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/94

 *tions to this rig apply only to its use on rough water. But, unsuitable though the rig may be for open-sea work, it is difficult to beat it on rivers, small lakes, and broads, where there is no room for a sea to rise. As for the other disadvantages of the rig, these can to a great extent be obviated by the following plan adopted by the author on the large cat-boat which he used to sail single-handed in Florida. The waters on which he was cruising were subject to violent squalls and to strong northerly winds, so it was necessary that he should be able to reduce his canvas quickly at times. In the first place, instead of the usual single halyards to which I have referred, he employed two halyards, as in a cutter, throat-halyard and peak-halyard, the former belaying at the foot of the mast, the latter passing through a block at the foot of the mast, and thence leading to a cleat aft within easy reach of the helmsman. He could thus, when a squall struck the boat, let go the peak halyards in a moment without leaving the helm, and so relieve the boat of the pressure of half the sail and the leverage of the great gaff. He might have made her still snugger by having a tricing-tackle fitted to the tack. Then, by hauling the tack up and lowering the peak, the sail would be 'scandalised.' The signification of this last term and a description of a tack tricing-tackle will be found in Chapters and The author also had a balance-reef in the sail (see the Fig.)—that is, a diagonal reef-band with reef