boat owner

➜

Mooring under sail

3

It’s a nice controlled

pick-up, making life

easy for Neil with

the boathook...

1

Ian has positioned Enigma

diagonally downwind from the buoy

and has let the sails flap to lose drive.

2

Now he rounds up to make the

approach on a close reach, so the

sails can still be sheeted in to provide

power if needed.

4

...but then the

inevitable happens.

The boat swings to the

tide, the mainsail fills

and she starts sailing

over the mooring.

BOTH SAILS

T

his can be a tricky one.

Your approach will be

determined by factors that

include the relative strength and

angle of wind and tide and by

how easily driven your boat is.

Here we start by showing a

definite no-no for this situation,

which is to approach using both

sails. Picking up the morning is one

thing; the problem is what happens

next. Jib-only is the answer, but you

still have to work out the angles.

As you look at the photos in these

sequences, the tide is running from

left to right and the wind is coming

from over your starboard shoulder,

roughly at right-angles to the tide.

Strangely enough, our challenge

was the weakness of the tide and

the fact that Enigma – a race-tuned

boat that had just won Class 1 in

the Poole Winter Series – is very

easily driven. This precluded the

‘textbook’ approach – against the

tide, with the wind on the beam

under jib only – because she was

still sailing too fast even with the jib

flapping. A roller-reefing headsail

would make life easier because it

can be rolled away progressively –

and rolled out again if need be –

to control speed. A typical cruising

yacht also takes more pushing

through the water, so slowing

down is less of an issue.

Wind across tide Picking up the mooring

Wind across tide – picking up the mooring

JIB ONLY^1

This time the mainsail is already

lowered and the approach made from

further downwind. The wind is on Enigma’s

port bow and the tide is sweeping her

gently from left to right.

2

Again it’s a

well-controlled final

approach for an easy

pick-up. If the tide swings

her round and she starts

overriding the mooring, it

doesn’t matter because

now it’s just a matter of

lowering the jib.