Hoist the ForeSail!

Mast in place we rowed out into the bay - an autumn breeze in our faces. In the bay, with elbow room in which to work, we hoisted the foresail. Yippy we did it!  Slowly, with a mild breeze we slowly moved across the water, we nearly made it to the mouth of the Puyallup River! Well, okay, maybe we were sort of close by a fathom. It was there we dropped the sail, took the clew off the hook, dipped the lug and hoisted the foresail back up. On the way back we practiced the slalom course between the buoys and crab pot floats. Kuddos to the coxes this day - Voski and Leslie.  They earned their keep.

Here are a few words/phrases we probably should learn...
even though thingamajiggy, whatchamacallit, and rope are descriptive too.

 

bear away to steer the boat away from the wind.

broach turn sideways to wind and the surf.

buoy floating navigational marker.

clew aft bottom corner of a sail, where the foot and leech meet.

come about to change course so as to be sailing at the same angle but with the wind on the other side.

falling off turn away from the direction of the wind.

foremast mast nearest to the bow.

gunwales upper edges of a boat's sides.

halyard line used for hoisting sails.

jibing changing direction with the wind aft; to change from one tack to another by turning the stern through the wind; also spelled gybing.

luff to get so close to the wind that the sail flaps; also the forward edge of a sail.

mast vertical spar to which the sails and rigging are attached.

mizzen the shorter, after-mast on a ketch or yawl.

reef reduce the sail area by folding or rolling surplus material on the boom or forestay.

set to hoist a sail.

sheet line that controls a sail or the movement of a boom.

step a recess into which the fell of the mast is placed.

trim to adjust the angle of the sails.

 

Check out the new page (under the header) on Atlantic Challenge - see the section on gigs for a great description of how the boat works. There's also a video with the Irish Atlantic Challenge crew. We are two peas in a pod - like book ends in time.