CHAPTER IV
THE SMALL OPEN SAILING-BOAT
A SMALL boat that can be sailed single-handed without
difficulty, and which is easy to row -- so if the wind fail, one can
put out the sculls and pull her along at a fair pace -- is the best
sort of craft on which the novice can pass his early apprenticeship.
That he can lower his canvas if he himself in a difficulty, and take to
his oars, considerably lessens the risk consequent on his inexperience.
This chapter will be confined to the description of open
boats only...
===
Leeboards
The simplest method of supplying a boat with the means of
offering lateral resistance to the water, and so checking leeway, is to
fit her with leeboards. Leeboards are not often to be seen in England
save on Thames barges; but on the shallow Dutch waters, where
small-boat sailing is as well understood as it is here, leeboards are
to be found on nearly every yacht. Leeboards have several advantages
over centerboards; they do not jam, break off, or strain the boat when
one runs aground, but always come up at once on touching the bottom.
Some shallow waters (the Danish fjords, for example, among which the
author once cruised in a leeboard boat) are in summer overgrown with
weeds, through which a centerboard craft could never force her way: the
long water growth would wind round the plate and choke the trunk; on
the other hand, a leeboard can always be pulled up without difficulty
when it gets foul, and be quickly cleared of the weeds.
If expense is a consideration, the novice cannot do better
than fit his first little boat with leeboards. We will suppose that he
has purchased a secondhand craft for a few pounds. To fit a centerboard
into her would be a costly bit of work, only to be undertaken by a
skilled boatbuilder. But any boy who has even a very small experience
of the use of carpenter's tools can construct a leeboard and fit it to
his boat. The author once placed leeboards on an old P. and O.
lifeboat, and sailed with her from Hammersmith to Copenhagen and back,
cruising round the Zuider Zee, coasting up the Frisian islands, winding
in and out among the many pleasant fjords,
FIG. 41. -- KETCH RIG WITH
Leeboards.
straits, and islands of the Baltic. With her varnished
teak sides and oaken leeboards she looked very well, and her sailing
powers were as excellent as her appearance. She was double-ended --
that is, her stern was pointed like her bow; she was ketch-rigged; and,
drawing little over two feet with her leeboards up, she could put into
all sorts of interesting little creeks and rivers closed to bigger
craft. Fig. 41 will give some idea of her appearance and of the shape
of her leeboards. Leeboards for large boats are made in sections held
together by stout iron bands, and are hauled up by chains and tackle;
but for a small boat, a leeboard made out of a single plank will do
very well, and no ironwork is needed.
Almost anything that can float can be made to sail to
windward by lowering a plank vertically over the side; for that is
practically all a leeboard amounts to -- a fact to be borne in mind
when one wishes to extemporize a sailing-craft in some out-of-the-way
corner of the world where means and appliances are few. Thus some years
ago the author, being in Florida, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico,
took it into his head to undertake a cruise down the shallow channels
that divide the mainland from the long line of palmetto-covered keys or
islands that fringe that beautiful coast. He found nothing in the way
of a craft available for his purpose, save what the natives were
pleased to call a canoe; she was a little punt, a shallow, clumsily
built trough, in shape resembling rather one of the trays in which
photographers develop their plates than a boat.
He made a sail for her, and then out of a pine plank cut a
leeboard about three feet long, shaped as in Fig. 42, stout at the head
and down the centre, but tapering away to a narrow edge at the foot and
sides. Having determined by experiment at what part of the boat's side
the leeboard was most effective, he fitted an iron pin (see the Fig.)
on either gunwale. A rope was then rove through the head of the
leeboard, and knotted so as to prevent it from slipping through. The
other end of the rope was made fast to a cleat at the bottom of the
boat amidships. The leeboard could thus be easily thrown over from one
side to the other, according to the tack on which the boat was sailing;
the rope, being always passed over the fore side of either iron pin,
kept the leeboard in its place, and prevented it from sliding aft.
FIG 42. -- LEEBOARD
Another rope, rove through a hole at the lower end of the
leeboard, led aft, and served to raise it. The above is the simplest
method of fitting leeboards, and the result will be found to be
perfectly satisfactory. In the punt he has described, the author,
provided with rod and gun, for game and fish were plentiful, undertook
a long cruise among the bayous and channels of the Gulf Coast, camping
out each night in pine forests on the mainland or on the sands of
desert key, much astonishing the few natives he met; for a leeboard was
an unknown mystery to them, and they marveled to see one of their rough
country punts turn to windward so well when provided with this strange
invention. The punt drew but three inches of water when her leeboard
was up, and skimmed over the water at a wonderful rate.
