The Boat is an as yet unnamed Catalina Capri 25 harbored at the Austin Yacht Club. She is 25 feet long and can be crewed by as few as two people and can comfortably have about 8 on board (if they’re friendly). I recently (4/14) took out a few friends who were new to sailing and it made me realize all the things that I don’t remember to tell people as we’re heading out. So this page should serve as a reminder to myself as well as hopefully a primer to others regarding important beginner vocabulary and procedures. Suggestions welcome.
Vocabulary
- Port — Left relative to the boat
- Starboard — Right relative to the boat
- Fore — Towards the pointy end of the boat
- Bow — The pointy end of the boat
- Aft — Towards the back of the boat
- Stern — the back end of the boat
- Mast — The vertical hunk of metal in the middle of the boat that the sails are suspended from
- Boom — The horizontal hunk of metal extending aft from the mast; the part of the boat most likely to kill you, always know where this is and where it might go
- Shroud — one of the taut lines from the top of the mast attached to the deck around the mast they keep the mast upright on the port-starboard axis
- Forestay — the line running from the top of the mast to the bow, it keeps the mast from falling aft, it also holds the foil which holds the leading edge of the jib
- Backstay — the lines running from the top of the mast to the stern of the boat, has a pulley system attached to it called the backstay adjustment, which does nothing on our boat
- Line — There are no ropes on a boat; if it looks like a rope, it’s a line
- Halyard — A type of line that is used to hoist sails
- Sheet — A type of line that is used to adjust the sails, we only have jib sheets (2) and the main sheet (1)
- The Main, Mainsail, Mains’l — the sail whose three points are connected at the top of the mast, where the boom attaches to the mast, and the end of the boom
- The Jib, Genoa, The 155, The 130 — The sail whose three points are the hooks at the bow, the top of the mast and the jib sheets. We have two genoas — the 155 which is bigger than the 130, though we can only use one at a time.
- Irons — The boat is said to be “in irons” when the wind is coming from straight ahead, it is the easiest heading in which to raise the sails, it is also the heading that is hardest to keep the boat pointing, as the sails are providing no forward momentum and the wind is actively slowing the boat (the rudder only does useful things if the boat is moving forward relative to the water)
- Dead Down — The opposite of in irons, the wind is coming from directly behind the boat.
Rigging the Main
A substantial amount of work must happen before the boat can leave dock. The first task which is best done by two people is rigging the main. After removing the mainsail from its sail bag, and determining which corner goes where, the head of the sail (the top corner, which is attached to the main halyard) is very skinny and has a metal plate will be threaded into the mast. The front, bottom corner of the sail (term?) is also easily identifiable as it is a right angle and has thick edges on both sides, the eye needs to be attached to the mast via a D-ring. The last corner is neither of the first two, it must be threaded through the boom and attached to the outhaul via another D-ring. Pull on the outhaul line (white with red markings and roughly halfway down the starboard side of the boom) as hard as you can and cleat it off, wind the excess around the rear of the boom to keep it out of the way.
Rigging the Jib
The choice of jib is based on wind conditions; 155 for light wind, 130 for medium wind and no jib for heavy wind. As with the main, the first task is to figure out which corner is which and make sure the sail won’t be tangled as it goes up. The easiest corner to identify on the 155 is the aft bottom corner as it has the jib sheets attached to it. The head of the sail should be attached to the jib halyard (the white with green line) and the sail should be threaded first through the feeder and then through the left track on the foil. Hold it there and get another person to tighten the jib halyard to keep the sail in place. Hook the front-bottom corner of the jib (the tack) through one of the hooks on the bow. Run the jib sheets outside of the shrouds, and through the cars. Do not cleat the jib sheets yet.
Preparing the Stern — Generally performed by skipper
Free the tiller, remove the tiller cover. Unlock the motor, reattach the gas. Set the choke. Make sure that the beer is cold (this is best performed by opening one and sampling). Yell at the crew to hurry up.
Casting off
A number of mooring lines attach the boat to the dock, untie all of them from the boat. Leave them on the dock. The process for getting the boat out of the dock is best performed with three people, the skipper will be on the boat managing the motor and tiller, one crewman will be on each side of the boat walking it out. The crewman on the starboard side will be holding on to the bow, while the port crewman will be holding the lifelines. The goal state is to have the port crewman holding on to roughly the middle of the port side with the boat pointing towards open water. The starboard crewman should board, and the port crewman will then shove off, doing his best to give a bearing that doesn’t result in the boat colliding with anything, though the skipper will have more to do with the ultimate success of the operation.
Raising the sails
Once the boat is successfully out of the harbor, the skipper will put the boat “in irons” which will mean that the sails should not be filling with wind as they go up. The main is raised first, one crew will stand by the mast and make sure the sail threads into the boom without getting snagged. Another crewman will pull the white with blue halyard until the sail is all the way up, this becomes quite difficult as the sail gets close to the top of the mast. Before raising the jib, ask the skipper which side of the boat the sail should end up on, pull the free corner of the jib to that side of the boat and pull the slack through the car. Raise the jib by pulling the white with green halyard that should be wrapped around the port winch. One person should be able to get it up most of the way on their own, but if circumstances require use of the winch, then one person will tail (pull on the free end of the line to keep friction on the winch) while the person cranks in with the winch. The winch handle is generally in the winch handle holder on the port side in front of the traveler. The skipper will take the boat out of irons, and if the jib is on the correct side of the boat, you will want to get the appropriate sheet wrapped around the jib winch and cleated off.
Congratulations you are now sailing.
Tacking
When the skipper decides to tack he will shout out “Prepare to tack” at which point everyone needs to make sure they aren’t going to be killed by the boom or be in the way of the jib, if they’re sure they’ll shout back “Ready”. Two crewmen will need to take up positions to manipulate the jib sheets. The captain will then shout “Helm’s a-lee” which is just some nonsense Dylan made up that means “We’re tacking, duck or the boom is going to kill you”. When the jib begins luffing (flapping because it is no longer full of wind), the crewman who has the side that is cleated will loose the jib sheet and make sure it doesn’t get snagged in the car. The crewman on the other side will then begin hauling the sheet as rapidly as he is able. In racing conditions it is imperative that the sail be brought in very quickly and be hauled in so that there is about 6 inches between the sail and the spreader (look up the mast, there’s a little spar coming off that is attached to the center shroud)
Dropping Sails
All good things must come to an end. We’ll generally sail into the harbor at which point we’ll fire the motor back up and drop the jib first, followed by the main. We’ll generally leave both attached at all points, with some tension on the halyards to keep the head of the jib inside the foil and the head of the main inside the mast. It is important to make sure the jib doesn’t fall in the water and that neither sail can fill with wind.
Docking
The skipper will motor most of the way down the dock at which point he will make a sharp turn and try to get the boat into the slip with very little speed. In the ideal case (ie when Dylan is at the helm) one crewman will stand at the beam (next to the shrouds) on each side and will step GENTLY on to the dock and walk the boat back in. In the worst case (ie when I am at the helm) the port crewman will want to stand much closer the bow in case he needs to perform the McLain maneuver. This is done by leaping from the bow of the boat onto a dock, turning around and catching the bow of the 2785 pound boat and shoving it to one side as rapidly as possible to prevent damage to the boat and dock. This maneuver is so named not because I cause it but because I’m the only person dumb enough to perform it so far (getting caught between a stationary dock and a moving boat that weighs upwards of 3000 pounds would be really bad). The mooring lines should be tied back to the boat and then the bumpers are placed.
Folding the sails is its own can of worms that is best explained while actually doing it.