On the Water - Crewwork

To sum up the science and art of making a sailboat move into a single post is perhaps the ultimate exercise in futility - made no easier by my lack of familiarity with fancy instaweb tools like graphics. For this i apologize, and i'll therefore try to keep it simple.

Sailing (assuming you are trying to get somewhere and not just out enjoying a cruise) involves 2 seemingly simple tasks; find the wind, and given the wind, make the boat go as fast as it can. All sailboats have a crew that (during a race) are completely focused on these two tasks. This is true for all boats, from the smallest dinghy crewed by a single hand, to the America's Cup Class boats (ACC) which carry 16. On the Parlay, we liked to have at least 5, and sometimes as many as 10 - in practice, this made us more similar to the ACC boats than the dinghies so that will be my focus.

All crews have a "brain trust", even if all members have other responsibilities in addition to this. First, there is a Captain or Skipper, who is in charge of making all final decisions in the race. ACC boats will also typically carry a Navigator and a Tactician, as well as a Helmsman, whose job it is to physically steer the boat. Smaller crews will generally combine these jobs (eg Skipper is also physically the helmsman). Everybody on the boat except for the brain trust is involved in the physical operation of the boat, which can be roughly divided into 2 parts, executing maneuvers and trimming sails.

Modern racing boats generally use two sails, a mainsail and a headsail. The mainsail attaches to the mast, and extends back along the boom; in this way 2 of the 3 sides of the sail are attached along their whole length to solid structures. The mainsail is entirely controlled by acting on said solid structures. Generally a racing boat will use a single mainsail in all conditions (although in heavy winds it will not be raised all the way up - this is called a "reef"). There are 2 main controls for the mailsail, the traveler and the mainsheet. Together they control the position of the boom; directly back along the center of the boat when hard on the wind, far from the center when running. When tacking or gybing, the only change that must be made to the mainsail is to move the traveler to a position that is the mirror image or its initial position; the sheet is generally not changed.

On the other hand, virtually all boats carry a number of different headsails. When sailing into the wind, a sailboat will use a genoa or a jib, which is a small genoa (for this discussion i'll use the terms interchangeably). The front edge of the genoa attaches to the forestay, a piece of metal that runs to the top of the mast. Unlike a mainsail, the bottom edge of the genoa flies freely, and the sail is controlled by a 2 sheetlines (one for each side of the boat) that attach to the corner of the sail that is opposite the forestay. For a genoa, only once side is attached to a solid structure. Similar to the mainsail, the sheet line is brought in (ie tightened) when hard on the wind, and let out (ie loosened) when reaching. Unlike the mainsail, the genoa requires significant effort to move during a tack or gybe. After the tack is begun, as soon as the sail begins to backfill with wind, the sheet that was holding the sail is released, and the opposite sheet is brought in. The net effect of this is to actually pass the entire sail in front of the mast! If done correctly, the wind will actually help move the sail across, making the tack end quickly, leaving the boat traveling fast and the crew not as worn out.

When sailing with the wind, a sailboat will use a spinnaker, the sail that looks like a big balloon. The top of the spinnaker is attached to a point at the top of the mast. The lower corner that on the windward side of the boat (ie port side when on part tack), is attached to the guy line, which goes from the middle of the boat, through the end of the spinnaker pole and attaches to the sail. The spinnaker entends forward from the mast in the direction opposite of the boom, and holds the sail open. The lower corner to the leeward side of the boat is attached to the sheet line. None of the 3 edges of the sail are attached to a solid structure; for this reason, the spinnaker is the most difficult sail to handle. It's beyond the scope, but gybing the spinnaker can be roughly described as:

• release the downhaul
  
• release the guy line from the spinnaker pole
  
• have the flyer manage both sheets
  
• raise the end of the spinnaker attached to the mast
  
• lower the pole via the topping lift (not too fast, or you'll drop it on the
• foredeckman)
  
• pass the pole under the forestay
  
• raise the pole with the topping lift
  
• attach the pole to the new guy line
  
• have the flyer manage the new sheet only
  
• lower the pole on the mast end, and
  
• tighten the downhaul.
  

of the basic moves during a race, this is certainly the most difficult, as it requires 4 or 5 crew members to have great communication and timing.

At the risk of leaving out an enormous amount of what goes on on the water, I think i'll stop here. If anybody wants to point out faults or pieces that i've missed here in a comment, feel free.