Saturday, June 14, 2008
Reefing a Sail
1.Reef before you have to—in other words, as soon as it occurs to you.
2.When sailing downwind, reef as if you were going to windward in that same breeze.
3.When in doubt, take in a double reef instead of a single.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Bells & Watches
Sounding of ship's bells is well rooted in the history and tradition of the maritime industry.
Onboard timekeeping has been an integral part of shipboard life since the earliest days of long distance navigation.
The bells used to mark shipboard time are organized into a schedule that reflect the four-hour watch served by the crew. Each watch is identified by its time of day and one watch, called the Dog Watch, was split into two parts to allow taking of an evening meal. The resulting number of uneven watches insured both crews shared the graveyard shift of 0000-0400 equally.
These are watches observed by ship's crew:
Middle Watch - (0000 - 0400)
Morning Watch - (0400 - 0800)
Forenoon Watch - (0800 - 1200)
Afternoon Watch - (1200 - 1600)
First Dog Watch - (1600 - 1800)
Second Dog Watch - (1800 - 2000)
First Watch - (2000 - 2400)
Bells are sounded in a pattern every thirty minutes. The maximum number of bells that can be struck is eight, hence the saying "eight bells and all is well." This is the common schedule of ship's bells that is repeated every four hours:
00:30 - 1 bell
01:00 - 2 bells
01:30 - 2 bells, pause, 1 bell
02:00 - 2 bells, pause, 2 bells
02:30 - 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 1 bell
03:00 - 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells
03:30 - 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 1 bell
04:00 - 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells, pause, 2 bells
With the end of the watch, eight bells are sounded and the sailor was relieved. All watches follow the routine schedule except for the two Dog Watches. The first Dog Watch sees only four bells sounded at its end and the Second Dog Watch is finished with eight.
Bells are sounded for other purposes. At New Year's Eve, 16 bells are sounds with 8 given for the old year and 8 sounded to bring in the new year. Bells are sounded rapidly for five seconds during periods of low visibility and fog. Bells ringing for a longer period signals a general ship alarm. Ultimately the passing of a sailor is marked with the ringing of eight bells. Sounding of the ship's bell is a powerful reminder of the traditions rooted in long held maritime tradition.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Wind & Points of Sail
Wind Direction
The direction and speed of wind is always graphically displayed on visual weather forecasts. The wind blows along the isobars, keeping low pressure to the left and high pressure to the right. The most reliable way to check wind direction and speed is to consult an anemometer (wind speed indicator).
The first thing you have to understand about the wind is its direction - the wind is named after the direction from which it blows - so a wind blowing from south to north is a south wind. However, the wind direction is only in very rare cases steady (for example the trade winds in the Atlantic are steady) - so you need to be on the alert and always watch what the wind is doing. You should know what to watch, and you'd better don't neglect the signs the wind gives you. For example - waves are created by it, but only the white ripples on the surface show the wind direction. Other boats at anchor or on mooring can give you clues - they float to point into the wind (unless in a case when there is a very strong current). Light and shallow boats prove to be the most reliable indicators. Beware - the sky is a trap! Do not look at it, because the movement of the high clouds have very little to do with the winds that determine what happens where you are. What you can do in advance is prepare the boat with your own indicators: you can adjust a flag or specially made windvane at the top of the mast. The so called the telltales are simple threads - you should put them on the shrouds as high as possible. People who use cloth sails sew very flashy-coloured threads (like magenta, or red) to the sail.
You will become good at that if you practise offboard - always when you are in the open, think about what is going on in the atmosphere around, and particularly what the behaviour of the wind is.
Points of Sail
Points of sail is a term describing different angles from the wind, on which a boat may sail. Depending on where you are going, and where the wind is blowing from, you will choose the direction. Some points of sail are easier to manage than others, and depending on the boat, they will also work differently for you than the others. Therefore, never assume that if someones boat sails fastest when close-hauled, this will be also the case with your boat.
Before we go to the specifics, remember the following:
- port tack occurs when you have the wind on your port side (left).
- starboard tack occurs when you have the wind on your starboard side (right).
