70

NICflOLLS'S SEAMANSHIP AND NAUTICAL KNOWLEDGE

WIND

weather is her lurching and dipping' the lee gunwale under water;
even if she is well ballasted she may not come upright as the lurching
tends to throw the weight of the crew to the lee side and their weight
heels her over still further. Never hesitate to slack off the sheet when
a puff of wind comes along, it is easily hauled in again.

The science of a boat beating to windward is an application of
simple mechanics. A boat with lugsail will make headway when 4
points, 45 degrees, from the wind, and she will zig-zag her way into the
wind's eye tack f<sr tack; she will not make good the direction she is
heading as ship's boats are flat-bot^pmed things and make a lot of
leeway.

In the figure the arrow and dotted line represent a North wind
blowing down the page. A is a boat close-hauled
on the port tack heading N.E. She tacks at B and
heads N.W. towards G on the starboard tack. She
tacks at C and heads N.E. for D en the port tack
She changes again from port to starboard tack at D
and heads N.W. for E. The distance made good to
'windward is from A to E. li AB+is one mile, BG
2 miles, CD 2 miles and DE 1 mile the boat sails
6 miles in all. It will be found on looking up the
Traverse Table with 45° as a course and these dist-
ances in the Distance column that the Difference of
Latitude column gives 4*2 miles which is the length
of AE, so that the boat has sailed 6 miles to make
good 4*2 miles against the wind. She would actually
have to do more as there is always some leeway to
make up.

The trim' of a , boat is a vital factor in
determining her sailing qualities. When a boat is
down by the head she will try to bring herself head

p. 3__TacMng *° '9™L<^ an<^ wh-en down by the stern she wants to

to Windward put her stern into the wind. The deep or heavy end
of the boat tends to hang to windward; this, of
course, may be counteracted with the rudder but the angled rudder
would retard the boat's speed. Immediately on getting under wa)
the position of the members of the crew should be changed about
until the best sailing balance or trim of the boat is found. The person
steering can tell this by* the feel of the tiller because when the boat ja
in nice trim she requires very little helm.