Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/145

 extended overboard at right angles to the keel. The guys are then belayed. The halyards, out-haul, and sheets are bent on to the sail, and the sheet is belayed. The sail is hoisted with the halyards, and then the tack is hauled out to the boom end with the out-haul. If there be much wind it may be found necessary to slack up the sheet a bit until the out-haul has been belayed.

To take in a spinnaker, let go the out-haul first and drag the sail inboard. Then let go the halyards and haul the head of the sail down on deck.

To is not so simple a matter as might be supposed, and is often, indeed, a difficult and delicate business that taxes the skill even of the experienced sailor. A slight error of judgment when weighing anchor or slipping from one's moorings in a crowded anchorage may result in one's craft drifting across another vessel's stem, before she can be got under control; and if the tide be running strong, thus to collide with an anchored vessel is likely to cause the sinking of one's own.

Before proceeding to get under way, get whatever sails you intend to use ready for hoisting; cast off their tyers and stops, leaving, perhaps, one tyer round the 'bunt' or middle of the mainsail to keep it from blowing loose; bend on halyards and sheets, top the main boom, and see that the runners, etc., are belayed in their right places.

The usual method of getting under way with a cutter when she is riding head to wind and tide,