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/244

 and laying an improvised azimuth ring on the top of the compass-bowl. A flat brass ring with two vertical pins at opposite sides of it will answer this purpose very well. Even without this, one can take a sufficiently correct bearing by looking along a pencil or a piece of string held across the centre of the compass and directed towards the object.

Having ascertained our position, it behoves us to consider how we shall set to work to sail our boat to its destination as rapidly as possible. When sailing for a port to windward, it is the general rule to keep on that tack on which the vessel looks up best for her port—that is, the tack which makes the direction in which she is heading and the bearing of her port form the smaller angle. As soon as she has reached a position which makes the other tack the most favourable, she should be put about. By following this plan no change of wind can place the vessel in a worse position; indeed, any change will be in her favour; whereas, if one stand on long on the tack on which she looks up worse to her port, a shift of wind may put her dead to leeward of her destination, and she will have lost instead of having gained ground.

But in the case before us, as I have already said, the wind is right ahead—that is, from the N.E.—so that we would look up for our port equally well on either tack. However, on studying the tide-tables and the chart, we find that the flood-tide is now beginning to make, and is setting in the direction