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/21

 plans fresh cruises; or calls up pleasant memories of former cruises in her—of how at one time she showed a clean pair of heels to a craft double her size, and how she weathered that gale in the North Sea in such a year, when she behaved so well, and breasted with safety the steep seas by which bigger vessels might have been overwhelmed. No girl over her doll can contrive to make herself more perfectly happy than is the true yachtsman over his little ship.

As this book is intended for the instruction of the amateur skipper who would command his own small craft—and in most cases would be skipper, crew, and cook in one—I shall have nothing to say of the larger type of pleasure-craft, but will confine myself to dealing with small boats of various sizes, from the tiniest up-river dinghy to the ten-ton cutter or yawl. Professional sailors often declare that no book can assist a man in the acquisition of seamanship. I hold that books are of far more service than these mariners imagine, and enable the novice to acquire the elements of the art of sailing far more rapidly than would be possible otherwise. I remember well that I picked up many a wrinkle from books when I first took to sailing. But, of course, only long practice on board a craft can teach that self-confidence, that instinctive readiness to do the right thing promptly in any sudden emergency, without which all book-acquired theory is valueless at sea.