How to make a sailing yacht go
Techniques for tacking
Gybing under control
Taming a catamaran
Manoeuvring a bare boat under power
The thrust for turning
How to handle your boat
Berthing your bare boat
Heeling: A basic process affecting all sailboats, which begins with the boat leaning over as the wind presses on one side of its sails... and ends as the sailboat finally exhibits its natural tendancy to come to a state of rest on the sea bottom.

YOUR BAREBOAT YACHT CHARTER is a relatively docile, simple and forgiving device. it is less complex, mechanically, than a typewriter, and far less temperamental than, say, a colour television set. No prodigious feats of physical strength or coordination are required to control it. And though the safe, efficient manoeuvring of your charter yacht, small or large, presumes a knowledge of the basic principles described in this section, these principles are not difficult to acquire.

An experienced bareboat yacht charter skipper instinctively reads the wind's direction from its feel on his cheek, and can spot an approaching gust by the patch of darker ripples it leaves as it moves across the water... The bareboat charter novice must trust to more obvious signs: bits of yarn tied to the shrouds and the little weather vane (called a masthead fly) at the top of his mast.

To develop a sense of the wind's direction, the novice should practice at random moments - and this doesn't have to be on the water... For example, decide whether a sailing yacht would be reaching or running while walking the dog or walking to your car across a parking lot.

However, at sea on a bareboat charter, however, the wind's exact direction may become harder to detect. Just as an open car in motion creates the effect of a breeze on its driver, all moving sailboats create their own apparent winds. Thus, sailing into the wind makes the breeze feel stronger - and seems to move its source to a point nearer the bow. Going downwind the opposite happens. The wind seems mysteriously to die, even though the boat may be surging through the water almost as fast as the wind itself.

How to make your sailing yacht go

The wind is so important to the sailing yacht that every direction the vessel takes - indeed each motion the helmsman makes with the tiller - must be understood in relation to it. No sailing yacht can travel directly into the wind, or course. But outside a dead sector extending about 0° to 30° on either side of the wind's eye, a boat can sail effectively in any direction.

For beginners on their first bareboat yacht charter the business of trimming sail - indeed, the whole problem of balancing the boat properly and efficiently on the different points of sail - may at times seem mysterious, if not altogether confusing. But if a bare boat skipper ever feels he is getting into trouble, all he has to do is let go the sheets and head into the wind. There will be a considerable flapping of sails, but the boat will yacht while all hands pull themselves together to begin anew.

The basic points of sail are illustrated by the various headings of these boats. Each one is moving in a different direction relative to the wind, but none of them can sail close enough to the wind's eye to operate effectively within the dead sector. The boats on the right, all on the port tack, are headed progressively farther off the wind: The boat at top right is close-hauled; the next three are on various degrees of a reach; and the bottom boat is running.

But when a boat is running (bottom), the wind simply pushes against the sails from behind, sharply reducing the aerodynamic effect. Furthermore, the mainsail may blanket the jib, i.e., prevent the wind from reaching it. Some skippers on charter boats, therefore, carry their mainsail on one side and their jib on another - known as sailing "wing and wing".

Sailing your bareboat close to the wind

A system for testing course in order to sail as close to the wind as possible is shown on the left. To make sure that the wind has not shifted or the boat inadvertently strayed too far downwind, the helmsman keeps nudging the tiller a few inches to leeward to see if he can head a little higher. If the jib begins to luff, he quickly heads back down to the original course. If not, he continues edging upwind until he is on the verge of a luff, falls off a fraction to pick up speed and sails along on his new heading.

Techniques for tacking when bareboat chartering

Often, when a bareboat yacht sails close-hauled, the skipper is trying to reach a point so close to the wind's source that he cannot head directly for it. He must approach his destination in a series of alternating tacks, following a zigzag course like the one below. In effect, he is climbing up the wind... similar to the way a a railroad train climbs a hill in a series of switchbacks.

Each time the helmsman changes tacks, he swings the bow of his yacht through the wind's eye. This procedure, called coming about, requires close teamwork between the skipper and his bareboat crew.

As the bow turns into the wind, the sails will luff and the boom will swing from one side of the boat to the other; skipper and crew will have to duck their heads to avoid getting hit. As the yacht's momentum carries it around, the crew must release one jib sheet and take in the other at precisely the right moment.

If the crew faults his timing, or if the yacht is traveling too slowly to complete the turn, it may simply fall back on its old tack, a situation called "missing stays." Or worse, it may hang, shuddering, head on the wind and then drift helplessly backward, a predicament known as "being in irons." See the diagram and technique of getting "out-of-irons" below.

