| Nov. 23, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 




YACHTING | 





| Sailing. 
Ir would be impossible to say who was the 
lirst to enjoy a sail on the water. No doubt it 
‘vas some insect that, standing on a leaf, was 
‘own across a pond, discovering the art of sail- 
ing in doing so. But yacht sailing is different 
“rom this. The leaf will only go just as the 
‘vind is blowing, and the poor insect to get back 
‘vill either have to walk or else wait until the 
vind blows from the opposite direction and 
ends the leaf back. 
This kind of sailing, while it might suit a 
yrowd of urchins in a punt with a stolen sheet 



lachtsman. A yacht will sail in all directions, 
xcept directly against the wind, and even this 
8s accomplished by taking a zig-zag course, so 
‘hat progress is actually made against the wind. 
Yhis zig-zag course is termed “tacking” or 
ibeating’ to windward. Every time the yacht 
turns about so as to bring the wind on the op- 
y Psite side of her sails she makes a “tack.” 
In ancient times all sails were hoisted on a 
Ward and were mostly square sails. There were 
“opes at each of the two lower corners just 
s in a ship’s square sail to-day. -To sail with 
he wind on one side of the boat the rope that 
ield the corner of the sail on-that side was 
jiauled, or “tacked,” as it was termed, down 
ight, the other corner’ being allowed a little 
lack, so the sail would belly out and pull the 
yoat ahead. 
In order to sail slightly up toward the wind, 
his ‘tack had to be hauled very tight, so that 
he edge of the sail would not flutter, hence 
ij he windward rope is always the “tack” of a 
quare sail, the leeward one the “sheet.” 
So a boat sailing with the wind on the star- 
gpoard side would have the starboard rope or 
tarboard tack hauled tight, and thus in. time it 
yecame known as the starboard tack whenever 
he wind blows on that (the right) side of a 
ressel. Now if the wind shifts or the vessel 
turns so the wind comes on the other side, 
B D E 
iS ee e e 


4 
0 a : : 
> 6 ‘ Be 
ie N94 

naturally the other rope had to be tightened, 
and as that side of the boat is called the port 
side, she was spoken of as being on the port 
tack. -These terms are still in use, although 
the shapes of the sails have been changed, so 
that the tack on a foré and aft rigged vessel’s 
sails is always made fast. 
With the wind blowing as indicated by the 
arrow, the yacht, starting from A, is on the 
port tack, because the wind is blowing on the 

port, or left-hand side of the yacht as you 
stand looking forward. At B, she has by more 
or less of an angle progressed up against the 
wind, here she comes about and the wind is 
then blowing on the starboard, or right-hand 
side, so she is on the starboard tack. By the 
time she reaches C, she has made the distance 
A-C to windward, but has had to sail the longer 
distance, A, B, C, to get there. The better the 
boat is in sailing close to the wind, the longer 
the distance A, C, will be. Any kind of a tub 
could drift back before the wind from C to A. 
So the value of a boat is largely increased by 
her ability to sail fast to windward. 




NOT ALWAYS. 


ap a 
De eS 
} Tien = pil! 
nn 








A boat lying to an anchor will point directly 
into the wind, but she could not sail against the 
wind this way. She has to “‘pay off” about four 
or five compass points before she gets pressure 
enough in her sails to push her fast enough 
through the water to overcome the drifting tc 
leeward tendency produced by the wind. 
To go to D from A, the yacht would sail 
much faster, as she cuts across the direction of 
the wind at right angles and receives more 1m- 
This is termed “reaching” 
pulse from it. with 

wind abeam. By heading off to E the wind will 
be aft of the beam, or middle of the yacht, and 
this is called a broad reach. Running before 
the wind is what the yacht does in sailing back 
from C to A, going directly with the wind, as 
the leaf does. All these principles a man can 
learn in boyhood by watching model yachts 
sail, but when he gets aboard a real boat and 
sees all the ropes, etc., it takes time to acquire 
a familiarity with them that produces the skilful 
boat sailer. 
I «remember when we first started to sail 
boats. We never gave the structure of the boat 
a moment’s thought. There was a boat, that 
was all we cared to know, so we set sail and 
were off. If anything happened, a rope should 
break dnd let the sail down about our heads, 
why, that was an accident, that’s all; but just 
such accidents teach a man to,look out that it 
does not happen again. 
I shudder now as I think of some of the 
chances my brother and I, as boys, took in our 
first boats. They were old condemned tubs ac- 
cording to experienced men, but we considered 
them as fine yachts until accident after accident 
gave us valuable knowledge on the subject. 
Our first round-bottomed cat we sailed across 
Rockaway shoals in a March gale. She was not 
a fit boat to be out there in; she ran her bows 
eee ee 
Rambler ay Haver straw Bay” 
under nearly every sea and leaked like a sieve; 
but that taught us a lesson—that high bows for 
sea work were desirable, and that well-caulked 
seams were safer than ones filled with putty 
and paint. 
We would never have learned such lessons 
by staying home. And when this same boat 
split her mast step and kicked the garboard off 
from the keel about an inch one day as we 
were beating down the Hudson River off 
Yonkers, letting her sink to her deck so we had 
to beach her, we learned another lesson—always 
examine the mast step in purchasing a yacht. 
A knowledge of naval architecture gives a very 
simple explanation to many things that appear 
mysterious in yachting. JI remember an. old 
- boat builder explaining the peculiarities of cer- 
tain boats, old sand-bag boats, built rule of 
thumb, and modeled by experience. One boat 
would never go to windward until she ran on 
the rocks one day just before a race and broke 
off the tip of her centerboard. There wasn’t 
time to get a new board, so they rounded off 
the broken corner and added another plank to 
the top edge of it, letting it drop lower. She 
went into the race and sailed like a witch to 
windward, easily defeating boats that before al- 
ways beat her. 
secret, 
into 
This was considered a mystery, 
and all centerboards that man 
boats after that had to have 
a great 
ever put 


Bee may 

The Rambler otf Rocawoy 

