SAILING A VESSEL ON A WIND IN A HEAVY SEA.-It will require some nerve to sail a vessel successfully on a wind in a heavy sea. Often a haunting fear that the bowsprit will be carried away, or the deck swept by a green sea, makes a man have the vessel's sails constantly lifting; the result is that she tumbles about in the sea like a log, sags to leeward, and gets the character of being a bad sea boat. Do not fear the breaking of a bowsprit or a green sea on deck ; be not unmindful of either, but above all things keep the vessel ramping full ; this is the secret of success in sailing on a wind in a sea. Of course it is assumed that the vessel is properly canvassed : if she has two reefs down in the mainsail, that the foresail is single reefed, third jib set, bowsprit reefed, topmast housed, and everything securely lashed on deck. The vessel should be canvassed so that in the true strength of the wind the covering board would be well out of the water—a fourth of the height of freeboard. In a sea it will not do to sail a vessel rail under, as a weight of water on deck and the fact of the vessel being over on her side will greatly inter fere with her good performance ; therefore a vessel should be canvassed so that her rail will not go under, and in the squalls she must be eased judiciously with the helm, always remembering that although occasional easing may be prudent the chief aim must be to keep her full. The main boom should be eased off a couple of feet or so farther than it is in smooth water, and the weather topping lift should always carry the weight of the boom. The head sheets should also be eased, but not so much as to cause the jib to lift badly, as the jib will be wanted to keep the vessel out of the wind.
As a rule the vessel will be found to pitch pretty regularly, and one sea being very much like another, the vessel will be sailed through all, hard and a good full. Do not let her sails shake, as her way will be stopped ; she will then pound the sea and jump two or three times into the same hole. Those on board will say " what a horrid bad sea boat she is, that she pitched two or three times to the once of any other vessel, and always had her deck full of water." But keep a wary look-out for the big seas. One will be seen rolling in on the weather bow, gradually gaining in height, and perhaps rising, pinnacle like, just at the point where the vessel will meet it. This is the wave to be ready to meet ; it will rise higher and higher as it gets towards you, and will either curl over and break up by its own exhaustion, or from the fact of its meeting the vessel, and there will be in either case a ton or two of water on deck. Just before the big wave reaches the vessel there will be an
unusual hollow or deep trough, and into this she will and must go; before she can recover herself the big wave will roll over and fairly swallow her up ; then there will be a smooth ; a number of small waves will be formed ; the vessel will give one or two deep dives—the result of her bow being thrown up by the big wave—and then be steadied for a minute or so in the smooth.
When a big sea like this is seen on the weather bow, the vessel's helm should be eased down a little just before the sea reaches her, so that she may take it more fairly stem on ; but in luffing into the wave do it in good time, and directly she is fairly into it put up the helm again, and fill her sails before she has time to get head to wind. The object in easing the vessel is of course to ease the shock both by deadening her way and by presenting the stem to the sea instead of the bluff of the bow ; therefore directly the sea and the vessel have met, the effect is over, and the vessel must be filled instantly; that is, she must be put off the wind again to a good full and bye.
The most tiresome of all seas to sail a vessel in are those which are met with on a weather-going tide in more or less shallow water, such as on the Brambles, at the mouth of Southampton Water, or on the Bar at the entrance to the Mersey, or at the Nore. Here the sea is furrow-like ; that is, the troughs are long and deep, and the crest of the waves are a succession of sharp ridges instead of the long-backed waves met with in deep water. So long as a vessel keeps time with these waves, that is, so long as she only pitches once into each hollow, there will be a regular succession of pitching and scending ; but if, through the wind heading her, or through careless steering, her way becomes deadened, and she pitches twice into the same hollow, or if she does so through meeting a trough of unusual length, there will be trouble on deck in the way of water, as the vessel will meet the wave crest just as she takes her second dive instead of when she scends from her first. There will be two or three very quick dives after this, and the helmsman must keep the vessel full ; not shake her up because she is taking these unpleasant plunges, but keep her full in order to keep her going through the sea, and to get her into the regular fall and rise of the waves again, or, as the sailors say, make her toe and heel to the same tune.