Beating to windward, the skipper of this bareboat yacht must follow the zigzag course shown by the blue arrow to reach his goal. To cut his distance over the water, he sails each leg as close to the wind as he can.

He prepares for his final tack when the mark is at right angles to the centre line of his yacht (dotted arrow) - or directly behind him as he sits facing across the boat. Then, waiting a moment to allow for the boat's tendency to sideslip when sailing upwind, he comes about to head directly for - or fetch - the mark.

Getting your bareboat yacht "out-of-irons"

Getting out of turns after a failed tack can be maddeningly difficult for a bare boat novice who has not mastered the corrective action shown here. At top left the boat is caught head to the wind and lies dead in the water.

1. To come out of irons (in this case on the port tack), the skipper tells the crew to hold out the jib to port.
2. Backing it so the wind will drive the bow to starboard. As the boat drifts backward, the skipper reverses his helm, pushing the tiller to starboard; this swings the stern to port.
3. As the mainsail fills, checking the boat's backward drift, the helmsman puts the tiller amidships
4. While the crew lets go the jib and sheets it in to starboard. Soon the boat will be well underway on her new tack.

Gybing your sailing yacht under control

Heading downwind, whenever a helmsman changes tacks he executes a manoeuvre called a jibe. In so doing he moves the stern of the yacht through the path of the wind and brings the mainsail from one side of the vessel to the other. Simple as this tactic sounds, it requires even closer timing and coordination than coming about. For unless the boom is properly guided, it can swing across the yacht with alarming suddenness and immense force, knocking down anyone who forgets to duck. Also, unless the helmsman minds his tiller, the momentum of the jibe may swerve him wildly off course.

If properly controlled however, as at right, a jibe presents none of these hazards. To start a jibe the mainsail should be sheeted all the way in to reduce the path of its swing. Then, with the main thus trimmed, and the stern to the wind, the slightest movement of the tiller will suffice to bring the wind into the other side of the stern, and start the boom across.

When the boom does cross, the helmsman must slack off the sheet as quickly as possible. Otherwise the force of the fast swinging, wind-filled sail will tend to pivot your yacht broadside to the wind - a perilous occurrence called broaching.

In light airs, wind pressure against the sails is sufficiently gentle so that the hazards and complexities of jibing are reduced. Often the helmsman can ignore the sheet entirely; your bareboat crew simply grabs the boom and heaves it across the boat. In moderate to heavy wind, however, quick action and close timing are vital.

One trick for ensuring a safe, easy jibe is to wait until the yacht has picked up speed from a passing gust. Then, as the yacht moves faster, the apparent wind will drop and the sails will be easier to handle.

Gybing from the starboard to the port tack, the skipper of the boat above first announces the impending manoeuvre by calling "Ready to gybe." Then, at the command "gybe ho," he puts his helm over, turning the yacht from a broad reach to a dead run.

1. When the stern begins moving through the wind
2. He hauls in the main sheet. The moment the boom crosses the boat
3. The helmsman lets out the sheet; the crew trims the jib as the boat settles on the new tack.

Taming a sailing catamaran

Why does a catamaran sail faster than the single-hulled boat? The reason is twofold. The twin hulls of the catamaran provide a stable platform capable of supporting considerably more sail than a monohull of equal length could carry, yet the catamaran is much lighter because there is less boat in the water.

This combination of high speed and special design calls for the skipper to be knowledgeable of special handling techniques on catamaran charters. The headlong motion of a catamaran is so great that it brings the apparent wind farther forward than on a slower craft. So a catamaran's sails should generally be trimmed in quite close, even on a reach.

Zigzagging in a series of jibes, a catamaran tacks downwind, outspeeding another cat sailed directly before the wind. The former is going so much faster that its speed more than makes up for the extra distance. The course that gives the most speed for the least extra distance is at about 135° from the true wind, or 90° from the apparent wind.

Reaching is a catamaran's most efficient point of sail, in fact; at high speeds the underwater shape of the twin hulls provides lift like that of a hydrofoil. When a skipper is sailing for a windward mark, he should steer a course about 50 from the true wind - a very close reach - to get that extra speed.

The catamaran's great efficiency on a reach also calls for special downwind tactics. Sailing at an angle to the wind, a cat will go much faster than it will when sailing dead before it. Therefore most cat skippers tack downwind when headed for a leeward mark; that is, they zigzag across the direct course, jibing from broad reach to broad reach and gaining more in speed than they give up in distance. Illustrated at left.

Also, catamarans are easier to jibe than monohulls. Their great beam gives them tremendous stability and eliminates most of the danger of broaching that often afflicts monohulls when jibing.

