Sailing: The Real Thing

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3, 20 January 1906, Page 14

Sailing: The Real Thing

BY

AN ENTHUSIAST

ANY people imagine that there /r| are only two ways of enjoying I I the sport of sailing — one the / JL rather doubtful pleasure of the w tripper who takes a shilling journey round the Note from the Southend beach, and the other the recreation of the well-to-do man who spends every season more than an average income on his boat alone. In reality what many would regard as two extremes are the same thing. The kind of pleasure derived by the excursionist from his shilling trip is identical with that of the millionaire, the only difference between them being one of degree. They both purchase the same article, but the one can only afford a shilling’s worth of it. That is to say. the pleasure of both consists in being on the water and watching the sailors sail the boat. In the one case the sailors are all servants of the individual owner; in the other case they are collectively employed by the crowded and uncomfortable excursionists, but it is as incorrect to suppose that the yacht owner is engaging in the sport of sailing as it is to describe in that way the occupation of his humble imitator. Neither knows the joy of the real thing, the pleasure of handling the boat, and all the thousand and one delights which come from proficiency in the sport. The aim of the real dilettante may be assumed to be a thorough knowledge of seamanship. 11 is idea is to do the thing himself from beginning to end. It is in mastering the practical details that his pleasure consists. The man who pays nu n to sail hi-' boat is no less ridiculous than Tne Chinese ambassador who, watching the game of cricket, wanted to know why 1 be players did not pay their servants to do it for them. The pleasure is in actually doing the thing, and though the ci. uce of navigation is comparatively simple, the art of seamanship is one which requires endless study and practice, ami combines in a fascinating degree the practical with the th •.metical. Many. 1 believe, are deterred from taking it up by the fear of expense, but the truth is I hat no groat outlay is necessary. s n:ail smacks and fishing boats — i xi client types —are built and equipped f..r le<- money than goes in many men’s current expenses in a season's yachting. Io purchase and maintain a small craft of from five to nine tons is not by any nicaim an expensive amusement, provided you do not want to go in for racing. Kming requires all kinds of special gear and sails, and the comfortable, old boat which serves a cry well for a cruiser has to in* abandoned in favour of something approaching more closely the racing machine. Boats of the comfortable typo, however, are obtainable for about .£6O or .£7O. You won’t pick one up on the first beach you come to. It may mean a few months’ inquiry, but they are to be found by those who want them. In everything needed for real sea sailing tin re is only one test allowable, and that is the complete power of each particular article to perform the duties for which it is intended. No other consideration is possible. In the liist place, as to dress, the only question to ask is. what is the dress mo'-t suitable for the purpose ? The clothes worn must not hurt with a. XMttiii'!: must be warm*, must be easily donned and doffed; must be comfortable and i? pc !•? in no way the free action, even the contortion , of the ► body. Clearly we cannot go far wrong if we adopt garments similar to those of the fishermen all round the coast. A blue jersey and blue trousers and coat such as are worn by ordinary apprentices are obviously the things needed. The same principles will be applied to the equipment of the boat. Galvanised iron fittings are really all that are required. The test of the gear is not to be its smartness but its strength, and

the idea is to have everything fit for its work,and a good deal stronger than any estimate of the strain it will have to bear. The weather and sea discover with fatal certainty any shoddy work.

As an illustration of the advantage of the working as against the fancy type, one may name the dressing for sails, a preparation of oil and paraffin, which keeps the wet out of the doth and prevents it rotting. An ordinary eotton sail must be put under a cover every time it is stowed, and must be constantly aired to prevent its mildewing. On the other hand, a sail which has been dressed, although it is not considered to look so smart, will stand the weather without any damage whatever. Further, smacks and fishing boats invariably have an open foot to the sail, whereas yachts have the foot la-, ed on to the boom. The open foot has a very decided advantage, for it enables various manoeuvres to be performed which are otherwise impossible. By means of a special tackle—a “truss’’—the taek of the sail can be hoisted up the mast quiekly, making an effective reef, and, further, giving a view ahead for sailing down a crowded fairway where manycraft are brought up. In gusty weather a result equivalent to lowering the mainsail, and taking infinitely less time, is achieved by trussing up the tack in the manner described and lowering the peak.

