Occasionally it is necessary to sail off a mooring with other yachts moored abeam on both sides and all of you head to wind. Having decided on the favoured tack, you will usually be confident either …
WHOSE RIGHT OF WAY?
A useful aide-memoir when crossing another vessel in daylight with both boats under power, is to ask yourself which of her sidelights you would be seeing if it were dark. A red (port) light would …
A LULL IN THE STORM
The cold front is often the most spectacular feature of a weather system, with violent squalls, towering cloud formations, veering wind and perhaps dramatic quantities of precipitation. After the …
HEELING ERROR
The effects of changes of heading on some steering compasses are well known and are tabulated as deviation. Heeling can also displace a compass needle in some vessels on certain headings, especially …
A SHORTER SCOPE
It is well known that three or four times the maximum expected depth of water is a good starting-point for deciding scope when anchoring with chain cable. This rule is not cast in stone, however, and …
HEADS DOWN, BUT TAKE IT EASY
Gybing an yacht below 40ft or so in a light breeze, it is generally a waste of effort to pull in the mainsheet. Just gathering the parts and manhandling the boom across is perfectly safe. As the wind …
