I am still a sailing novice but I hope the following will be interesting; even for those who do not agree with my ideas!

Dropping Mainsail

In Swallows and Amazons when it gets squally, the crew keeps one hand on the halliard ready to drop the mainsail. Surprisingly, this technique did not form part of my RYA dinghy training. But it is a technique I have been practising with great success.

If you are running before a strong wind it can become dangerous because you cannot stop and you may not be able to change course very easily. At last year's Hurst Point rally I found myself unable to turn to windward due to the narrow channel, and unable to gybe due to the strength of wind. In desperation I decided to drop the boomed-out mainsail right where it was. To do this you must have lazy jacks to catch the sail and its yard. On my boat I have two fixed topping lifts which act as lazy jacks. Ideally, of course, the boat should be head to wind before dropping the sail, but to my great surprise, although I was sailing downwind the sail did not balloon out of control; it just fell obediently onto the boom.

The next time I tried this under controlled conditions I made the mistake of raising my jib and sailing off before stowing the mainsail. As a result I could not by myself pull in the flapping remains of the mainsail and get sail ties round it. The technique I have finally evolved if you are 'trapped' and need to escape from a run is as follows:

Raise the dagger board Drop the jib if used Gently luff up towards the wind, do not sheet in (contrary to instinct) and be ready for some heeling force. Bring the boat about 60 degrees from the wind, wait for it to stop, put the helm down and clip it in position. Now you are hove-to under mainsail. Drop the mainsail, sheet it amidships and get one good reliable tie around the middle of the bundle. Release the vang, and top up the stowed sail a little using the mainsail halliard(s) so it is out of the way. Raise the jib and sail away in comfort.

Reefing

Reefing with the gunter yard requires some method of pulling the yard into the mast when in the lowered position. The method I have used is to provide a second halliard attached higher up the yard. This is led over a cheek block on the side of the mast near the existing halliard sheave. Unlike the Bermudian rig, the gunter mainsail is heavy to raise and swig up into position due to the weight of the yard. Therefore, my reefing procedure is to firstly drop the yard to its final position and swig up tight. Then pull down the reefing pendants. In this way there is no heavy work involved. It seems very difficult to tie in the reef points one handed but I found it is not essential and the sail can be tucked up tidily without tying them in.

Slow Speed Manoeuvring

When approaching a mooring buoy etc we were told in our training class to bring the boat head to wind to stop at the last moment. I notice many dinghy sailors use this method of stopping, but I recently read a book 'Boat Handling', by Tom Cunliffe, in which he points out that a boat which is head to wind is out of control. Within a few seconds it is likely to fall off on one tack or the other, depending on its own inclination at the moment, and the boat has no means of moving forward or achieving steerage way. Therefore, he suggests what should, I suppose, be obvious. Bring the boat with the wind between about 40 and 80 degrees ahead, and ease the mainsheet. The boat will soon stop, but can be powered up again instantly by sheeting in a little. In this way the boat can be made to creep forward under control, and can stem the tide if required. Be careful not to place the boat more than about 80 degrees from the wind or it cannot be stopped.

Anchoring

I found that if I cast the anchor from a position just ahead of the shroud, the boat drifts down sideways and digs the hook into the ground with great force. This is a very advantageous for a light boat under weak tide and wind because a heavy anchor needs a good pull to dig it in properly. The warp can then be dropped into a fairlead at the bow in the normal way.

Jib Downhaul

To be sure of getting the jib down single-handed in a blow I rig a downhaul. A light line can be attached loosely with a bowline to the shackle at the head of the jib. Bring the line down by a clear routing to a small block at the bow fitting. Take it back across the foredeck and tie it somewhere to hand, such as to a chainplate, leaving some slack.

Anchor Light

I modified a 10 watt all-round white navigation lamp to take a 3 watt cycle dynamo bulb (6 volt 0.5 amp). This is still visible for at least 2 miles and can run for two nights from an ordinary lantern battery, or from four C-size alkaline cells. I found that lantern batteries seem to dry out and die if kept under a boat cover for weeks on end in hot sunshine.

Anchor Tripping Line

I have not tried this, but I read a suggestion to tie a light tripping line to the crown of the anchor (if a fisherman type) and to take it along the main warp for tidiness. The tripping line need only be as long as the water depth and should be lightly attached to the warp by some means. If you need to use it, the anchor is first brought a peak (warp straight up and down) and the tripping line is then detached from its storage place along the warp and used to trip the crown of the anchor out of the ground.