144 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1911. 
The Convert. 
Somewhere in bis writings, Capt. Kenealy 
advises small boat men to purchase a ship s 
yawl or life boat and rig it. Harold Bindloss 
has told in The Yachting Monthly of an experi¬ 
ment of this kind he made. It makes. good 
reading and is instructive, too. Here it is: 
The conversion of a ship s boat into a sail¬ 
ing craft is a laborious and, now and then, a 
disappointing operation, since the convert usu¬ 
ally contrives to retain her original weaknesses 
and not infrequently adds new ones to them. I 
was aware of this, but economic reasons appeal 
strongly to some of us, and they did so when 
I was offered a coaster’s 16-foot boat in com¬ 
paratively good order for next to nothing. She 
was clincher-built, beamy, shallow, and intended 
for propulsion by oars; and, though such craft 
often run well under sail, the problem is—how 
to get them to windward. It is also one that 
has never been altogether satisfactorily solved 
—in any case, where they have to face open 
water. , 
Since a centerboard could not be fitted con¬ 
veniently, the obvious thing was to put a keel 
on her, but, in the first place, there was little 
to fasten it’ to, for the keels they build these 
boats on are shallow and narrow. There was 
also the difficulty in boring straight through the 
cen ter—the holes most amateurs sink come out 
at the side. This, however, was mastered; 
about 4 inches depth of timber, cambered to 
nothing fore and aft, was bolted on, the mast 
beam was kneed in, the clamp was fixed. Then 
the lug mast was made, of a grown stick, with 
as much as possible of the outside, where the 
strength is, left on; and I followed the Scotch 
fisherman’s practice in dispensing with a re¬ 
volving sheave. . . 
When the latter is used there is, after it is 
a little worn, a certain probability of the hal¬ 
yard’s slipping off and jamming between it and 
the side of the slot. In spite of the trifling 
extra friction, it is better to fit a solid piece 
of close-grained hardwood; half of a block- 
sheave sawn across the middle, driven tightly 
in and fixed by two nails, serves the purpose 
well. Then one can depend upon the halyard 
running freely when it is wanted to do so. 
The boom was the next consideration; in an 
open craft it is a temptation to dispense with it. 
which is perhaps safer; but the loose-footed lug 
needs a longer mast to set the same area, which 
implies some loss of stability. The boom was 
made with bee-blocks for reef-pennants, each 
rove double and led to a separate holed cleat, 
with the result that one smart pull would bring 
the leach down and the earring could be 
jammed in a second. One has to consider these 
things in single-handed sailing; it is only un¬ 
fortunate that one does not usually think of 
more of them beforehand. 
At last she was launched with fire-bars and 
a couple of bags of shingle neatly packed on 
her floorings; and some days later I pulled off 
for an experimental sail. It was a lowering 
afternoon, with a moderately fresh breeze blow¬ 
ing right out of the mile-wide bay, which opened 
into the Irish Sea, with a long stone quay at 
the outer end of it. The program was simple, 
so far as appearance went; I would make two 
tacks to the head of the inlet, and then run 
back and adjust anything that needed it before 
venturing outside. 
It, however, struck me that there was a good 
deal of water in her, though she had scarcely 
leaked at all before the alterations were made. 
After bailing it out, the mast was stepped— 
she was fitted with what is called a sailing beam 
bolted to either gunwale, so as to carry the 
clamp as high as possible, which is advisable 
in a shallow craft. Beneath it, forward of the 
mast, the new hemp cable was coiled away, and 
it may be pointed out that where the expense 
of galvanized chain is a deterrent one should 
use a soft grass warp. I did not, because none 
was obtainable in the locality; but I should have 
remembered to stretch that cable ashore with 
a tackle. Then the jib was hauled out; with a 
low sail plan she apparently needed a long 
bowsprit. 
Running up the lug, I got away, close- 
hauled, and it was first of all noticeable that 
she was listing more sharply than she should 
have done; then as she stretched out across the 
inlet it became evident that she was not making 
much to windward. A pull on the mainsheet 
did not remedy this, and by the time she was 
halfway across I was perched on the weather 
gunwale, looking up to windward somewhat 
anxiously. There was an ominous rustling in 
the woods along one shore, white ripples 
streaked the slate-green heave, and more water 
than was desirable already splashed among the 
ballast. I thought I would put the helm down 
and bring her round, but a difficulty appeared— 
the lee jib sheet, which was led through a hole 
in the after thwart, could not be reached from 
the gunwale, and my weight was needed there. 
Slipping down as the helm went to lee, I 
whipped it loose, and, coming up head to wind, 
she stopped, and refused to swing the trifle 
further that would have brought the jib aback. 
It is the small craft’s trouble, and the addition 
of the cambered keel had not cured it. 
The obvious thing was to pull her round, 
but, though the thole pins were ready, it is 
difficult to row beneath a banging boom which 
smites one on the head and shoulder. Throw¬ 
ing the oar into the stern notch, I sculled in 
desperation, with the mainsheet sawing to and 
fro and worrying me, and in the coursd of a 
minute she fell off upon the other tack. Still, 
it was astonishing to see how far she had 
driven to leeward during the time. 
Heading home, gunwale just awash, with the 
end of the quay under the lee bow, a squall 
struck her, and a foot of slacked mainsheet 
hardly picked her up; then as she began to fall 
off, in spite of a put-down helm, the jib had to 
be slackened also, and the single-hander knows 
what a liberated jib can do. It threatened to 
shake the mast out of her, and, as there was no 
sign of the squall’s passing, it was necessary 
to consider. One might nurse her through it, 
but the trouble was that she was going to 
leeward in an alarming fashion, and it was 
doubtful if she would recover the distance lost. 
