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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 10 , 1894. 



Single-Handed Yachting. 



There has been a great deal of gush and talk about single-handed 

 cruising, and much written, mostly I imagine by those who have never 

 given it a practical trial, except under very favorable circumstances. 

 I am not alluding now to canoe cruising on smooth waters and rivers, 

 but in rough water under sail. 



I recently read an English book in advocacy of the fad, and an ac- 

 count of a long cruise around the coast of England single-handed. It 

 was a plucky undertaking, and the man came out of it safely, but it 

 was a mere summing up of much and continuous hard work, and great 

 difficulty in making harbor for the night, as the English coast is pro- 

 verbial for tide harbors, and he was obliged in almost every instance, 

 to call on the local watermen for assistance in getting in and out, and 

 had to pay in the aggregate as much as would have hired an assistant 

 permanently, to say nothing of the immense amount of fatigue and 

 hard work involved personally, for as we all know, the English rig is 

 proverbially hard to handle (always the cutter rig of course). By the 

 way, the same man eventually lost his life in a subsequent cruise, 

 being found dead in his boat, dying it was thought, from fatigue and 

 exhaustion. 



While enjoying a holiday not long since down at Sag Harbor, I had 

 a day's experience of the delights of this single-handed business, which 

 I will give as an example, from which any young gentleman with an 

 ambition that way, may draw a moral of the beauties of the practice. 



I was, as I say stopping at Sag Harbor, and with a view to hiring a 

 small yacht, applied to the owners of several lying in the harbor, but 

 they all demanded such extravagant terms, that I concluded to go 

 over to Greenport and try my luck; where I succeeded in chartering 

 a 26ft. craft, rather a good looking boat, but bearing evidence of 

 rather hard usage, and the owner admitted that some amateurs had 

 run her on the rocks recently, but he guessed she was all right. I had 

 some misgivings, as my experience led me to believe that running a . 

 boat on the rocks]was not a particularly good thing for the boat. How- 

 ever, I took the craft, and going on board, and as it was blowing fresh, 

 put in a reef, and sailed for Sag Harbor. Boats, horses and women 

 are very much alike, that is to say, you can't tell much about them 

 until you get acquainted. 



After getting down the bay, where the wind had full sweep, I discov- 

 ered that my craft was deficient in ballast and that I had more sail 

 than was healthy, so I had to heave to and put in a second reef, in 

 a nasty sea and roll. This being accomplished, I hoisted sail again 

 and went along, but even with this short sail I found that the craft 

 had a disposition to luff around and look me in the face, in other 

 words, steered badly. Like most catboats she was over-sparred, and 

 her mast too far aft, and her boom was as long as the moral Jaw, 

 a nasty stick to manage, and with a disposition to take the water 

 every time she rolled (the wind was free and she was a roller from 

 way back) ; every time she rolled to leeward she took in a barrel of 

 water in the leach of the sail, which I had not been able to secure 

 properly, for want of the necessary material, then, when she rolled 

 to windward, the water came pouring on to my head, completely 

 drenching me. 



I had all I could do to keep her from jibing, which would have been 

 a risky move in the heavy sea that was now getting up. I wanted to 

 drop the peak, but how was I to leave the helm to do it? I could not 

 luff and run forward, as a long, sandy point made out on the port 

 bow that would have brought me up all standing, so I had to let her 

 go and take the chances. As she rolled, I noticed that she was taking 

 in a good deal of water; in fact, her increasing loginess gave evidence 

 that she was leaking badly. I finally got across the bay and into the 

 reach between Shelter Island and the mainland, where the ebb tide 

 against the wind was kicking up a bobbery and nasty tide rip; and the 

 antics that boat did kick up. She bounced, plunged and rolled, taking 

 water across decks from both sides, baptizing me pretty thoroughly, 

 and I was not prepared for it, not being in sea togs, in fact, had on a 

 swell suit not adapted to swells of that sort, and which was by that 

 time sadly demoralized. 



I managed to wallow through the reach, and rounding the point, 

 where I had a lee, luffed up into calm water, intending to anchor, and 

 get the water out of her, but before I could get the anchor ready she 

 drifted back again in the eddy and into the tide rip stern foremost where, 

 catching the breeze, she would shoot up into the calm streak. I finally 

 by keeping out into the breeze, got clear, and continued on my course, 

 and reached port, running up under the lee of - the wharf, lowered sail 

 after a fight with jamming hoops and kinky halliards, dropped anchor 

 and the voyage was up. I sat down in the stern sheets to do a little 

 blowing myself, thinking it was my turn, and lighting my pipe, that 

 refuge and comfort to the yachtsman under difficulties, proceeded to 

 take it easy. ' ... 



A good smoke, as every smoker knows, restores serenity, smooths 

 a ruffled temper, and gives time to reflect on what to do next, which 

 was of course to stow sails, clear up decks, and under present con- 

 ditions to see about getting that water out of her, which by this time 

 was over the cabin floor. 