Close Reach - Any sailing direction between the beam reach, and the close-hauled; the wind is still blowing from ahead (forward of abeam).
Beam Reach - Sailing at a 90 degree angle from the wind; the wind is blowing from abeam.
Broad Reach - Any sailing direction (heading) between the beam reach and the run; the wind is blowing more from astern (behind).
Run (sometimes called 'Quartering Run", and "Running by the lee") -
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Points of the Compass
The point between North and NNE was N by E.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Square Rigs
Brigantine - is a vessel with two masts whose foremast is made in three spars and square rigged like that of the full-rigged brig. The mainmast, however, is made in two spars and carries a fore-and-aft mainsail, above which are two or three yards on which are carried a square main-topsail and topgallant sail. 
Brig - is a vessel with two masts (fore and main), both of which are square rigged. The foremast is made in three spars and square-rigged. On the mainmast there is a standing gaff to which is rigged a small fore-and-aft sail. 
Barquentine - is a vessel of at least three masts similar to a bark with fore-and-aft rigging of the mainmast. The foremast is made in three spars in square rigging, but the main- and mizzenmast carry hoist-and-lower mainsails and gaff topsails of the schooner type. 
Barque or Bark - is a three-masted vessel with the foremast and mainmast square rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged. The mizzenmast carries no yards: there is a hoist-and-lower fore-and-aft sail and a gaff topsail. 
Full Rigged Ship - is properly, only a vessel of at least three square rigged masts, each composed of a lower-mast, top-mast, and topgallant mast. Each is outfitted with a yard and a full complement of square sails. 
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Latitude & Longitude
Any location on Earth is described by two numbers--its latitude and its longitude.
If a pilot or a ship's captain wants to specify position on a map, these are the "coordinates" they would use. Actually, these are two angles, measured in degrees with minutes of arc and seconds of arc. These are denoted by the symbols ( °, ', " ) e.g. 35° 43' 9" means an angle of 35 degrees, 43 minutes and 9 seconds (do not confuse this with the notation (', ") for feet and inches!). A degree contains 60 minutes of arc and a minute contains 60 seconds of arc--and you may omit the words "of arc" where the context makes it absolutely clear that these are not units of time. Calculations often represent angles by small letters of the Greek alphabet, and that way latitude will be represented by λ (lambda, Greek L), and longitude by φ (phi, Greek F).
Imagine the Earth was a transparent sphere (actually the shape is slightly oval; because of the Earth's rotation, its equator bulges out a little). Through the transparent Earth (drawing) we can see its equatorial plane, and its middle the point is O, the center of the Earth. To specify the latitude of some point P on the surface, draw the radius OP to that point. Then the elevation angle of that point above the equator is its latitude λ--northern latitude if north of the equator, southern (or negative) latitude if south of it. [How can one define the angle between a line and a plane, you may well ask? Good question. We must use the angle which completes it to 90 degrees, the one between the given line and one perpendicular to the plane. Here that would be the angle (90°-λ) between OP and the Earth's axis, known as the co-latitude of P.]
On a globe of the Earth, lines of latitude are circles of different size. The longest is the equator, whose latitude is zero, while at the poles--at latitudes 90° north and 90° south (or -90°) the circles shrink to a point. Lines of constant longitude ("meridians") extend from pole to pole, like the segment boundaries on a peeled orange.
Every meridian must cross the equator. Since the equator is a circle, we can divide it--like any circle--into 360 degrees, and the longitude φ of a point is then the marked value of that division where its meridian meets the equator. What that value is depends of course on where we begin to count--on where zero longitude is located. For historical reasons, the meridian passing the old Royal Astronomical Observatory in Greenwich England, is the one chosen as zero longitude. Located at the eastern edge of London, the British capital, the observatory is now a public museum and a brass band stretching across its yard marks the "prime meridian." Tourists often get photographed as they straddle it--one foot in the eastern hemisphere of the Earth, the other in the western hemisphere.
