Re: confusing terminology, was: Re: Daylight saving time


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Posted by Mike Field on May 10, 2009 at 01:29:58 user mikefield.

In Reply to: Re: confusing terminology, was: Re: Daylight saving time posted by John on May 09, 2009 at 21:36:56:

Taking courage from Peter H's comment, and continuing with John's post a bit, if you're in the position of having a strong beam wind threatening to lay you over but you still want to hold your course, you might forget about putting your helm down and just ease the sheets (let them go) a little. This allows the sail(s) to spill the wind a bit, thus depowering the boat. If it's just a gust of wind that's coming (indicated by a catspaw or patch of ruffled water coming down on you you from upwind) easing the sheets for just a moment or two may be sufficient. If you're really worried about a capsize in a strong wind you let fly the sheets altogether and the sails just blow uselessly out to leeward like flags.

Things happen fast in a dinghy.

Once you've got the boat under control, and if the wind is still too strong, you might want to reef the sail to make its effective size smaller so that it catches less wind.

On the off-chance that you probably will want to let the sheets fly some day, you prepare for this in advance by making them long enough that the sails can fly right out at right-angles to spill all the wind without having the sheets unreeving from their blocks; and you put a stopper-knot (a figure-of-eight knot is ideal) in the bitter end of the sheet, so that the sail's thrashing can't pull it through the block. (If that happens then of course you have no means of controlling the sail.)

Going back to the middle of John's post, if you've missed stays and are in irons (head to wind and sails not drawing,) then you only stay stationary momentarily. After that you start going backwards (making sternway, or a sternboard,) and the way to get round that is to put the helm over one way or the other (remembering that it works in the opposite direction when the boat's making sternway,) so as to give the boat a "sheer" to one side (usually the way you want to be going.) This brings the wind back to the side of the sail, and when you haul in on the sheet you come to a stop and then start sailing properly again.
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Now it's clearly time for me to stop too. But all the terms underlined appear (I think) somewhere or other in the books, so that's my excuse for rabbiting on at this length....

Mike


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