It must be confessed that she was not a good sea-boat: she
had very little freeboard, and was easily swamped. In fact, whenever
the wind rose and the water became choppy she was in imminent danger of
filling. And yet her skipper felt no anxiety, for the peril was not so
great as one would gather from the above statement. The water through
which he sailed was generally considerably under two feet in depth,
often so shallow that foundering was a physical impossibility. When it
got very rough he adopted a bold course. He used to lighten his vessel
by stepping out of her into the tossing waters, and, walking ahead of
her with towline over his shoulder, would tow her against wind and sea
until calmer weather permitted him to re-embark and hoist his canvas.
The working of leeboards is very simple. When running before the wind
they are raised; when turning to windward the weather one is raised and
the lee one is lowered.
If a boat's sides are not straight up and down, but flare
out, as is usually the case, a chock of wood must be nailed on either
side a little above the waterline to support the leeboards and keep
them perpendicular.
The Florida canoe above mentioned was practically what we
should call in England a sailing-punt. Such a boat is only suited for
sailing in smooth water, and though not exactly beautiful to look upon,
she will sail fairly well, and is incontestably the cheapest of all
boats to build. Indeed, so simple is the construction, that, if proper
instructions are given to him, any village carpenter can turn out a
craft of this description; and an amateur of small means, possessing
some knowledge of the use of tools, can build one for himself out of a
few deal planks, and some hard wood for stem, keel, and knees. If the
boat has a centerboard (which is far more difficult to construct than
leeboards) this should be of wood, not of iron; and, having plenty of
beam, she should need no ballast. With such a boat, which with sail,
oars, etc., should not cost more than four pounds, the novice can with
advantage pass his first apprenticeship at sailing.
Of course, with such a craft one should not venture into
rough water. I was compelled to do so once, and passed through strange
experiences, in the course of which I made some discoveries as to the
seaworthy qualities (in a novel sense of the term, as I shall have to
explain) of this sort of boat. It was during the Spanish-American War,
and in my capacity of war correspondent of the Times, attached to the
Spanish side, I was ordered to go to Havana, which was then being
blockaded by the United States squadron. Having made several attempts
to get through the blockade, either by running it or legitimately, and
having failed to accomplish my purpose in consequence of the
difficulties put in my way by the American authorities, I had at last
to adopt the one plan left open to me.
I bought in Key West the only small boat I could find, a
flat bottomed punt such as I have described, fourteen feet in length.
She had somewhat more freeboard than most of her class, but still she
was the last sort of boat I should have selected for use in rough
water. One night I gave the slip to those who were spying my movements,
smuggled my boat on to the deck of a little steamer that was starting
for the South, and the next morning I was off the Cuban coast. When we
were yet six miles off the land my boat was lowered into the water; the
skipper would approach no nearer, fearing to draw the fire of the
Spanish batteries. My intention was to pull towards the shore, which
was there uninhabited and exposed to a heavy surf, land when I found a
convenient place, and then walk in the direction of Havana, and hand
myself over to the officer of the first party of Spanish troops I
should meet with, avoiding, if possible, on my way any encounter with
Cuban insurgents or Spanish guerillas, for the Spanish irregulars were
known to have an unpleasant habit of shooting first and challenging
afterwards.
As bad luck would have it, it had been blowing hard for
two days, and a nasty sea was running. I knew it was a perilous
adventure, and had it not been that there was no other way of carrying
out my mission I should not have thought of making the attempt. But I
had no choice, so I leapt into the boat from the pitching and rolling
steamer, and pulled off alone towards the distant shore.
The steamer stood by for a while to see that all went well
with me. The sea was running parallel to the shore, the fresh
trade-wind being here nearly always opposed to the strong current of
the Gulf Stream. For some time I got on well; but I found that I had to
exert the greatest care and vigilance, keeping the boat dead before
each high sea, and edging shorewards in the 'smooths.' When I was about
a mile from the steamer, which was still lying to, I entered a
succession of steep and dangerous seas. A few had rolled safely by me,
when there came one which broke just as I was about to top it; a volume
of water rushed over the stern of the boat, filling it and then
capsizing it. Clinging to the keel with one hand, I held up an oar with
the other as a signal to the steamer, which was still lying to. She
immediately began to steam ahead, and I took it for granted that she
was making for me; but soon, to my dismay, I realized that she had
turned, and was proceeding on her voyage, directly away from me. My
signal had been mistaken for an intimation that all was right with me.
