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In order to be a good sailor, you need to know your boat from head to toe. Understanding what each part does will help you maximize your boat’s potential. Here are some major boat parts, illustrated on a Martin 16, but
these basic parts are common to almost any sailboat
The boat in general:
- Jib
- Main Sail
- Forestay (metal wire on the front of the boat)
- Shroud (metal wires on the side of the boat
- Boom Vang
- Rudder
- Keel (Centerboard in dinghies)
- Bow of the boat (front of the boat)
- Stern of the boat (back of the boat)
- Bridle (rope triangle in the back)
- Boom
- Mast
- Batten
The Cockpit of the Martin 16, with assistive devices, rigged
- Main Sheet
- Jib Sheet
- Outhaul
- Jib Halyard
- Tiller
- Main Sail Halyard
- Boom Vang
- Cunningham
- Autohelm
- Windlass (sheets in and sheets out with autohelm in order to trim sails)
- Centerboard Trunk
- Main Sheet and Jib Sheet cleat if not using the windlass
Sailing Boats for Sale in the USA
The purpose of this booklet is to tell you something about our sailing boat and how to sail it, and specifically to provide you with the information necessary to pass the Nautical Association’s Provisional, Crew, and Helmsman. Please do not think of these skill checks as tests, but instead, as measures of your understanding of our sport.
We don’t expect perfection from our beginners, but only that our members be able to safely handle the boats and themselves on the lake. For those who wish it, there will be much more that can be learned about other boats and other waters, but what can be learned here will provide the basis to build on.
The boat was designed specifically for MIT by Professor George Owen, and the first boats were made for the opening of the Sailing Pavilion in 1935. These boats were built of wood, lapstrake construction by the famous Herreshoff Yard in Bristol, Rhode Island. They featured a movable mast so they could be either a sloop or cat rigged. A large half model of
these early boats still exists in the stairway at the Pavilion. In 1953 the first fiberglass Techs were built by Beetle Boat of Cape Cod, and their construction marked a pioneering effort in this material that would soon take over the boat-building industry.
These boats had a relatively low freeboard and were famous for their rugged construction. Our present Techs were built in 1993 by OSP Composites of Wisconsin, and the design was modified by yacht-designed Halsey Herreshoff, grandson of the original builders. The boats are 12 1 2 feet long, cat rigged, weigh about 200 pounds, and represent the best technology in heavy-duty fiberglass construction.
Sailing Yachts and Boats
Although it is designed as a beginner’s boat and for casual recreational use, the Tech is a popular boat for racing and one of the most popular of college racing classes. The fittings and adjustments on the Tech permit the skilled sailor to fine-tune the boat for top performance. The Tech is so well balanced that it is possible to sail the boat without a rudder with only minute adjustments to trim.
Few colleges have such a charming body of water right on campus. The Charles was the birthplace of intercollegiate sailing, and there isn’t
a similar body of water anywhere in the world where more people have learned to sail. The river isn’t always as clean as we would like, but
it is not as bad as some would have you believe.
The river is cleaner than it was 10 years ago but not as clean as it will be 10 years from now. It is justifiably famous, however, for its shifty winds. The many buildings that surround us play strange tricks with the wind, but few realize even this is somewhat offset by the little-known fact that Boston is one of the windiest cities in the United States — far windier than Chicago, the “Windy City”
The basic concept of sailing is quite simple, and sailing is something many people learn by themselves through trial and error. Young children are often the quickest to learn because they do not try to complicate matters. It will be easier to discuss what is involved, however, if we use some standard nautical terms and the specific names for the parts of the boat.
Refer to the ‘Short List of Nautical Terms’ at the back of the booklet and figures 1 and 2 for clarification. Don’t try to completely absorb all of
the material at once, but instead get some on-the-water experience. You can then come back to this material for a fuller understanding
In its simplest form, to sail you do little more than point the boat where you want to go and pull in the sail enough to keep it from luffing
(i.e., keep it from shaking like a flag). It is not possible to sail straight into the wind, so if pulling in the sail does not stop the sail from luffing, the bow of the boat must be turned further away from the wind direction.
When this is done the sail will automatically seek the leeward side of the boat (the side away from the wind). As you can see, it is important that you keep track of the wind at all times, particularly what your course is relative to the wind direction. Each change of the wind’s angle to the boat requires a sail adjustment.
