CHAPTER VIII
OPEN BOAT SAILING
Shifting ballast—Sailing in rough water—Management of open boats—Beaching
through a surf—Hints on river sailing—Working the
currents—Sailing under bridges.
In many respects the management of the open boat under canvas differs considerably from that of the decked yacht. An open boat is more easily capsized and swamped; her movements are more sudden; every manœuvre has to be performed with greater rapidity than on the larger craft. He who attempts to sail her as he would a decked and deep-keeled yacht is pretty certain to come to grief sooner or later. The open boat sailor must never forget what a tricky and dangerous craft he has under him, and must never relax his care and watchfulness.
It is not only because a boat is open, and would therefore fill if she were sailed gunwhale under like a yacht, that she is more dangerous than the latter. Being of shallow draught, with no ballast outside, she has little stability, and once blown over beyond a certain angle cannot recover herself and