A line of longitude is also called a meridian, derived from the Latin, from meri, a variation of "medius" which denotes "middle", and diem, meaning "day." The word once meant "noon", and times of the day before noon were known as "ante meridian", while times after it were "post meridian." Today's abbreviations a.m.and p.m.come from these terms, and the Sun at noon was said to be "passing meridian". All points on the same line of longitude experienced noon (and any other hour) at the same time and were therefore said to be on the same "meridian line", which became "meridian" for short.
About time--Local and Universal
Two important concepts, related to latitude and (especially) longitude are Local time (LT) and Universal time (UT).
Local time is actually a measure of the position of the Sun relative to a locality. At 12 noon local time the Sun passes to the south and is furthest from the horizon (northern hemisphere). Somewhere around 6 am it rises, and around 6 pm it sets. Local time is what you and I use to regulate our lives locally, our work times, meals and sleep-times. But suppose we wanted to time an astronomical event--e.g. the time when the 1987 supernova was first detected. For that we need a single agreed-on clock, marking time world-wide, not tied to our locality. That is universal time (UT), which can be defined (with some slight imprecision, no concern here) as the local time in Greenwich, England, at the zero meridian.
Longitudes are measured from zero to 180° east and 180° west (or -180°), and both 180-degree longitudes share the same line, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As the Earth rotates around its axis, at any moment one line of longitude--the noon meridian--faces the Sun, and at that moment, it will be noon everywhere on it. After 24 hours the Earth has undergone a full rotation with respect to the Sun, and the same meridian again faces noon. Thus each hour the Earth rotates by 360/24 = 15 degrees. When at your location the time is 12 noon, 15° to the east the time is 1 p.m., for that is the meridian which faced the Sun an hour ago. On the other hand, 15° to the west the time is 11 a.m., for in an hour's time, that meridian will face the Sun and experience noon.
In the middle of the 19th century, each community across the US defined in this manner its own local time, by which the Sun, on the average, reached the farthest point from the horizon (for that day) at 12 oclock. However, travelers crossing the US by train had to re-adjust their watches at every city, and long distance telegraph operators had to coordinate their times. This confusion led railroad companies to adopt time zones, broad strips (about 15° wide) which observed the same local time, differing by 1 hour from neighboring zones, and the system was adopted by the nation as a whole. The continental US has 4 main time zones--eastern, central, mountain and western, plus several more for Alaska, the Aleut islands and Hawaii. Canadian provinces east of Maine observe Atlantic time; you may find those zones outlined in your telephone book, on the map giving area codes. Other countries of the world have their own time zones; only Saudi Arabia uses local times, because of religious considerations. In addition, the clock is generally shifted one hour forward between April and October. This daylight saving time allowed people to take advantage of earlier sunrises, without shifting their working hours. By rising earlier and retiring sooner, you make better use of the sunlight of the early morning, and you can enjoy sunlight one hour longer in late afternoon.
The Date Line and Universal Time (UT)
Suppose it is noon where you are and you proceed west--and suppose you could travel instantly to wherever you wanted. Fifteen degrees to the west the time is 11 a.m., 30 degrees to the west, 10 a.m., 45 degrees--9 a.m. and so on. Keeping this up, 180 degrees away one should reach midnight, and still further west, it is the previous day. This way, by the time we have covered 360 degrees and have come back to where we are, the time should be noon again--yesterday noon.
Hey--wait a minute! You cannot travel from today to the same time yesterday! We got into trouble because longitude determines only the hour of the day--not the date, which is determined separately. To avoid the sort of problem encountered above, the international date line has been established--most of it following the 180th meridian--where by common agreement, whenever we cross it the date advances one day (going west) or goes back one day (going east). That line passes the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, which thus have different dates, but for most of its course it runs in mid-ocean and does not inconvenience any local time keeping.
Astronomers, astronauts and people dealing with satellite data may need a time schedule which is the same everywhere, not tied to a locality or time zone. The Greenwich mean time, the astronomical time at Greenwich (averaged over the year) is generally used here. It is sometimes called Universal Time (UT).