The ease for thorough, workmanlike appliances is similar below deck. Do not attempt to convert a small cabin into an imitation drawing room. To the real sailor man sailing is as enjoyable in the winter as in the summer, ami winter sailing means a coal stove, which is out of the question if the cabin must be kept lily-white and is full of bright brass work.

Even-thing below deck has to be sound and useful. The bunks are fitted with blanket sacks,which are the most healthy things to sleep in, easy to stow, and warm ami comfortable. The plates and dishes and cups are enamelled iron, clean, unbreakable and handy. The cabin need not be without its comforts. It has a few books, charts and simple instruments. but it is entirely free from the ridiculous excesses of a Henley punt. The real equipment is one that will withstand wind and weather, and is always ready for them. Each little article must have its hook, and be hung to the hook. In a seagoing beat everything must be ready for a shaking. What has been said about equipment applies with double emphasis to the doing of the necessary work. Nowh;re does retribution wait so surely on a makeshift and slovenly character as on

a boat. Every manoeuvre must b> conscientiously carried out, and with no time-serving eye. The man who makes fast tile dinghy “roughly” b ciu-e he is in a hurry will learn to do l etter at the cost of two or three dinghy*. lie will learn that’ there are proper knots

for this purpose, and he must go to the trouble of making them. Or, again, the man who, in getting under weigh, is too idle to coil his halyards when the sails are set. and reverse the coils, courts the serious danger of the halyards Hying aloft ami jambing the blocks, and so preventing the sail from being lowered in a moment of emergency. Or. to take another simple example, anyone who is too tired to go to work properly in dropping anchor in a tide-way, and who just flings it overboard and lets the chain run out as it may, not caring to take the trouble of letting it run gradu-

ally and gently over the bollards, may have his character for thoroughness improved by the loss of a few fathoms of valuable chain and one or two good anchors.

It is quite true that these are only exemplifications of the ordinary wellknown laws, but while in ordinary life Nemesis is slow and invisible for a long time to the dull-witted, on the sea she follows with appalling obviousness and speed. As a matter of fact, the joy of the sport arises from the necessity fon thoroughness. A great deal of pleasure, too, is ob-