The Wind for the Sailing Boats for Sale
Since the sailboat can not sail directly toward the wind, and because all our maneuvers should be thought of in relation to the wind direction, our first step is to determine the exact direction the wind is coming from. Wind direction can be determined in many ways; flags, smoke, and ripples on the water. But the most common method is by watching your telltales
(pieces of yarn or other light material fastened to the wire stays). The exact angle of the wind to your boat is something you must be aware of
at all times if you are to intelligently and safely maneuver your boat.
Every few moments you should be rechecking the wind’s relative angle
to your boat. Although you may be using your telltales most of the time, it is also important to watch the water upwind so you will have advance warning of a change in the wind direction or strength. An added puff of wind will darken the surface of the water, and you will be able
to watch the progress of the puff toward your boat. In this way, you can be ready to take appropriate action.
Sail Trim with Sailing Boats for Sale
The proper sail trim is to have the sail pulled in only enough to prevent luffing. The sail works like a bird’s or an airplane’s wing in that the wind flows into the sail over the leading edge (the luff of the sail), and the wind is bent slightly as it flows along the curved surface of the sail and out over the back edge (the leech of the sail).
When the sail is pulled in enough, a force is formed on the leeward side of the sail as the wind speeds up over the curved surface. The centerboard negates the sideway portion of this force, and the boat is driven forward through the water. Luffing occurs when the sail is not pulled in enough, and it may result in the whole sail shaking if the sail is all the way out, or it may be only a gentle pulsing of the sail in the center of the luff of the sail when the sail is almost (but not quite) in enough.
Since luffing starts at the luff of the sail, and the last point to stop luffing is the luff of the sail, this is an important spot to give your attention to. You will find the sail must be kept well in toward the centerline of the boat when the wind is coming from the forward part of the boat, and can be, and should be, well out when the wind is toward the back, or stern, of the boat. Remember, the sail should only be pulled in enough to keep it from bluffing.
Pulling the sail in beyond this point will break up the wind flow on the leeward side of the sail and cause undesirable side effects. In a very strong wind, it may be necessary to ease out the sail a few inches and sail with a controlled amount of luff in the forward part of the sail to avoid excessive heeling to leeward. It may also be necessary to temporarily let the sail out even further if you are tipped quickly in a strong puff of wind. However, keep in mind that a little tipping is natural, and if you are too timid and luff the sail too much to the point where the boat is not moving forward through the water, you will lose your ability to control the boat’s course.
Helming the Boat
Steering the boat takes a little practice before you really feel comfortable. You will quickly learn you must move the tiller the opposite way from the way, you would like the bow to go. The best way to get started is to pick a course that will take you at right angles to the wind direction and pick a target on the far shore to aim at.
This would be sailing on a beam reach. Sit on the windward side of the boat (the side the wind is coming from – also the side opposite the sail) so you can see the luff of the sail and also balance the natural tendency of the wind to tip the boat to leeward.
Also, sit far enough forward in the boat so the tiller will pass by your body as you move the tiller from side to side. A good spot to sit is on the thwart with both feet in the back of this seat. If the wind increases and the boat trips leeward you can move to sit on the gunwale (side). How the boat sits in the water will have a strong effect on how the boat steers, so perhaps we should discuss “Trim of the Boat”.
Trimming the Boat
The stability of our small sailboat depends largely upon the weight of one or two people sailing in the boat as ballast and working to balance the pressure of the wind on the sail. Without this additional weight of people, the boat itself would not have the stability to support the sail even in a very light breeze.
The almost constant shifting of your body position as you maneuver the boat is essential to skillful sailing. Watch windward for the dark patches where fresh puffs of wind darken the water with small ripples. These give advance warning to the skipper of increased winds soon to reach his boat. An alert skipper is always aware of what sort of winds will strike his boat in the next few moments.
The athwartship level or side-to-side trim of the boat particularly, (and the fore and aft level to a lesser degree) has a very noticeable influence on the steering and balance of our boat. If the boat tips down leeward slightly, the boat will have the desirable tendency to turn toward the wind, called weather helm. If the boat is tipped more, this tendency increases to an undesirable degree and an excessive rudder angle must be used to keep the boat on a straight course. The boat is said to have a heavy weather helm or too much weather helm.
Conversely, if one heels the boat to windward, the boat has a tendency to turn away from the wind or create a lee helm which is considered undesirable at all times. Remember – if the boat is tipped either way, you must retain a hold on the tiller or the boat will spin around. If you should panic at the tipping, you need only to let go of the sail to equalize the situation.
