About one-seventh of the foot of the sail should be forward of the mast, and in slinging the yard and in bending the tack to the boom care must be taken that this proportion is not much exceeded. If too great a proportion of the sail is put forward of the mast it will not " balance," and in luffing to squalls, especially with the boom off the quarter, it will be found that, although the boat may come to a little, the sail will not spill. This peculiarity may be attended by some danger in the case of squalls or in clearing an obstacle, and may be accounted for by the fact that the ardency of the wind pressure on the fore part of the sail will be so great that it will more than balance the pressure on the greater area of the after-part, which, with the aid of the rudder, should bring the boat head to wind. (See page 26.) No rig is handier for tacking in smooth water than the balance lug, and should a boat so rigged by any mischance show a tendency to miss stays or get in irons, her head can easily be paid off by holding the foot of the sail over to the side which is to be the weather one. This, of course, will stop the boat, and press her bodily to leeward or force her astern, and the sail should never be kept a-weather a moment longer than is necessary. Should the boat not gather way again quickly after the boom has been put over on the lee quarter again, the main sheet must be eased a trifle.
The sail is hoisted by a single halyard ; to one end of this halyard a block is spliced; the other end is rove through a sheave hole in the mast head and bent to the yard ; through the block a rope is rove, the standing part of which is made fast to the mast thwart and the hauling part through a block at the mast step. This forms a whip purchase, but if the sail be a large one a gun tackle purchase is used. The halyard is bent or hooked to a thimble-eye strop on the yard. The sail can be kept to the mast by a parrel thus contrived : a grommet strop, with thimble-eye seized in it, will be put on the yard about 6in. above the slings; another similar strop will be put on the yard at about 2ft. 6in. (for a 14ft. boat) below the slings ; a line must be spliced to the lower thimble, and rove through the upper one round the aft side of the mast, back through the lower thimble. Thumb cleats must be put on the yard to prevent the strops slipping.
When the sail is set, the line must be hauled as taut as it can be got and belayed.
But a neater plan than this is the mast iron, as shown in the diagram ; the halyard is fast to an eye in the iron, and the latter is hooked to the thimble eye strop on the yard. The disadvantage of the iron traveller is that the tack and sheet of the sail must be let go when the sail has to be lowered, or otherwise the sail will not lower. As the sail comes down the fore-end of the boom must be
carried forward.
If an iron mast traveller be used the yard will be slung as shown in Fig. 68 ; if a parrel be used instead of the iron, the yard will be slung a little lower done, as the strop will be hauled close up to the sheave hole ; consequently the sheave hole will be a little lower down, and the mast may be a trifle shorter.
A downhaul should always be bent to the yard.
The tack will be bent to the boom abreast of the mast and lead through a block, either on mast thwart, or deck, as may seem most handy. The Surbiton plan for the tack is thus worked : a thimble is stropped to the boom abreast of the mast, and to the thimble 5ft. or 6 ft. of line is spliced ; the line is passed once round the mast, back through the thimble, then through a galvanised iron eye-bolt screwed into the mast some convenient distance below, and belayed to a cleat on the mast. For a 15ft. boat a gun tackle purchase should. form the tack. In setting the sail it is often found that the luff can be got tauter by swigging on this tack than by hauling on the whip purchase of the halyards.
If topping lifts are used (they may be handy whilst reefing, or to brail the sail up), one part will' be made fast to the masthead and lead across the sail, and through a thimble made fast under the boom by a seizing (or it can pass through the thimble in the strop of the main-sheet block) and up the other side of the sail, through a block at the masthead and the " fall " down by the side of the mast.
A wire forestay is generally set up to the stem head, and it is better that a gun-tackle purchase, or double-block purchase should be used for the setting up instead of a lanyard, as the mast (sails and all) can be lowered by it for passing under bridges, &c. The mast should be stepped in a tabernacle, which tabernacle will be open on the aft side and fitted in the aft side of the mast thwart. The forestay will go over the masthead by an eye ; a thimble eye will be at the other end of the stay to take the lanyard or hook of the setting up tackle. There will be a single wire shroud each side of the mast fitted the same as the forestay, but set up by lanyards to the eyes of neat chain plates fitted to the gunwale. Sometimes, however, the lanyard is rove through a thimble seized to the thwart or to a timber, or through a thole hole in a rowlock.
The main sheet is arranged thus ; standing part fast to the boom, then through a single block under one gunwale, then through a block stropped to boom and belayed under the other gunwale ; for the 10ft. boat, thimbles might be used instead of the blocks.