Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/961

Rh may be ballasted if desired. Perhaps the best way to do this is to fill a couple of canvas bags with sand or fine gravel, and place them on either side of the

centerboard trunk. A cleat tacked along the floor will prevent the bags from shifting. Ten or twelve- ounce canvas bags re-en- forced by sewing a length of 3/16-in. rope around the seams will be suitable. A rope strap-handle will make it easier to handle the bags, which should weigh about forty pounds each.

In ballasting, the boat must be trimmed to ride on an even keel, or with just a trifie more weight aft of midship. If sandbags or other weights are used, ballast to an even keel, and your weight aft will trim the boat correctly. Too much weight forward makes a boat difficult to steer, and too much ballast aft causes the stern to drag too much water.

The skipper of any boat — be it large or small, should keep his "weather eye" open at all times. When sailing in a river or landlocked lake or bay, one must be on the watch for puffs, and head up into the wind or ease off the sheet a few inches. Moreover, the main sheet should not be made fast, but held in the hand, so that the rope may be cast off to run free at a moment's notice. In a brisk breeze, a half-turn around the cleat will take all strain from the hands.

but allows the rope to render free at will. When running straight be-

fore the wind, every boat will swing more or less from side to side, and this "yawing" is counteracted by swinging the rudder slightly in the opposite direction as the bow swings. A little sailing experience will show how the trick is done, for the good sailor can tell the behavior of a craft by the "feel" of his hand on the tiller.

When going about or changing the course, the novice should always come up into the wind, rather than pay off and jib the boom over. The experienced skipper can jib in even a heavy wind by easing off the sheet as the boat pays off and the boom swings over, and quickly pulling the sheet as the craft swings on the other tack.

It is well to keep in mind this rule of the road at sea; that a boat on the starboard tack has the "right of way" over a craft on the port tack. By starboard tack is meant the wind blowing from the right or starboard side (sail to left or port) and vice versa when on the port tack.

When sailing past the lee of a vessel at anchor, or an island, keep your weather eye open. Your boat is certain to be becalmed or "blanketed" while passing, and as she draws clear of the object, the full force of the wind will strike your sail. Remember this and avoid a possible capsize. It is fool-hardy to attempt to sail close to steamers and other large craft, for the sake of riding the swells. Keep away from them.

Sailing a boat in rough water demands judgment, especially when the wind and sea are a-beam. This is the most dangerous point of sailing, and calls for a cautious hand on the tiller. If the wind is strong and fresh, it is the wisdom of a sailor to reef and shorten the sail, rather than to stagger along under the whole spread. There is an old maxim which runs something like this — "A sailor shortens sail in time, but the landlubber cracks on sail until all is blue." Keep this in mind and avoid taking chances.

In rough-water sailing, with the boat heeled over to some fifteen degrees, a heavy roller may even capsize the boat. Guard against this, and when you note a particulary big wave coming, put up the helm a trifle, so that the wave may be taken on the bluff of the bow or abaft the beam. This use of the weather helm is one of the essentials in seamanship, Should a big wave seem