The scooner needs decisive handling
to tack well. Once you've got it right, she'll never miss stays.
Until you do, she'll demonstrate backward sailing happily.
Until the crew is familiar with
the vessel, we've found it most useful to do the full Hornblower
trick. For people who have dinghy experience, the usual "ready
about" etc is an incitement to start shifting, which leads
to wet people and an untacked boat.
Here's our procedure. It doesn't
feel embarrassing after the first couple of times, at least not
if there are no others around, or at least not if you whisper
it, or at least...;.
Ready to go about: No-one
moves, but is prepared and not watching the scenery.
Let go foresail sheet:
The foresail sheet is released to snap back along the boom. With
the pressure reduced here, the main starts turning the boat.
Mainsail haul:
The sheet holder pulls the boom in, holds it in, and the boat
starts spinning into the wind.
Helm's a-lee or
lee-oh: Helm is put hard down. Hard down means the end of
the tiller, as designed, is above the lee gunwale. This will use
the momentum of the boat and add to the spin from the mainsail
to pass the boat through the wind. This is also the signal for
everyone to start dodging booms as they come across.
Let go main:
As the boat comes through the wind, the main sheet must be let
go or she'll start weathercocking.
The boat is allowed to fall
off a bit if necessary (in this case, a bit like a catamaran)
to pick up speed, then brought to the wind again. This whole procedure
can be done very slickly, without significant loss of speed.
Gybing
Scooners can be pretty spectacular
gybing - it's that big mainsail. In strong winds, we've found
it's less exciting if one gybes from a wing-and-wing position.
Bring the boat almost square, sheet the main in very slightly
and the fore will swing across to the other side. ("Goosewinging",
although strictly a goosewing is when one sail is totally messed
up with the gaff out one side and the boom the other). Then you
only have the main to worry about as you pass the boat through
the wind. The key is control: controlled sheeting in as you start
turning and controlled release of the sheet on the new course.
Until you've practised gybing
in light airs, don't try it in strong winds. Instead, do a 360
degree turn so that you've tacked onto your new course. Better
still, practice gybing in a dinghy to learn the basics of controlling
the sail.
| General tips | Sail configurations | Rigging to Sail
| Handling sheets | Tacking & Gybing
| Heaving to and reefing
| Jib oddities | Large crews
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