Justin Ruthven-Tyers

writer and artist for people who love boats and the sea..

Sailors talk...

Bumps and breakages. If you are anything like me, you hesitate to sail your boat into harbour under full canvas for fear of making a fool of yourself.  That coupled with rising legal costs.

I remember listening in on a Pan Pan call made to Brixham coastguard by a yacht with engine failure requesting a tow from the lifeboat.  By the time Brixham coastguard had gathered the facts of the situation that sunny summer afternoon, it became apparent that the yacht was enjoying a rather jolly sail just at present but couldn’t imagine how he was going to get into Salcombe without and engine.  I don’t remember how the coastguard terminated the request, but I know they weren’t amused.

There is a case for learning how to handle your boat under sail at close quarters simply because there will come a time when you will need to know how to do it. If you learn to do it now, whilst your engine is working, you won’t have the jitters nearly so badly when you come to do it when it isn’t.

If you were to luff up until your boat came to a stop, time and time again, in a variety of wind and water conditions, in some location where there are plenty of good visual references – near mooring buoys, for example – to assist with spacial awareness – you would pretty soon be able to bring her to rest within a few feet of a chosen point. 

Generally, all manoeuvres end with you applying the brakes by luffing up into the wind, or, in a tideway, turning the bow to point upstream.  But if you need them there are other ways to apply the brakes.

Thames Bargemen. One winter we decided to lay up at Gweek Quay which is situated at the navigable limit of the Helford River in Cornwall.  Gearbox failure on that occasion meant that we had to sail, for which we had a propitious following (Easterly) wind.  Not knowing the river that far up, and arriving at Gweek rather suddenly as we rounded a bend, we attempted to claw down the mainsail only to have it catch fast in the spreaders. The muddy channel we were in was narrow and didn’t permit of turning around.  To add to my confusion, one of the boat builders had just launched a restored Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.  She gleamed in her berth without a scratch upon her.  A crowd of 80 had gathered for the launch and were just thinking that the days’ excitement was over when we appeared.

Amid my growing alarm I suddenly remembered a trick employed by the Thames bargemen; they would dredge their anchor.  I noticed that the depth was 2 metres, and so sprang up forward to let the anchor down on 3 or 4 metres of chain.  Our speed fell immediately from three knots to only about a quarter as Caol Ila dredged her anchor through the mud; allowing us time to untangle the mainsail, and drift quietly alongside, after all, with some dignity.

Dredging the anchor, effective though it is, is not available to you amongst moorings, because of their ground tackle – and some pontoons are secured that way too.

Where the ground is foul you have to choose from the rather less effective methods of:  applying full rudder – first one way then the other; throwing a bucket over the side (preferably tied to the boat first); backing sails; and stalling sails or luffing up.

Handling under sail at close quarters requires two other skills to be honed:  Controlling speed; and sail-assisted steering.  Controlling speed is really a matter of either reducing sail (though not too much – too little drive is every bit as problematic as too much); or, setting the sails badly.  By easing (or over-hardening) sheets, slacking halyards away, lowering the peak, tricing or scandalizing the main, your boat can be made to sail steadily along in any amount of breeze, at a manageable speed – say, 2 knots.  But sailing too slowly will cause the helm to be unresponsive – and that would be a mistake – the helm should feel quick and lively.  Sailing slowly under perfect control is a skill in its own right, and is an under-explored branch of our sport.

When choosing which lines to ease, it’s worth bearing in mind that you may urgently need them to be made up again.  When close-reaching, ‘badly’ set sails won’t point as high, and that will considerably affect how you plan to finish your manoeuvre…as you turn into wind to pick up a mooring buoy, say, drive will be lost much sooner than you expected