SAILING TIPS
Sail better with these top tips
SWIG THOSE HALYARDS
Halyards led aft sound like a great idea; they can be adjusted from the cockpit at sea so nobody needs to go forward. The trouble is, manufacturers don’t always fit the finest turning blocks, salt gets in, and before you know it friction has triumphed, so that a modest mainsail on a 32-footer has to be winched up for much of its height. A useful answer is to send an active adventurer forward and have him or her heave up the halyard where it exits the mast while the cockpit crew whips in the slack around the winch provided. The technique is to grab the bight (middle) of the length of halyard available, lean back on it, and then bear down with your weight. This generates several feet of slack for the winchers to grab by hand with one turn around the barrel. It’s easier, it’s faster, and with practice, they’ll only have to wind up the last foot or two. Watch a race boat. They all do it. It makes sense for cruisers too.
LIGHTEN YOUR BURDEN
Most ropes on a moderate-sized yacht can be coiled in the hand, but long shore lines can be mar- ginal or just plain impossible, especially if you aren’t rigged with a set of fingers like a pound of bananas. Coiling on deck has been the seaman’s solution for centuries. Just make a turn with one end of the rope and follow it round and round–clockwise, of course–until you reach the other extremity. To finish the job, don’t try to gather it all up. Use an end to make a clove hitch around one part of the coil. I learned this from Captain Avellar of the schooner Hindu on Cape Cod in 1967. It has never let me down, and even my little grandson’s hands can use it to tame a serious hawser.
FOG BEFORE 7, CLEAR BY 11
The spectacular mist pouring over these cliffs has nothing to do with the sea fog that blows into the Golden Gate or the smoky sou’wester that plagues New England. It’s a land fog washing down off the fields, blown offshore by the last of the land breeze following a clear, quiet, autumn night. As it meets the warmer sea it will dissipate. Even along the shoreline it should burn off as the sun stirs the air, to be long gone by noon. This effect can happen anywhere, but it is prevalent late in the season where rivers widen out into harbors. The fog bank crawls down the valley and spreads out across the inshore waters shortly before sunrise. Being ready for these effects and knowing what to expect is half the battle, but one thing’s sure–unless it’s sea fog, it’ll be gone before lunch.
SHUT ‘EM UP
Have you ever wondered how folks working supermarket checkouts, whose every move generates an electronic bleep, survive with their sanity? Things are almost as bad on many yachts these days, as the navigator punches stuff into the GPS or the plotter. Each keystroke is acknowledged with that wretched squeak that will rudely awaken the watch below on a quiet night. Why not give the hands a chance of a decent snooze and turn the bleeps off ? There’s usually a feature hidden deep in some menu or other. This Raymarine plotter hides its mute function on the “Display Setup” page, which is accessed via the main menu. Unfortunately, you can’t disable the alarms for arriving at a waypoint and “Lost Marpa target,” so the only way to silence these beeps or pings when people are trying to sleep is to shut down the functions. Shame really… s