The alteration in steering forces is of course influenced by the distorted shape of the immersed part of the hull as well as by the greater turning forces on the sail due to the increased inclination from the supporting hull. To become familiar with this effect of shifting weight, experiment with your weight in different positions on some of your early sails. Move your weight to windward or leeward and adjust your sail trim to control the helm.
You will soon become familiar with the effect of the heel on the pressure against the rudder and learn to anticipate and compensate instinctively and thus become a better helmsman very early. The skipper should never sit on the stern flotation tank as his weight is too far aft for proper balance, and he is in the way of his tiller and cannot easily steer a course to leeward without jamming the tiller against his body.
Tacking and Jibing
If you started off across the river or lake on a reach as we suggested for your initial sail, you will eventually reach a point where you must
turn and head back. If the turn changes the wind from one side of the boat to the other, you will have tacked or jibed. It will be a tack (also called coming about) if you turn the bow of the boat through the eye of the wind, and it will be a jibe if you turn the stern through the eye of the wind.
Since the sail reacts quite differently to the two types of turns, it is of
the utmost importance that you know which maneuver you are performing. In a small boat such as our sailing boat, the tack is a safer maneuver so you should start with the tack rather than the jibe.
The closest angle you can expect to sail toward the wind is a 45◦ angle, so to perform a tack you must turn a minimum of 90◦ to complete the tack. If you are going from a beam reach in one direction to a beam reach in the opposite direction, a 180◦ turn will be required.
Since the sail will be luffing during most of the tack it is important the boat has good speed (relative to the given wind speed) through the water. If the sail is well out or luffing, trim the boom into the back corner of the hull if you can do so without causing excessive tipping to leeward. Ideally, the sail should be trimmed as the turn into the tack is started, however, during the learning process, it would be permissible to trim in first. Ease the tiller to leeward to start the tack, but keep your body weight windward initially to avoid throwing the boat out of balance.
Watch the sail and when the boom starts toward you, duck under the boom and move toward the new windward side by standing momentarily and pivoting around facing the bow (it is important to be able to watch the luff of the sail and see just where your bow is pointing). Bring your hand holding the sheet (the rope which controls the sail) behind your back to collect the tiller, letting the sheet slide through your hand and maintaining only enough pressure on the line to keep it from running out.
Do not straighten the tiller until the sail stops bluffing or until the boat swings further to some point you now wish to head for. Straightening the tiller before the sail stops luffing will leave the boat stuck in irons (stopped and headed into the wind). Failure to straighten the tiller after the tack will cause the boat to keep turning until it jibes.
After the tack, adjust your weight for good boat trim and take the sheet in the forward hand, and adjust the sail to assure it is properly trimmed for the course you have selected (so it is just on the verge of bluffing).
Jibing is the opposite of tacking, and as we said earlier, involves a turn that moves the stern through the eye of the wind. Unlike the tack, the sail will cross quickly to the new side without any luffing, and in a strong wind, this sudden change of wind pressure from one side of the boat to the other can cause a capsize if precautions are not taken. Also, unlike the tack, a large change, of course, is not necessary for a jibe to occur. If the boat is already sailing on a run (a course where the wind is at the stern) a change of course of a few degrees – or a wind shift of a few degrees, can cause a jibe.
To perform a controlled jibe, move the tiller to windward (away from the sail) and immediately reach around behind your back with the forward hand to hold the tiller to windward. At the same time move your weight to the centerline of the boat again facing toward the bow. The maneuver of moving your weight can be done with you in a deep knee squat, thus keeping your head low and out of the way of the boom.
As you become more confident, you can stand and duck at the appropriate time and be in a better position to move your weight to keep the boat level. In a larger, more stable boat you would trim the sail all the way in and ease it out again on the new leeward side to cushion the shock of the boom snapping from one side to the other.
In a boat as small as the Tech, trimming the sail more than halfway in may cause excessive tipping to leeward, however, it is desirable to trim the sail halfway in so the wind can get behind the leech of the sail and force the sail across without your having to sail too much by-the-lee (where the wind is striking the leeward side of the boat).
You should watch the telltale on the stay to see when you are by the lee and watch the leech of the sail since it will fold toward you just before the boom is blown across. If it is quite windy, get the tiller back to the centerline of the boat as soon as you see the sail start to move across so you will not end your jibe on a beam reach and consequently be tipped excessively to leeward. Also, ease out the sail as soon as it crosses the boat to prevent tipping. After the jibe, adjust your weight for good boat trim, and also check your sail for proper trim.