In a badly rigged boat— I may say half -rigged in this case— it is no 

 fool of a job to clear up decks and restore order, where every rope 

 insists on kinking and coiling the wrong way. In this instance the 

 throat halliards having gone well up the mast in festoons, the peak 

 halliard jammed in the block, the mainsheet overboard, and when it 

 came to furling the sail not a stop to be found, no boat hook to rescue 

 the halliards in the air, obliging shinning up the recently slushed mast, 

 giving the final coup de grace to that suit of swell clothes. 



It was a good hour's work to get things in shipshape, during which 

 time the captains of the boats I had not hired constituted themselves 

 a standing committee to criticise my labors; but my work was not 

 ended, for there was the water to be got out of her, and that was a 

 serious question, for on searching I could find no pump, and only a 

 leaky old bucket and an oyster can. My first idea was to leave her to 

 her fate until I could charter some boy to do the job, but I saw that 

 unless that was soon done she would sink; and, contrary to all prece- 

 dent, there was not the usual small boy to be seen, so there was but 

 one thing to do, and that was to tackle it myself. 



It took two hours steady work to get the water down to her timbers, 

 by which time it was dark. Hailing a passing boat, I got ashore and 

 wended my way up to my boarding house. Mentally I determined 

 that if Sag Harbor afforded a man or boy that would work, he would 

 get a fine chance on the morrow, as the office of bailer was one I did 

 not care to add to the duty of singlehanded sailing, and something I 

 had not included in my calculations; and I beg to remark that if there 

 isjany one greater nuisance than another it is a leaky boat, and one to 

 promote an extreme degree of profanity and complimentary mention 

 of the builder. 



My landlady held up her hands in astonishment at the change in my 

 appearance from the morning, when in all the pride of swell togs I had 

 set forth. However, a good wash and change of clothes restored me 

 to favor A good dinner and smoke served to soothe the troubled spirit, 

 which, followed by a refreshing night's rest, prepared me for the mor- 

 row and anything that might turn up; in which amiable frame of mind 

 I wended my way down to the boat. There she lay, looking very inno- 

 cent and as if the last thing she thought of was to give a moment's 

 annoyance; but on closer inspection she seemed low in the water. I 

 immediately had, as the Dutchman said, my "suspections." 



Going on board, I found the water well over the cabin floor. It was 

 high water mark with her again, and all loose things were afloat. 

 Here was a pretty how-d'y-do, for a party of ladies at the house had 

 invited me. to invite them for a sail and picnic, and here was this 

 cussed boat full of water that must be gotten rid of, and no time to 

 lose There were a lot of seedy chaps loafing on the wharf as I came 

 on board, and thinking some of them might be induced to take the job 

 of getting the water out, I hailed and asked the question, to which I 

 'got as an answer a request to go to a locality that I certainly am in no 

 great hurry to reach. It was evident that labor was an occupation 

 they scorned and despised. They were of the class that believed that 

 the world owed them a living, and came under the head of what the 

 politicians term the "poor down trodden." It would have given me 

 infinite pleasure to have done a little treading on their lazy carcasses 

 at that moment, and in my indignation I threw off my coat and went 

 to work with a will, and if one of the band had then and there come 

 aboard and offered to do the job, I should have kicked him ashore 

 There's nothing like getting one's "mad" up, to arouse the energies. 1 

 had that boat cleared of water and in good shape by the time my party 

 appeared with lunch baskets. 



■ ^Having hauled^n to the wharf, we got up sail, under the critical ob- 

 servation of the gentlemen composing the standing committee, as we 

 call them, who were enjoying the satisfaction of having it to say that, 

 for once, they had snubbed the bloated capitalist. 



They had enjoyed seeing me do the work unaided, but thought 

 would have to give in when it came to getting the anchor up, and they 

 were not far wrong, for it was, in the words of the poet, "a devil of a 

 pull " and I had to hook on the jib halliards to break it out, there 

 being nn windlass, and just here I want to say to amateurs and owners 

 of small boats, don't be ridiculed out of having a windlass on your 

 craft no matter how small you are, for the time comes, s oner or 

 later when you will wish you had it, and those times are when your 

 anchor gets foul of a rock, or buries in sticky, heavy holding ground, 

 It will save your back and much profanity, either the windlass or a 

 winch on your mast, for anchors enjoy hugely sticking and hanging 

 on like grim death, when they know you have no windlass. I did get 

 mine up finally, but had no time to stow it, as it was necassary to 

 iumo aft and haul in main sheet, as she was rapidly drifting down on 

 an old hulk under her lee. A sudden puff of wind filled the mainsail, 

 heeling her over, when away went the anchor off deck and overboard, 

 running out the full scope, and bringing up all standing, and parting 

 the rope, which meant good-bye to that anchor and a $5 bill to replace 

 if but I was glad it did not bring me up, for the committee on shore, 

 had it done so, would have gone frantic in their delight. Fortunately 

 the gentlemen did not see the anchor catastrophe, and I escaped com- 



