach, when you will leap out, and having thrust a way under- 

 neath the stem, will be able to haul the boat out of the reach of 

 the water. It is customary to have a hole bored underneath 

 the stem, by passing the painter through which you will be able 

 to lift and pull at the same time. 



The fishermen generally use a single block, making the rope 

 fast to a post driven into the shingle high up the beach, which 

 is a very good plan ; but still better is a small capstan and 

 chain having a hook at the end, which can be easily attached 

 to a loop of iron bolted low down on the stem. When running 

 ashore under sail do not lower the canvas until the boat is out 

 of the water, as the sails will materially help in keeping the 

 boat in against the beach, to ensure which the main sheet is 

 often belayed on the weather side. In rowing ashore, watch 

 for a smooth and pull sharply in, and having the painter ready 

 act as above directed. 



I have been induced to enter into beach boating somewhat 

 at length, as there are many places on the coast without 

 harbours, such as -Brighton &c., where much boating is done 

 during the summer months ; but at the same time I should not 

 advise visiting these open shores specially for the sake of 

 boating or fishing, which can generally be followed much more 

 agreeably where there is a good harbour. 



Harbour Boating. Harbour boating is far preferable to 

 beach boating, for the following reasons : it is not necessary to 

 haul up on coming ashore, consequently the ballasting and un- 

 ballasting is got rid of, your boat is generally, if not always, 

 afloat, which admits of the bottom being sharper, or, as ship- 

 wrights term it, of greater rise of floor, and this gives her great 



1 Painter, three fathoms of two and a half inch rope spliced into the ring- 

 bolt inside the stem. 



