Backwards Sailing

[paulskent]

Our sailing club this weekend is holding a seamanship skills competition which includes the following excercises:

man overboard recovery
backward sailing
the 1440 turn.
Catch a fish
no touchee tiller/wheel evolutions.

Now the man overboard and the catch a fish bits I think I understand and can manage.
I can understand what backward sailing is but how do I do it ??
and I have no idea what the other 2 are at all ??? Anyone able to give me some idea.

 

[bedouin]

Are you talking about dinghies or bigger boats?

Many of those skills are part of the RYA dinghy seamanship skills course - but would be somewhat harder in a heavy cruising boat.

1440 I presume is 4 complete turns ( 4 x 360 )
the other I guess is steering the boat without using the tiller

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

In those hazy yesteryears, I recall having to sail a figure of 8 course in a wayfarer as part of my instructors course. Did try in my Trapper last year, ran out of patience. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[alisdairs]

If you are talking about dinghies, it's really very simple - forget about the Jib, just use your main and start with the boat dead head to wind and ideally as close to stopped as possible. Push out the boom hard against the shrouds and as the main fills and you start to move back, steer with your rudder - remember two v.important things - the rudder is working in reverse so whereever the back of your tiller is pointing is where you will go, AND make very SMALL rudder movements or you will be all over the place !! Finally when you are ready to turn round and sail off normally, point the front of your tiller to the boom and you will swing round without gybing !

Good luck - once you master this it is great fun, likewise 'rudderless' sailing. Going backwards is particularly useful if you are moored in a line head to wind along a beach or sea wall and want to extract yourself from the line.

Have fun !

Al.

 

[Talbot]

backward sailing, easily done under backed jib. when singlehanding on my cat I have been known to not quite achieve a proper tack /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif , primarily due to size of Genoa and lack of momentum on tacking, and will normally make use of the old backward sailing to complete the tack rather than tack back again. Its even easier if you have a preventer on the main as well. The main problem with a tiller is to avoid going too fast, as it is then possible for the rudderr to jam over to one side and make steering a tad difficult.

 

[ghost]

yo,
red alert info burst:
rig a preventer ( reversed mainsheet style )
ie a nice easy running line from boom end to a fairlead up the sharp end -a loop with a block would be useful if prepping is your'e thing- tiller centred, heave up on the line to take boom out into running position. I wouldnt just hold it barehanded unless it's light goin', a simple turn around a winch but dont make it fast - ya might need to dump it in a right hurry.
steering needs a little care, the rudder will want to snatch out whichever way you initiate a turn, it's under great load in an unnatural attitude so be careful, you need to play fairly sensitive in making your change of direction.
The jib only suggestion by our learned buddy takes a little comprehension, the c. of e. will be so far forward the boat will tend to twist away from the side you have the sail poled out on -thus increasing weight on the stick, increasing diligence.
Good bit of seamanship, well useful for light groundings, backing out of moorings etc.
Rudderless is so efficient you'd be surprised, depends on the boat as to finding the absolute correct balance in the rig 'tho.
expolore away.

 

[paulskent]

No not dingies, this is an excercise for cruising boats. And mine has a wheel rather than a tiller..

 

[Puffin_Billy]

Some of my sailing is on a 44 footer, and we regularly sail backwards to make sure the keel and rudder are weed (and plastic bag) free before a race.

All you need is 3 or 4 hefty guys on the boom.

It will help if you've done this in a dinghy first...

 

[alafloat]

If your boat isn't too big you will only need one fairly 'strapping' person holding the main a'back to get the boat moving backwards, and this has the advantage of being self regulating - if it gets too lively they just won't be able to hang on...... on a slightly different note, a couple of years ago I found that a certain 36' dufour would motor slightly faster backwards than it would forwards, are we sailing our boats the wrong way round?

 

[jimi]

Pole out jib, rig gybe preventer on main and go for it. You may confuse other vessels if you do this at night unless you rewire the boat!

 

[Lakesailor]

I seem to do this every time I go about when there's sod all wind.

 

[hlb]

I wonder about you lot. I used to sail my osprey backwards many a time. Mostly just adding reverse thrust to slow down at jetties. But have raced folk. Me going backwards whilst they go forwards. Won every time. I never read a book. Any raggy will go backwards. Obvious to most. Or maybe not!!