tained from learning how to do everything connected with a boat in the proper way. To the real sailoruian, fitting out is one of the pleasures; scraping the must, varnishing,it. renewing the gear, painting the topside*; and scrubbing the weed off the ship’s' bottom all form work of real interest, quite beside the navigation of the vessel. People often ask what ean be found to be done in a boat, and how time is killed, as they put it. The real fact is that it is difficult to get a single moment of leisure. You will have a remarkable boat if you cannot always find something to do in the way of eleaning, ordering, or renewing. Indeed, if you are unable to realise this aspeet of the sport, you may as well give up altogether the idea of sailing on a moderate income. By taking the correct view that a sailorman should know how to make a complete duplicate set of gear for his boat, and be prepared to do it himself, much of your outlay ean be obviated. And also you will not cut the very ridiculous figure presented by the “amateur yachtsman” who wears the most sailory costume possible and takes no part in the real management of the vessel—a highly absurd proceeding. One might as well make a rule of putting on a down’s dress to watch a pantomime. It must not be supposed from wT.at 1 as been said that sailing requires mercy a dull, dogged, slow-going character. Nowhere, on the contrary, is there more need lor smart, quick work as well as the steady nerve. A good instance of the necessity for .smartness is shown in the matter of gybing. When a vessel has’ the wind abaft on, say, the starboard quarter, and wishes to alter her course so that the wind will come over the port quarter, it is necessary to gybe, a manoeuvre which involves the boom swinging from light out on the one side to right out on the other. In a strong wind, ami with a very heavy spar like the boom, this operation is likely to be dangerous, as the force with which the boom Hies over to the. other side when the vessel’s course is altered is considerable. A little handiness, however, will destroy the danger. First of all the vessel should • be so plased that the wind is dead aft, and then, as the course is gradually steered in preparation for the gybe, the main sheet should be quickly hauled in until the boom is amidships. Just as the boom goes over on to the new gybe it is necessary to make a feint of going biek to the old position. The result is that the boom stops amidships, wavers for a moment, and then, with a quick turn of the tiller in the real direction, the boom goes quietly over to the new gybe, the sheet being rapidly paid out in the meanwhile. By this means it is possible to perform this most violent of all operations without so much as a tremble on board. Apart, however, from the question of dexterity, the proper management of a boat requires considerable ingenuity. To give an instance: To come up to a boat anchored in a tideway, in a dinghy, is not always an easy mattsr, especially if the dinghy is being sailed. Hero the landsman’s notion is to head straight over to the boat, and bring the dinghy up either with her stem to the stern of the yacht or head on as the case may be. Of course, in the first place, allowance has to be made for tide, and the dinghy should always lie brought up with her head pointing to the yacht’s head, so that the tide an I wind shall influence her in the same way that they are influencing the bigger boat. In this way the two are made to lie quietly side by side. In addition to all these very general and well-known rules every boat has her own idiosyncrasies—the things she will and the. things she won’t do : her strong points and her weak side. Therefore, in addition to know big what to do in the. general way, it is necessary to introduce into consideration the vessel’s personal equation. This is nowhere better shown than in coming up to a mooring buoy. It is not until one has had a great deal of experience with a particular boat that it is possible to tell how much way she carries and to calculate exactly when to lower sail or to luff, in order to bring up exactly at the buoy, and it is equally useless to take the way off a vessel before the buoy is reached, or to overshoot the mark. Nothing but an acquaintance with the habits of the particular boat will enable one to perform the manoeuvre successfully. Another most important point, which is largely a matter of character with boats, is that of going about. A boat

with a small draught, which secures her grip of the water by means of a centrehoard, will fly round like a top with the slightest touch on the tiller. On the other hand, a boat with a long keel buried in the water from stem to stern will not go about in the same way. She must be sailed round in a wide sweep. The attempt to get her about by putting the helm quiekly to leeward will merely result in putting her in irons where she will neither go off on one taek nor the other, or more frequently still in luffing her, and then causing her to pay' off on the old tack. Unless one knows exactly how the tiller should be directed from personal acquaintance with the boat, a dangerous situation may be easily courted. Among other personal characteristics in a boat, there are such points as the proper angle at which the gaff should be kept to the mast to lower it quiekly. With a rough boat of the smack type the golf runs on wooden jaws. If the peak is held too high and the throat lowered too quiekly, or vice versa, the miming gear will go stiff, and the sail cannot be lowered. A little experience of the particular boat is necessary to get the mainsail quiekly and safely on deck. Among practical points is that of a good draught for the stove. The chimney probably eomes out by the mast, which, with the boom and the sail, when stowed, will c heck the wind across the chimney and cause a down draught in stove. The result in the cabin is into’erable, but the cure brings out again the advantage of the smack type of boat. The boom which runs on jaws and saddle ean be hoisted up the mast with the gaff, sail and all. so that there is a clear space round the chimney, and a perfect draught is seemed. The housewife who suffers from a smoky chimney will always go into ecstasies at the beautiful drawing power of a little stove on a boat. In this way one realises the personality of a craft. There is no limit to the experience so gained, and to the pleasure of gaining it. Sailorjhg. is, in fact, the real life. On small boats with a crew of two or three one,comes into the closest possible touch with nature. To speak of it as amusement or “pleasuring” shows an ignorance of its real character. The real siilorman engages the elements in a conflict that is perpetual, though it has its.lulls and its moments of exceptional fierceness. He becomes in time the fearless iron-nerved veteran, but this eud is only achieved after a life of eeaseless striving and constant fighting. Brought face to face at every moment with the merciless power of the wind and waves, the fascination of the battle is too great to permit him to retire, although he knows that if he is beaten his enemy will give him no quarter.—-. Fry’s Magazine.