Thus left alone, with but small chance of receiving any
assistance, for there were no boats on that portion of the coast, my
first idea was to make an attempt to swim for the shore, but I saw that
the distance was too great, and that it was extremely unlikely I should
reach the land, even if I escaped the sharks that swarm in these
waters; indeed, I saw several while I was clinging on to the boat. I
therefore decided to remain with the boat, and taking advantage of a
smooth, I succeeded in righting her, but I found that it would be
impossible to bale her out, however smooth the sea; for, empty though
she was, only her bow and stern rose above the water, her sides being
immersed. After trying some experiments with her, I soon discovered
that, though the boat was unfit to carry one through a rough sea, she
was, in consequence of her breadth and her flat floor, a much better
boat to cling on to when swamped and capsized than a far better
sea-boat would have been in the same position. This is what I meant
when I spoke of her seaworthy qualities. She was frequently rolled over
by the waves, now floating keel upwards and now righting herself; but
it was always possible for me to lie upon one side or the other without
fatiguing myself to any great extent, though I was, of course, lip to
my shoulders in water, and the waves were constantly passing over my
head. Then, holding on to the stern, I swam behind the boat,
endeavoring thus to direct her shorewards, but with no appreciable
result; and soon, seeing the fin of a shark not far off, I promptly
resumed my former position on the boat, where my body was not so
exposed to view.
I thus drifted until the evening, when the wind freshened
and the sea rose, so that the boat's capsizings became more frequent,
and the waves dashed over my head more often than before. I had little
hope now, and thought it almost certain that, tired out, I should be
washed off the boat before the morning. But I contrived to hold on all
night, and found myself at dawn not much exhausted. I was now
apparently about three miles from the coast, which was evidently
unpopulated. The sea was so much smoother that I found it possible to
sit in the bottom of the water-logged boat, and, by paddling first on
one side and then on the other with the one oar that remained to me (I
had lashed it to the thwarts immediately after my capsize), I
endeavoured to direct her towards the shore.
But it was hopeless work; after I had been thus toiling
for hours, the palm-clad hills and yellow sands appeared as far away as
ever. While doing this I contrived to balance the boat pretty well; it
was only occasionally that she capsized, threw me out, and had to be
once more righted. To get into her again when this occurred was no easy
matter ; for the sea was still choppy, and the boat was apt to roll
over with me again before I could get my balance properly. But I was
now pretty well accustomed to her ways, and was able to do with her
what I certainly could not have done with the ordinary, deeper, and
better sea-boat. When swamped she certainly displayed a remarkable
seaworthiness; that may be the wrong term to apply to this quality of
hers, but whatever it was it saved my life. Had she been provided with
watertight compartments in her bow and stern, I could have baled her
out and got into her so soon as the sea had sufficiently gone down.
At last, with a violent squall, the wind shifted to
N.N.E., thus blowing towards the land, instead of parallel to it as
before. Here I saw my chance; my hope revived, and I determined to
employ all my remaining strength in a struggle to reach the shore. I
sat in the stern, and, paddling hard with the oar, I kept the boat
before the wind, which, striking her uplifted bows, gave her some way
through the water, and I soon discovered that she was making distinct
progress. I paddled steadily on for, I should say, three hours, the
boat capsizing and having to be righted every quarter of an hour or so.
To cut short this long yarn -- which, however, may prove instructive,
and provide the reader with some useful wrinkles if he ever gets into a
similar predicament -- I neared the shore, and saw before me a steep
rocky beach on which the surf was breaking furiously -- a most
dangerous place at which to attempt a landing. But the landing had to
be made, so I pushed on. When about forty yards from the shore I got
into a succession of steep rollers, and the boat gave her final
capsize. Springing clear of her, I swam for the shore.
Three times I came in on the crest of a wave, was battered
and bruised by the rocks, and then carried out to sea again. But the
fourth time I succeeded in clinging tightly to a rock, and, before the
next wave was on me, scrambled on to dry land, having passed
twenty-four hours in the Gulf Stream, rolling over and over with my
swamped boat. My capture by Spanish troops, my imprisonment, and my
subsequent adventures before I reached the city of Havana -- which was
not until seven days later -- have nothing to do with yachting or
boating, so I will not recount them here.
..