or cause her to broach to—that is, force her round with their impact till she is broadside on to the sea, and is in serious danger of being swamped or rolled over by a wave before she can be paid off before the wind again. The sharp-sterned boat is also obviously far the safest to beach through a heavy surf.
THE RIG
After the novice has selected his open boat, it remains for him to decide how he shall rig her. The following are the more usual methods of rigging small open sailing-boats of the class dealt with in this chapter. The rigs I am about to describe require no booms, and are therefore the safest for the novice. A sail that has no boom—a lug, for example—when the sheet is let go in a squall, blows away before the wind like a flag, and cannot capsize the boat. This is not the case with a sail stretched out on a boom, which always offers some resistance to the wind, even when the sheet is let go. With the boomsail a jibe in a strong wind is a risky proceeding. On the other hand, a boat cannot sail her best without a boom; when running before the wind the sail forms a bag, and does not hold so much wind as it would if its foot were extended on a boom. It is only when the boat is on a wind that the boomless sail can be got to stand flat, and then only if the sheet is led well aft and made fast to a place exactly in the line of the foot of the sail.
