Clever Pig

Sailing 101 -  Day Two, on the Water

Meet your sailboat, this was how the evening began.  Covering safety on the dock, boarding the boat, starting and running the engine, locating the different lines, halyards, sheets and shrouds.  As a finishing touch we attached a the main sail and the jib sail.  

We were now ready to sail - in theory.

For many of the crew, the thought of driving the boat in and out of the dock using the motor seemed as daunting if not more so than the thought of sailing the boat.  Having driven many motor boats in my life, I felt confident this would be a no brainer for me.  As I backed the boat out of it’s slot that confidence was reconfirmed.  It wasn’t until we shifted the motor into forward gear that my confidence started to slip away.  For starters the motor is way too small to just muscle the boat in the direction that you want. You have to plan ahead, finesse the boat,  take it out for a drink.   After all, this is a sailboat not a motor boat. It took for-ever for the reverse inertia of the sailboat to stop and a forward motion to begin.  Here’s where a slight panic set in and the realization that the tiller (that’s what steers the boat) failed to steer the boat when I pushed it to either side.  “You have no helm,” the instructor said, followed by “you need more speed before you can steer.”  No helm - more speed - you mean to tell me that I can’t steer away from the quickly approaching dock without going towards it faster!  With great trust,  I waited as the boat increased in speed heading for the dock opposite of ours.   And then it happened,  just like magic, there it was - control, I had helm.

Now, control with the motor is great, but it’s nothing compared to the moment when the sail is raised and you feel the silent power of the wind take hold.  All the reading about sailing theory, trying to picture in my mind the thing that I read about, came together and all started to make sense.  

With the vast amount of things to pay attention to and adjust at the same time, it’s lucky for me that I’m a little ADHD.  I loved the thought that every adjustment changes how fast the boat is going, and how it feels to steer it.  Even where another crew member is sitting in the boat can make all the difference in the world.

Port tack - I was told this term wasn’t an attribute of port wine.  Seeing how I should have been born in the Show Me State, I didn't take that at face value and would have to confirm it later. As it turns out, not a single mention of tack on the wine aroma wheel.  Just in case you have the same desire to see for yourself as I do you, you can check the chart below.  Here I thought we were going to enjoy a great port wine and all we had was the wind pushing on the left side of the sail as we looked towards the bow. 

I’m happy to report that there is no lack of puns and wordplay aboard our sailboat.  As if the official words on the sailboat weren't strange enough, we now get to use words like luff as a replacement for love.  And when asked what corner of the sail of this is, you can answer with “ I haven’t got a clew” but the granddaddy of them all is, cunningham. That’s the official term, but our well seasoned instructor couldn’t just leave it at that. Now, in my head, I would have expected some wordplay off of the television sitcom Happy Days.  That wouldn’t do, this little part of the boat gets the special pun honor of - wait for it -  “clever pig”.  Yes, you heard that right, you should have seen the confused looks that came over the crew when our instructor said “We have a clever pig on the boat.”  This is the point that I decided, I really liked this guy.

~ J ~

OK, here is your quiz from the last post. Let's see if you did your homework. I added some photos here that show the lines, sheets, halyards, and shrouds all in the same photo.  Can you tell the difference between the four?