A catamaran is somewhat less handy, however, when it comes to tacking upwind. Their light hulls lose headway quickly when pointed into the wind, and because of their width they do not pivot as a monohull does. A catamaran must therefore be sailed gradually through the wind's eye when coming about; the tiller should be put to leeward only about 20° at first, then should be angled more sharply when the bow comes into the wind. Even when well sailed, a catamaran will sometimes not carry its way through a tack. Then the jib must be backed, as in getting out of irons to bring the bow around. Refer to Technique for Tacking.

Manoeuvring a bare boat under power

In open water on a calm day, handling a boat under power is no more difficult than driving a car across a large empty parking lot. All a skipper has to do is pick a course, engage the gears and throttle ahead. A more representative test of a helmsman's skill comes when he is taking his craft away from the dock or bringing it back in again. These two basic manoeuvres, when executed at a crowded wharf on a day of heavy marine traffic, can be downright intimidating, particularly if the tide is running or a wind blows up.

Under these circumstances, a helmsman rapidly discovers that most of the time, driving a boat is not at all like driving a car.

A boat, once free from land, never comes to a complete standstill until it is firmly tied up again. It is pushed about by wind and current, buffeted by the wakes of other boats. Worse yet, a boat has no brakes.

Another deviation from automobile behaviour is the fact that a boat steers with its tail. It turns because water forced against the rudder - or in the case of an outboard, the propeller thrust - swings the stern to port or starboard. In response, the bow points in the opposite direction. In open water, where there are no other boats around and plenty of room to turn, this steering idiosyncrasy makes little difference. But in close quarters it can make some very negative differences indeed if the skipper neglects to allow room for the lateral swing of his stern or for the sometimes slow response of his bow.

A wise bareboat helmsman takes extra time and extra pains to become acquainted with his charter boat. The first time it moves away from the dock, the wheel will be handled by your charter companies "boat briefer" until the boat is in the clear.

With an outboard motor the boat is steered by turning the entire engine - propeller and all. When the propeller swings to the left, as here, its thrust cone, which is indicated by the path of bubbles spiraling out from the blade tips, pushes the stern to starboard (arrow); the bow in response turns to port.

In reverse the thrust works in the opposite direction, pulling the stern to port. In either case the turn could be sharpened by swinging the propeller farther over or by throttling up to produce more thrust.

• Discover how propeller and rudder action makes boats behave the way they do.
  
  
• How balance and trim affect a craft's performance.
  
  
• Learn how much throttle is needed to maintain steerageway, and how much room should be left for his stern to swing when turning.

Begin to assess such things as wind and current by observing how other boats are lying to their anchors. And in time, gain the satisfaction that comes from the everyday excitement of boating.

The rudder of an inboard turns a boat by diverting a part of the propeller's thrust to either the left or the right. Left helm, as here, diverts the left side of the thrust cone, swinging the stern to starboard, while the right side of the thrust cone continues to push the boat ahead. With a rudder system the stern swing is not as forceful as with an outboard. And in backing, where the thrust is directed forward, only the boat's movement through the water acts on the rudder, making steering difficult.

The thrust for turning

Powerboats turn because of forces generated in the water by either their rudders, the thrust of their propellers or both together. Powering ahead at normal cruising speed, a helmsman brings these forces to bear simply by turning his wheel in the direction he wants to go.

When a single-engine inboard backs down the rotational force of its propeller pulls the stern to port. To correct for this movement, often called port backing, a helmsman applies a quick burst of forward power with the rudder hard left swinging the stern back to starboard.

When going astern, the helm directions are reversed. Putting the rudder, or propeller, to the right swings the bow to port, while left helm turns the bow to starboard.

When a boat goes astern, and even when it is powering forward at very low speeds, a secondary force comes into play. This is the tendency of a propeller to pull sideways in the direction of its spin, as its rotating blades bite the water. That is, a standard "right-handed" propeller, which turns clockwise, pulls the stern slightly to starboard when going ahead. In reverse, the same propeller turns counter-clockwise, and so slews the stern to port.

Powerboats with twin engines and twin propellers have no tendency to edge sideways. The two props counter-rotate, thus balancing out their sideways impetus. Twin propellers offer another key advantage: when properly manipulated they can pivot a boat in a full circle within its own length.

With its starboard engine set in reverse while its port one powers ahead, a twin-screw cruiser swings its bow sharply to starboard in a manoeuvre that does not use the rudders at all. The engines' push-me-pull-you effect pivots the hull on its stern, without creating any backward or forward movement.

How to handle your boat

A boat under power steers from the stern. This means that the stern moves more to the opposite side of the turn and the bow moves towards the desired direction. This is the reason why some scrape the stern of their boat along the wharf as they try to turn away from it to leave.

