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/72

 of her lee-boards. Lee-boards for large boats are made in sections held together by stout iron bands, and are hauled up by chains and tackle; but for a small boat, a lee-board made out of a single plank will do very well, and no iron-work is needed.

Almost anything that can float can be made to sail to windward by lowering a plank vertically over the side; for that is practically all a lee-board amounts to—a fact to be borne in mind when one wishes to extemporise a sailing-craft in some out-of-the-way corner of the world where means and appliances are few. Thus some years ago the author, being in Florida, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, took it into his head to undertake a cruise down the shallow channels that divide the mainland from the long line of palmetto-covered keys or islands that fringe that beautiful coast. He found nothing in the way of a craft available for his purpose, save what the natives were pleased to call a canoe; she was a little punt, a shallow, clumsily built trough, in shape resembling rather one of the trays in which photographers develop their plates than a boat. He made a sail for her, and then out of a pine plank cut a lee-board about three feet long, shaped as in Fig. 42, stout at the head and down the centre, but tapering away to a narrow edge at the foot and sides. Having determined by experiment at what part of the boat's side the lee-board was most effective, he fitted an iron pin (see the Fig.) on either gunwale. A rope was then rove through the head of the lee-board, and