WEATHER BOWING - BEARING AWAY A favourite pastime of a sailing master is to "weather bow" another vessel, that is to place his own vessel in such a position on the bow of the other that she immediately intercepts the wind of that other vessel, and causes her head sails to lift. If the vessels are pretty evenly matched, the leading one will be able to put the other under her lee quarter every time they tack. The one to leeward may ramp off, but she will never get clear unless she is a very much faster vessel. The object of the leeward yacht will be to get into cross tacking, and this her adversary will try to prevent, and tack as frequently as she does. This diversion may possibly be a bad thing for them, so far as the result of the match goes, as their frequent tacking cannot be otherwise than a gain to the yachts which are working by longer boards.
If the leeward yacht finds that the one to windward will not permit her to get into cross tacking, she will probably, as aforesaid, ramp off and endeavour to get through the lee of the weather yacht. For the leeward yacht to do this successfully, that is, to be able to reach far enough ahead to tack across and weather the other one, she must be the faster vessel, or otherwise she will still find the other on her weather bow every time they tack. As the lee yacht is ramped off, the weather one is commonly sailed hard too, or what is known as a " good full." But the helmsman must be very careful with his weather helm, as the windward yacht is supposed to keep her luff, and is not allowed to bear away so as to prevent the other yacht passing to leeward ; thus, the windward yacht should be kept no more than a "good full and bye" whilst another yacht is under her lee. In speaking of " bearing away" it must not be assumed that the yachts get very much off the wind; if they did—say three or four points—the effect would be that the leeward yacht would come out clear ahead of the other. This is not the kind of " bearing away " which is practised. Strictly speaking the " bearing away " is simply sailing " ramping full," with a heavy hand on the weather tiller lines. It would be difficult to disqualify a yacht for this
under the " bearing away " rule ; but, nevertheless, if one yacht is sailing hard, when close hauled, to endeavour to get through the lee of the wind ward yacht, it would be most unfair for the other to ramp off after her.
A common practice to escape the vigilance of the " weather-bowing " craft is to make a feint at tacking, or, as it is sometimes called, to make a " false tack." The master sings out " ready about 1 " loud enough to be heard perhaps on board the windward yacht, and the crew go to their stations as if about to tack. The master eases the helm down, but is careful that the yacht does not pass the head to wind point; he keeps her shooting, and one hand hauls the foresheet up, and perhaps takes in the slack of the weather jib-sheet. The master of the windward vessel thinks it is a real tack, and puts his vessel about ; the other thereupon reverses his helm and backs his vessel's head off on the same tack again. This trick does not always succeed, but it does sometimes. In practising this subterfuge great care must be taken by the leeward yacht that she is not so close to the windward yacht as to bring about a collision by putting her helm down. If a collision ensued the leeward yacht would be held to blame.
Frequently a great deal of time is wasted by a sailing master attempting, by " weather bowing," to stop every vessel that comes in his way, big or small ; this is very foolish. The first aim should be to get all the speed and advantage possible out of a vessel ; secondly, if she comes across a vessel that appears to have as good or better a chance of winning than herself, endeavour to stop her by legitimate means, but do not needlessly waste time with a vessel that has little or no chance of winning ; thirdly, if you are beating a vessel that, next to yourself, has the best chance of winning by keeping with her, do not leave her; fourthly, if, when sticking to a vessel you are being beaten by her, part company and try your fortune on a different cast.