I decided to get a reef down, though the middle 
of the vicious squall is not a desirable time for 
the operation. 
There was a becket ready to loop the helm 
a-lee, the jib was backed, luff tackle, leach 
earring worked satisfactorily, and then, because 
it was not wanted, she came round during the 
proceedings and headed across the bay again. 
This would not have mattered had she headed 
to windward, but she woul not lie high enough 
to make up her leeway, which was alarming. 
The center of effort had looked all right on 
paper, but, as sometimes happens, it was dif¬ 
ferent under way, and there are few things 
more disconcerting than to feel the boat carries 
no weather helm. The breeze was also freshen¬ 
ing, and, as there were ugly basalt rocks ahead, 
it appeared advisable to set a smaller jib; but 
here the sailing beam presented a difficulty. 
One could lean forward over it at the moor¬ 
ings, but this was less easy with the boat plung¬ 
ing and the jib thrashing one’s shoulders; be¬ 
sides, the wet outhaul would not render. After 
a breathless struggle I discovered that the jib 
could not be changed. 
The remedy was to anchor and. straighten 
things out, but you cannot conveniently keep 
an anchor ready stocked in an open boat—it 
has a way of fouling your gear-—and I spent 
valuable moments getting the forelock in. After 
that the new cable doubled up in bights and 
hitched itself about the halyard pins, while the 
few fathoms I hurriedly cleared out would not 
reach the bottom. The situation was now em¬ 
barrassing—she was half a mile off shore, driv¬ 
ing rapidly stern first toward the Irish Sea, and 
the water was gathering fast inside her. Streaks 
of crisping froth lined the bay; there was now 
too much wind to pull her round. She must 
be jibed before she drifted out into the open 
water. . , , 
She fell off, ran unpleasantly far to leeward 
before she would bring the boom over, dipped 
her gunwale in the roll, and kept it just awash 
when she faced the breeze again. I sat out¬ 
side the weather quarter, with a bag of shingle 
frantically dragged up on that side beneath me, 
and the short close reach home was an anxious 
one. There were inches of water inside her, and 
more was coming in to leeward every moment; 
she would drive away off shore if I luffed her 
up to bail. Sometimes as the eddying puffs 
raced down from high ground she brought the 
quay under her lee bow; sometimes it crept 
up to weather, and my courage sank. . There 
was no safe place to beach her if she missed it, 
and I had had enough of trying to bring her 
round. Somehow she must be made to weather 
the end of that quay. 
It was touch and go, and she might not have 
done it, only that she screwed up, gunwale 
under, in a vicious squall; and I drew a breath 
of sincere relief as she drove into harbor. I 
had had my fill of sailing her for one day, but 
it was a consolation to know her weaknesses, 
since there were remedies for some of them. 
A low-water examination revealed that her 
lying dry with ballast in, supported on bilge 
and keel, put a leverage on the latter which 
opened the garboard seam—boats of this kind 
are far from strongly built. She also obviously 
needed more lateral resistance, and, consider¬ 
ing that what she had already strained her, the 
question was how to stiffen her to carry an in- 
creased keel. The first step was to double the 
garboards outside—it can be done neatly with 
a clincher boat—and then I simply spiked on 
the extra layer of keel. More through holes 
were out of the question. Keel and extra gar- 
boards were slotted in three places, and strong 
iron angles sunk flush in the notches in back- 
to-back pairs and firmly bolted to each other 
horizontally through the keel. This left one 
arm of each still unattached, and three solid 
grown frames, notched to fit the landings, were 
placed inside the boat above the angles, which 
were fastened to them through the planking. 
Frames and angles now spread the. side pull 
on the keel well over the cross-section of the 
hull, and this is probably the best method of 
fixing a deep keel upon a lightly-built boat. 
After that the sailing beam was pulled, out 
and the mast clamped to a thwart; a pair of 
shrouds made up for the loss of height from 
step. I fixed a smooth strip of hardwood below 
the halyard pins, so the halyard could be. se¬ 
cured against its face by merely pulling a bight 
beneath the standing part. In a small single¬ 
hander it is better to lead the halyard through 
a thimble grommeted to the yard and then hitch 
it to the traveler ring; when, if the latter jams, 
as it sometimes does, the rope will render 
through the thimble. This necessitates the pur¬ 
chase being applied to the luff of the lug, and, 
after experimenting, I found it handiest to 
screw a hardwood cheek, bored through, to the 
mast above the clamp, and reeve a stout, 
greased earring through it with a hook in either 
end. The after one hooked into the sail cringle, 
the forward one into a luff-tackle fastened to 
the stem. It would peak the yard with one 
strong pull. 
Next the bowsprit was sawn short and a 
curled hook spliced to the bobstay end, just 
where one could reach it with the toe of the 
jib, which saved an outhaul. Then there was a 
larger rudder to make—you can give it length 
on the waterline, rounding off below—and 
fresh holes to be bored in the strip nailed to the 
after thwart, through which the jib sheets led, 
crossed. By that plan the lee one is always, to 
weather, where you can reach it when sitting 
on the gunwale. It is a pity there is no really 
satisfactory method of fitting a single-hander s 
mainsheet so that it can be belayed and, what 
is more important, let go instantaneously. 
I had no trouble when she went to sea again. 
She would stay and work to windward in any¬ 
thing except the steep head sea which stops 
any shallow-bodied boat. There was no cure 
for that—one needs the deep wedge section, 
with weight well below, in open water. What 
was more, she would lie-to with tiller becketed 
and jib aback while one reefed her, which is a 
thing one cannot trust all open boats to do. 