Right Ascension and Declination
The globe of the heavens resembles the globe of the Earth, and positions on it are marked in a similar way, by a network of meridians stretching from pole to pole and of lines of latitude perpendicular to them, circling the sky. To study some particular galaxy, an astronomer directs the telescope to its coordinates. On Earth, the equator is divided into 360 degrees, with the zero meridian passing Greenwich and with the longitude angle φ measured east or west of Greenwich, depending on where the corresponding meridian meets the equator.
In the sky, the equator is also divided into 360 degrees, but the count begins at one of the two points where the equator cuts the ecliptic--the one which the Sun reaches around March 21. It is called the vernal equinox ("vernal" means related to spring) or sometimes the first point in Aries, because in ancient times, when first observed by the Greeks, it was in the zodiac constellation of Aries, the ram. It has since then moved.
The celestial globe, however, uses terms and notations which differ somewhat from those of the globe of the Earth. Meridians are marked by the angle α (alpha, Greek A), called right ascension, not longitude. It is measured from the vernal equinox, but only eastward, and instead of going from 0 to 360 degrees, it is specified in hours and other divisions of time, each hour equal to 15 degrees. Similarly, where on Earth latitude goes from 90° north to 90° south (or -90°), astronomers prefer the co-latitude, the angle from the polar axis, equal to 0° at the north pole, 90° on the equator, and 180° at the south pole. It is called declination and is denoted by the letter δ (delta, Greek small D). The two angles (α, δ), used in specifying (for instance) the position of a star are jointly called its celestial coordinates.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Schooner Rig - Fore and Aft Rig
Sloop - a small vessel with one mast and a fore and aft rig. The mainsail is attached to a gaff at the head and a boom at the foot and above it a gaff topsail can be set. Before the mast are one or more jibs. 
Schooner - is a vessel with two or more fore-and-aft rigged masts. The fore- and mainsails are suspended from gaffs and laced to booms on the foot of the sails. The first schooners had two masts, but the most popular had three. In modern times the number of masts has increased.
A variety of Two Masted Schooners 
Square Topsail Schooner - is a two-masted vessel, the mainmast of which has a fore-and-aft mainsail and gaff topsail identical to those of an ordinary schooner. Both masts are made in two spars, but the lower foremast is a little shorter than the corresponding spar of the mainmast, and the topmast is a little longer. 
Three Masted Schooner 
Four Masted Schooner 
Friday, May 30, 2008
Rigging Basics
A Ship's rigging refers to the sails and masts she carries. This determines how the ship is classified.
Basic Terms
Spars -The rigid members which carry the sail of a vessel .
Masts - Vertical spars.
Yards - Horizontal spars which cross the masts.
Boom - A horizontal spar which is anchored on one end and extends the foot of a sail.
Gaff - A horizontal spar ( usually angled ) which supports to top of a sail.
Rigs:
Fore and Aft Rig - where the sails lie along the same plane as the ship's fore and aft line.
Square Rig - where the sails are rigged athwart (across) the ship. Lug Rig - Similar in arrangement to a square rig, except that the supporting spar is asymmetrically arranged on the mast, with a greater length behind than in front
Junk Rig - developed in the far-east. It is distinguished from other lug sails by the use of full-length battens which support the sail and give it an efficient performance at most points of sail.
Gaff Rig - The sail is set entirely behind the mast, supported above by a spar which extends upwards and backwards from the mast. There may or may not be another spar at the foot of the sail. This rig is effective at most points of sail.
Bermudan Rig -This is a triangular sail set behind the mast and often supported by a boom along its foot. The mast may be tilted backwards slightly to improve the rig's performance in stronger winds. The sail behind the mast is often supplemented by one or more sails attached to the forestays of the mast, such as a jib.
The most common are Fore and Aft Rig and Square Rig.
Masts
A ship's masts are named from bow to stern (front to back):
Fore-mast - the first mast, or the mast fore of the main-mast.
Sections: Fore-mast lower — Fore topmast — Fore topgallant mast
Main-mast - the tallest mast, usually located near the center of the ship.
Sections: Main-mast lower — Main topmast — Main topgallant mast — royal mast (if fitted)
Mizzen-mast - the third mast, or the mast immediately aft of the main-mast. Typically shorter than the fore-mast.
