If you are planning to sail, you should have enough knowledge and skill to handle your boat on water. You would be able to manage your boat easily if you know how to efficiently turn your boat around. Whatever the conditions at sea is, you have to be ready with your techniques and skills.
How to do Maneuvering
Here are simple maneuver skills you have to learn:
Tacking
Learning when to tack and how to properly employ the tacking technique is important for anyone who wants to learn how to manage the sailboat properly. Ideally, tacking refers to changing direction of the sailboat such that bow of the sailboat is into the wind or faces wind directly. When the helmsman says you have to perform a tacking maneuver the boat is steered to wherever the wind directs turning the bow of the boat.
Gibing
You may need a little more experience in order to do gibing. Unlike other types of maneuvering techniques, this one needs everyone’s effort and has to understand the instructions. This team for this particular technique must also have the right timing as well as the ability to perfectly carry out their tasks. This is important otherwise the balance will not be maintained and this technique may even cause an accident. The other name for this maneuver is jibe or gybe, and all throughout this maneuver the sheet should be held tightly such that when it is time to perform gibing the wind load on the vessel is decreased and the main sheet can be released from grasp. This will let the main sheet to be positioned in the right order and the wind will fill up the main sheet.
How to do Mooring and Docking
Another essential technique in maneuvering the sailboat is docking. There are many factors that affects how it works such as the features of the boat, the conditions of the wind, whether it is high tide or low tide at the time of the sailing and how good you are in employing your skills and techniques in all of these conditions.
If the harbor is clear and there are not much sailboats in the area, it might be the perfect time for your docking practices. There are many factors you need to consider before starting to dock, and that is the weather as well as the conditions in the harbor. If you want to dock, you have to think of the wind. Should you need to do brake, the wind will be the one to provide this to you. There are problems associated with going against strong winds because it might push you against other sailboats or push you to dock prematurely.
Presence of tides and tide movements play an important role in mooring techniques. Ensure that you have an adequate length of mooring line when tying up your boat. The variants between the high and low tide could be from a couple of inches to more than forty eight feet. To avoid accidentally dry docking your boat in mid-air, always allow a certain slack for the low tide.
When maneuvering to dock your boat, a short reverse would be sufficient to kill your forward momentum and thus, allowing you full control of your boat. Large boats or yachts usually have fenders that are hung over the sides during docking maneuvers. These things act like your car bumper but are inflated rubber tied off to the rail of your boat in order to protect it. Always check the wind conditions in the harbor before sailing or trying to dock your boat.
It is oftentimes more convenient to attach your boat you a buoy than to a fixed pontoon. One good way of hooking it up to a buoy is to approach it bow first with the crew waiting with a hook. Your boat should be fastened to the buoy via your mooring cleat tied to the short length of the buoy rope. The buoy acts like an anchor since it is attached to a heavy block of concrete via a long thick rope.
This article is for people who just wants to educate themselves on how to maneuver a sailboat, dock it and moor it before deciding and finally stepping inside the boat ready to try his luck. Having the drive to study and learn the basic maneuvering essentials will help you become closer to your dream of sailing.
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