Page:Boating - Woodgate - 1888.pdf/121

 If a boat has to be suddenly checked and her way stopped, the order is ‘Hold her all’ The blades are then slightly in- clined towards the bow of the boat, causing them to bury in the water, and at the same time not Lo present a square surface to back-water. The handle of the car should then be elevated, and more and more so as the decreasing way enables each oarsman to offer more surface resistance to the water, So soon as the way of the boat has been sufficiently checked, she can be backed or turned, according to what may be necessary in the situation,

In turning a long racing-boat care should be taken to do so gently, otherwise she may be strained. If there is plenty of room, she can be turned by one side of oars ‘hold: her, while bow, and afterwards No. 3 also, paddle her gently round. If there is not room for a wide turn, then stroke and No. 6 should back water gently, against bow, &c. paddling.

A coxswain, when he first begins his trade, is pleased to find how obedient his craft is to the touch of his hand; he pulls one string and her bead turns that way ; he takes a tug at the other line, and she reverses her direction. ‘The ease with which he can by main force bring her, somehow or other, to the side of the river on which he desires to be tends at first to make him overlook how much extra distance he unnecessarily covers by rough-and-ready hauling at the lines. ‘Argonaut’ very lucidly uses the expression ‘a boat should be coaxed by its rudder,’ a maxim which all pilots will do well to make a cardinal point in their creed,

When a boat is once pointing in a required direction, and er tre course is for the moment a straight one, the pilot should note some landmark, and endeavour to regulate his bows by aid of it, keeping the mark dead ahead, or so much to the right or to the left as occasion may require. In so doing he should feel his lines, and, so to speak, ‘balance’ his bows on his point d’apput. His action should be somewhat analogous to what the play of his hand would be if he were attempting to