The Best Of Boating by boatguy Ed

Boating is… Sailor’s Eye!

By boatguy Ed

“Why should I watch my hat,” Run-aground Ralph said to me as he stood on the bow of the small fishing boat. He likes the big broad brimmed straw hats that are lightweight and protect a lot of skin from the sun. I had cautioned him about putting a clip on strap between the hat and his collar but he knew better.

I was very proud of myself when he was leaning over the short gunwale of the boat trying to fish out the floating hat. A sudden gust of sea breeze had come across the summer calm afternoon and caught him unprepared. Ralph glowered at me when he tried to make the soggy hat stay on his head. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “It’s my sailor’s eye!”

“Baloney, sailor’s eye, never heard of such nonsense,” grumbled Ralph as he went on casting. As I looked out on the glassy smooth water I could see the first signs of more wind moving our way. The dark patches on the shiny water were the ripples caused by wind.

They reminded me of my misspent youth on small, slow sailboats and the hot July races on windless lakes. You had to find the wind and knowing what it looked like was important. At least one boat had to make the first mark in one hour or the race committee would cancel the race. It always seemed one boat would break away and find a patch of wind that would propel it around the upwind mark.

Finding wind on calm days was mostly luck. Knowing when to alter coarse to catch a sudden increase in wind was an art. The really good small boat sailors had an instinct and they won more races. Most of them moved up into larger boats and some of the best went on to become navigators on America Cup boats. I didn’t but I still have a sailor’s eye.

As I progressed into larger boats I understood that the closer the boats were matched the more important it was to understand wind. It is the same as adjusting an Indy 500 car in the middle of a race to gain more speed and use the conditions at hand. Some racers simply add more power but that rarely wins races in sailing or around the asphalt oval. Sailboats designed for racing are as different to cruising boats as Indy cars are to my pick-up truck. Racing vehicles are lightweight and built for speed. My truck is fast and has its advantages but not as fast as a stripped down frame with a shell of a body.

Sails are the throttles of a sailboat but the standing wire is the frame. Pull in a sail rope called a sheet and feel the boat accelerate. Adjust the wire rigging to rake the mast back a little and it helps the boat track better and go a little faster. The hard charging racer rebuilds his racing machine nearly every season yet cruising sailors hardly ever do the same overhaul.

It isn’t much fun racing an overbuilt tank of a boat because the sails are small and the rigging is thick and heavy. A boat built like a Clorox bottle is the perfect racer because it is light and maneuverable. When the Clorox bottle wears out it is sent off to the broker and sold, more often than not, to a novice cruiser who has dreams of sailing the South Pacific. The lightly built boat may not be up to the task.

Just to show you that I’m not just preaching from behind the keyboard I will tell you that I was dismasted in a small racing sailboat while misusing it as a day sailor. I was tacking up a creek behind the North Carolina Outer Banks and showing off for part of my family aboard. I admit I was hot dogging for the patrons in the restaurant lining the bank as well; when suddenly I heard the most sickening sound any sailor would never want to hear.

It was the strange ping accompanying the parting of the forestay’s upper turnbuckle, the effect being the toppling of the mast! I had overloaded the boat and been out on too windy a day with to many people aboard and generally abused my precious little racer. I went from a boastful, braggart one moment to a goat the next?

I had a sailor’s “black” eye that day! But the experience taught me a few very simple lessons and the most important one is to replace that rigging every 7 to 10 years and secondly to use the boat as it was designed.

Boat safe, watch those gusts and check the rigging. See you all on the Internet Boating Show and keep using that great Florida paint I make, Super Shipbottom. Send questions and comments to boatguiEd@aol.com or this publication.