As the wharf is blocking the swing of the stern, the boat will not move away from the wharf until the stern has scraped past the end. The stern will then swing in behind the line of the wharf and the boat will start steering correctly. This swinging is a factor of the position of a boat's pivot point, generally about one third of the way from the bow to the stern.

Left and right handed propellers

The next factor to be considered is the propeller's direction of rotation. All propellers "screw" their way through the water in a manner similar to a drill screwing its way through wood. As the water is forced astern by the turning propeller, an equal thrust is applied to the hull the other way.

For every action there is and equal and opposite reaction. Propellers can be termed to be "left" or "right" handed. This means that looking at them from behind they will turn anticlockwise or clockwise when going ahead. The great majority (but not all) propellers turn right or clockwise. Due to the greater density of water as the depth increases, there is a slight but noticeable difference in water pressure between the top of the blade that is at the bottom of a revolution producing slightly more thrust because of the greater resistance of the water in which it is moving.

This means that a slight twisting force will be applied to a single screw boat when it moves along. Thus, instead of running dead straight the boat will curve slowly off to one side when the tiller or the wheel is left unattended. Our right-handed screw boat will have a tendency to steer to port because the bottom blade of the propeller is trying to "walk" the stern to starboard.

Conversely, when the engine is put astern, the propeller will kick the stern to port leading to the term "left kicker"; the stern kicks to port when the engine goes astern. This is a very useful attribute if understood. It is known as Lateral Thrust or Paddle Wheel effect.

To allow the boat to be pointed in the correct direction it will need a rudder (we'll discuss outboards) and stern drivers hinged on its leading edge, which can be moved to provide interference to the water flow from the propeller. As it baulks the water flow, water pressure is applied to one side or the other producing thrust which tries to push the rudder, with the stern of the boat, to one side or the other.

When such a vessel has its engine put astern the rudder will cease to have an important role until, generally, the boat has built up some speed astern. Before this happens, the boat will kick off to whatever side is appropriate to its propeller. Most single screw boats are difficult, and some impossible, to steer astern but one good way is to get up a little speed astern and then take the engine out of gear and try to use the rudder to one side or the other as a drag.

Berthing your bare boat

When bringing your boat alongside a berth in neutral conditions, the best way for the less experienced is to head in, intending to come side-on port side.

When the boat is not far from the desired position, putting it astern will cause the stern to swing over to near the berth...

An experienced crew will then place a line around a cleat at the berth and secure it on the port side (somewhere between midship and the stern), and then go slowly ahead to hold the boat to the wharf until the bow line can be secured.

Getting your boat away from your berth in ideal conditions can be achieved by pushing the bow out and then going out in a straight line until the berth is cleared or, more professionally, by turning the steering wheel to the wharf. Putting the boat in gear and giving a short, sharp burst of power will kick the stern out a factor of approximately one. This will allow you to then back far enough away from the wharf to allow stern swinging room when you go ahead.

Twin screw boats handle in much the same way as do single screw boats except that many, if not most of them, have the propellers rotating in opposite directions which cancels the lateral thrust propeller effect already explained.

Apart from the obvious extra reliability conferred by having twin engines and twin propellers (with one or two rudders) twin engines allow a boat to be turned in very tight confines, by using the steering wheel (say) to starboard with the starboard engine going astern and the port engine going ahead. In such a situation the boat will, in most cases, turn very quickly.

When bringing such a boat alongside, the skipper will come in to the wharf at a moderate angle. Once positioned correctly, he or she will stop the wharfside engine and go slow astern on the other engine.

This will pull the stern towards the wharf. Likewise when getting clear of a wharf the wheel is turned to the wharf and the outer engine goes slow ahead. When the stern is well clear, the wheel is centred and both engines go slow astern until well clear.

Steering with an outboard

Handling a vessel powered by outboard or outboards (and single or twin stern-drivers) is somewhat different. The boat has no rudder and the water blast from the propeller is steered by means of the steering wheel to provide a directional thrust. Outboard powered boats can be steered very accurately when going astern as the boat will simply "follow" the propeller.

Nevertheless the principle of a pivot point applies in all cases. Such a boat will approach a wharf at medium angle and when close in the engine will be put astern and the wheel turned to the wharf.

The propeller will then pull the stern in. Getting away from the wharf is as follows: turn the wheel to the wharf, give the engine a small kick ahead. Then turn the wheel away from the wharf and go slowly astern.

This will pull the boat well clear to where it is safe to go ahead and make the turn away.

This method is much more seamanlike than smashing alongside the side of the berth.