Sections: Mizzen-mast lower — Mizzen topmast — Mizzen topgallant mast
Bonaventure mizzen - the fourth mast on larger Sixteenth Century galleons, typically lateen-rigged and shorter than the main mizzen.
Jigger-mast - the fourth mast or the aft-most mast where it is smallest on vessels of less than four masts.
Sections: Jigger-mast lower — Jigger topmast — Jigger topgallant mast
Mast names for other vessels generally follow this naming.
Sail Diagram
1. Fore mast
2. Main mast
3. Mizzen mast
4. Flying jib
5. Outer jib
6. Inner jib
7. Fore topmast staysail
8. Fore course
9. Fore lower topsail
10. Fore upper topsail
11. Fore lower topgallant sail
12. Fore upper topgallant sail
13. Fore royal
14. Main royal staysail
15. Main topgallant staysail
16. Main topmast staysail
17. Main course
18. Main lower topsail
19. Main upper topsail
20. Main lower topgallant sail
21. Main upper topgallant sail
22.
23. Mizzen royal staysail
24. Mizzen topgallant staysail
25. Mizzen topmast staysail
26. Main spencer
27. Crossjack, mizzen course
28. Mizzen lower topsail
29. Mizzen upper topsail
30. Mizzen lower topgallant sail
31. Mizzen upper topgallant
32. Mizzen royal
33. Spanker
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Basic Parts
Here are the bare bones basics of sailboat. These apply to small sailboats all the way up to the tall ships.
Parts of the Hull
The body or fuselage of a sailboat is the hull. Hulls provide buoyancy required to carry cargo and a platform for mounting the sails.
- Bow - The forward part of the sailboat
- Centerboard or Keel - A structure that extends down into the water that improves stability, maneuverability and limits lateral movement in the water. Smaller vessels use a dagger or centerboard that is removable. Larger boats have a fixed keel that is often filled with ballast
- Stern - The back or aft part of the sailboat
- Rudder - A movable vertical plane at the stern of the sailboat that is used to steer a sailboat
- Tiller - On smaller sailboats, the rudder is controlled manually with a lever at the stern of the boat. Larger vessels depend on mechanical steering systems
- Transom - A flat surface at the aft end of a sailboat.
Parts of the Rigging
A sailboat's rigging takes in all the components that support the mast and sails. Rigging varies greatly between different styles of boats.
- Mast - The main upright structural member of the sailboat that supports the sails
- Boom - The horizontal structural member attached to the foot of the mainsail
- Spreader - A bar that holds the shroud out away from the mast
- Standing Rigging - Wire ropes that support the mast. They include:
- Stay - A wire rope that runs from the top of the mast to locations fore and aft on the hull
- Shroud - A wire rope that adds additional lateral support to the mast
- Running Rigging - Generically all the lines used to raise, lower or control the sails
- Halyard - A line that raises or lowers the sail
- Sheet - A line that controls a sail
Parts of a Sail
A sail is a large piece of strong fabric that catches the wind and provides propulsion for a sailboat. Many sailboats use more than one sail.
- Head - Topmost corner of a triangular shaped sail
- Mainsail - Normally the largest sail providing driving force for the sailboat
- Headsail - A sail set forward of a mast
- Jib - A triangular shaped headsail
- Leech - The aft or trailing edge of a sail
- Luff - The forward edge of a sail
- Tack - The lower corner of the forward edge of a sail
- Clew - The lower corner of the aft edge of a sail
- Foot - The lowest edge of a sail
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Sailing
One of the best things that came out of my pirate obsession has been learning to sail. Three years ago, I went to sailing lessons on Lake Lanier and earned a license to sail up to a 25' sail boat. The bad news is that sailing is expensive, so I haven't been out on a small boat in awhile. The good news is that I have become addicted to day sails. I try to go out as much as possible. I have been out on tall ships in: Charleston, Biloxi, and several times in Boston Harbour. I'm off to Boston again next month and have plans to sail Boston Harbour and off Martha's Vineyard. I can't wait.
I'm in a sailing mood so my next few posts will pertain to sailing. I hope you enjoy as much as I do!
