How to Sail a Sloop
You can drive a car without understanding how anything under the hood functions, but sailing demands knowing how to make the wind power a boat. This short posting will get you started. For our example, we'll be referring to a sloop, the most common recreational sail boat that has a foresail called a jib and a main sail attached to a boom. See the photo for reference.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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Grasp how the most elemental sails work. The wind pushes from behind a sail propelling it forward. Mankind's first sail boats were nothing more than square riggers that were pushed down wind. In 1947, Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, built a sailing raft called Kon Tiki a reconstruction of an ancient craft. Winds and currents pushed him 4300 miles across the Pacific in 101 days. Most recreation sailing boats today are sloops that can sail through at least 270 degrees of the compass due to modern refinements in boat design.
If you stick the bottom of a kite in beach sand, a strong wind will push it over. The same is true with a sail on a boat. Wind naturally wants to push a boat over knocking the sails down so that the whole craft lies flat on the water. This tendency is resisted by the keel, a heavily weighed balance below the boat, or a centerboard which extends below the waterline counterbalancing the force of the wind. When the wind pushes on the sail, the keel resists. The force has to go somewhere. Sailboats are designed so that the bow offers less resistance through the water than the stern so that the boat moves forward.
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Adjust the angle of your sail to change direction. Even with a modern Bermuda rigged sloop, you can't sail into the wind. This is how you would stop a boat to change sails, or pull up to somebody for a rescue. You've got about 45 degrees of arc on either side of the wind, depending on the boat design in which you can't sail as well. However, with that exception, after you've picked a course you adjust your sails as follows. Start by letting out your jib until it starts to barely flap, or luff. Tighten the sail and then cleat it off. Do the same with the main.
As long as the wind stays on the same side of the boat, keeping you on the same tack, you can readjust your sail angle quite readily with this method. The challenge occurs if you have to put either your bow or stern through the wind for a radical change in direction.
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Learn how to tack. Let's say that the wind is coming from the north and that is ultimately the direction in which you want to go. The best your boat can handle on is to sail at due North East on one side, and due North West on the other. The only way to proceed North is to sail for a while going NE, then NW zig-zagging toward north. Changing direction this way is called tacking. It's a test of seamanship. In fact, traditionally sailboat races start into the wind, so that the racers start to sort themselves out early.
If the wind is coming over your starboard or port bow, and you have to tack, here's what to do to come about. For simplicity, I've put you on the helm and given you a crew member on port and one on starboard. Put one on each winch. Tell them that you are about to tack and ask them if they are ready. The commands go as follows
"Ready about?""
"Ready" is the crew response.
"Coming about," or "Hard a Lee" is your next command. At that point steer your boat through the wind. Your crew member on the leeward side will remove the jib sheet from its cleat. When the wind starts to force the sail over to the other side, he'll fully release the sheet so that your other crew member can pull it in on the other side and cleat it off. Be sure that the sheets are wrapped clockwise around the winches.Since you're tacking at a sail position where you are close hauled, the main won't swing too much as you change direction.
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Learn to jibe.
With the wind at your stern, it's harder to sense wind direction. Follow the same procedure as in a tack. But the commands are different. Here they are:
"Ready to Jibe?"
"Ready"
"Jibe Ho."Then move the helm so that your stern swings through the wind. Again release the jib when it starts to luff. Here however because your main is fully extended, you'll have to gradually pull it in and help it over to the other side so that you don't have violent uncontrolled smashing of your boom into your shrouds.
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Keep these pointers in mind. There's a lot more to sailing than I can convey in a short article. It will furnish you with a lifetime of challenges.
If you're using a tiller instead of a wheel, steering is counter intuitive. To turn left, you move the tiller to the right.
Get a book. Read it thoroughly. Just the sailing vocabulary alone can seem like a foreign language.
Take a course, and then sail as often as you can. There is no substitute for experience.
I'm writing this the day after spending a delightful afternoon plying the waters of Santa Monica Bay on my California 25 sloop La Runa with a wonderful crew. The relaxing after effects still linger. That's the best reason to sail. Few things are as calming as a day spent at sea at the pivot point of water, wind and sun.
For a fun account of my learning how to sail bigger boats, go to the hotlink for other resources, or here: Checkmate Pictures.
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