Yachting Monthly - November 2015

Get this far and the job’s all but done. Just use a line to take the strain

Attach a line

before you

climb aboard,

and lift. It’s

really that easy

20 years’ worth of Tom’s cruising tips for skippers and crew have been

distilled into this pocket-sized book, published by Fernhurst Books, at £11.99

SKIPPER’S TIPS

NOVEMBER 2015 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 21

Flummoxed by salty jargon?

Email [email protected]

and we’ll explain it in print

‘ Runners’

Jumpers stiffen a fractional

rig by counteracting the

forestay load. Tensioned-up

jumper stays are attached

above and below jumper

struts like bowstrings

in a fore-and-aft plane.

Together, the arrangement

counterbalances the forestay.

With a good set of jumpers

you often don’t need running

backstays at all. Oh joy!

Back in the days of gaff

rig, the spars meant boats

couldn’t carry standing

backstays. Instead, ‘running

backstays’ or ‘runners’ were

rigged. The windward one did

the job while the leeward one

was slacked away to allow

the boom some ease. Some

yachts still use runners to

stiffen the mast.

Don’t trust anybody

‘To buoy or not to buoy?’ That is
so often the question when we’re
anchoring where foul ground of
some sort seems a possibility. I
have a lot of sympathy for this
chap who had dropped his pick
outside St Vaast in Normandy in a
place not charted as problematic.
He’d no particular reason to
expect trouble, yet trouble he
got, in buckets-full. The cable
he’s picked up is far too heavy to
manhandle clear of the anchor.
His windlass has done sterling

work to dredge it up.

Fortunately, all he now has

to do is to pass a line under the

cable and secure both ends on

deck. He can then lower his hook

away until it dangles clear, bring

it in and stow it. All that remains

is to slip one end of the line so

that the cable will fall away.

It’s easy when you know how.

Free a fouled

anchor? Easy

if you know...

I picked up this mooring in the Rance behind St Malo last

summer. As you see, it was clearly marked with a ‘V’ for

visitors, but I didn’t quite like the look of it so I winched it up

for a proper inspection before trusting to its mercies. I did

this because of a lifetime of disappointment with moorings

in places where nobody seems quite to be in charge.

I’ve seen them drag and more than once I’ve known

them literally snap off. Of course, common sense about the

question of size is required when picking up an unknown

mooring. Are neighbouring boats of a similar tonnage to

your own, does the thing look appropriate, and so on.

If these sort of criteria are met, the fi nal job is to heave it

up for a look at what you’re getting for your money. In this

case the chain was shot and the top shackle was holding on

only by friction. I dropped it like a greasy winch handle and

anchored fi fty yards away. I enjoyed a quiet night, for free.

The running backstay

on a fi ne gaff cutter. The

windward one takes the load.

Jumpers

on a

modern

cutter

‘ Jumpers’

I was highly impressed last
summer by the way this most
seamanlike Frenchman brought
his outboard in from the dinghy.
I don’t know about you, but
I have no real system. I just
scramble it aboard, passing it up
to someone on deck, perhaps
with a save-all lanyard, hoping
it won’t drop between wind and
water. I’m not proud about it.
This chap had it taped,
though. Before leaving the
dinghy, he secured a lanyard
to the engine so that it would
lift without toppling. Then he
slackened off the thumb screws

It’s stress-free

outboard recovery

and hopped on board the yacht.

The lanyard was pre-measured

so that if the engine were to

come detached, it wouldn’t

drop far. It didn’t fall, of course.

Instead, he took the lanyard and

Would you trust

your boat to

this mooring?

It pays to check

quietly lifted the motor onto its

bracket. No passing from hand

to hand, no hernia-

inducing twisting,

dead safe and dead

easy. Formidable!