tightly to the boom. Of course the sail has either been partially or wholly lowered during this operation, and must now be re-set.

Now shall we turn back and see how she sails free. Put the helm up, ease off the sheet, and she is flying before the wind at a rare pace, and on an even keel. So you think your hard work is over, and you make fast your sheet and fill and light your pipe. Crack! the sail has gybed, but it took you unawares and knocked your hat off into the water, and made you drop your pipe. Serve you right. There should never be a moment's negligence on board a sailing-boat. The wind down the last reach was a little on the starboard quarter, which kept the sail extended on the port side. As you followed the course of the river the wind came a little on the port quarter. There was little or no perceptible difference in the feel to your back, but the sail was more sensitive, the boom began to lift and the sail to shiver, and finally the boom flew over with great rapidity and a vigorous jerk. A sailorman must have eyes in the back of his head and the sides thereof; and that he may preserve these he must take care to keep his head out of the way of the boom when it gybes. If the wind were light the jerk would not be severe enough to matter, and you might let the sail flop over at its own sweet will. All you would have to do would be to meet her with the helm, for she will have a tendency to fly round as the pressure suddenly takes her on the other side. Now the wind is fresh, however, it is best to rally the sheet in as fast as possible as the boom goes over, and so prevent the great sweep and jerk by checking it as the boom takes it out again.

Here we are back again. Take a good sweep round and bring the boat up, head to wind, so that her way is deadened just as she touches the bank or reaches the mooring. Lower the sail, roll it up neatly, and if it is to remain on board cover it with a

waterproof sail-cover. Lift up and secure the centre-board, make everything clean and trim, and leave everything as neat as a new pin. A very important quality in a sailorman is neatness -a place for everything and everything in its place—and then your boat and sails will last longer. In case of an emergency there will be no confusion, things will not be so liable to get damaged or mislaid, and your boat-sailing will be a credit to

you.

CHAPTER VI.

MAIN AND MIZEN RIG-BATTENED SAILS.

FOR single-handed sailing in smooth water no rig is handier or safer than the single sail, either a balance lug or the Una rig, afterwards described. You can also go closer to the wind with it. It is peculiarly adapted to centre-board boats, which are very sensitive to the helm or any touch upon the sheet, and a smaller amount of sail in one piece is more effective than a larger amount divided into two. Nevertheless, other rigs have

their advantages, and these shall be described in the turn in which the tyro will be wise to adopt them. For the lower waters of rivers, estuaries, or any place where the water is likely to be lumpy, or where the winds are gusty or strong, the main and mizen rig is the most useful. The mainsail is simply the balance lug a little reduced in size. The mizenmast is stepped by the rudder-head, and the mizen may either be a lug, a spritsail, or a fore and aft sail.

Where the boat has not a large counter there is a small bumpkin projecting from the stern with a block or sheave at the end of it, the mizen sheet passes through this, and is belayed inside the boat close to the helmsman. The mizen is generally of great help in beating to windward, and for this purpose it should be sheeted home as flat as ever it can be got. The largest boat we ever sailed of this rig was a yacht of 15 tons, and as there was plenty of block power to take the strain of the sheets one man could handle her with the greatest ease. In

beating, the mizen sheet was made fast, there were two sheets from the main boom passing through blocks on the top of the cabin at either side, and belayed to cleats on each side of the cabin doors. As we stood in the well or large cockpit we had everything within reach. The halyards, purchase, and topping lift all led through sheaves at the foot of the mast, and were belayed just in front of us. The weather sheet was always the one that was worked, and the slack of the lee one hauled in so that it was ready to take the strain in its turn, or both could be made fast in a light breeze.

In a fresh breeze the mizen was taken in, and the yacht was perfectly handy and manageable under mainsail alone. She was a deep keel yacht, but if she had been a centre-boarder she would have been still more handy.

The great advantage of the main and mizen rig is that if it blows you have only to ease the mainsheet and the pressure of the wind is off, yet you can keep her going by means of the mizen, or let it bring her up into the wind, which it will speedily do if left to itself. Also, if you are alone, and have to lower the mainsail for any purpose, the mizen will keep the boat head to the wind and sea. With mainsail only she will blow away and wallow sideways, and may come to grief. The main and mizen is the rig we should recommend for singlehanded sailing in open

waters.

A much handier rig, where one is not alone, is that invented by Mr. Baden Powell. Shortly after seeing his description of it we rigged a half-decked centre-board boat in that way, and tested her thoroughly, both on a tidal river and on the stormy North-east coast, and for handiness and effectiveness there was nothing to beat her, provided one was not alone. The rig is the main and mizen rig, but the bumpkin to which the mizen sheet is attached is a prolongation of the tiller, as shown in Figs. 18

and 19; thus the mizen sail moves with the tiller. When the tiller is put down the sail is pushed to windward, and the boat comes round like a top, the action of the wind on the sail being precisely that of the water on the rudder. When the helm is put up the pressure of the

wind on the stern of the boat is correspondingly eased, and the mainsail will carry her bows away in the direction required. The mizen sheet in Mr. Powell's plan is sheeted close by or on the rudder head, but we found it an advantage to have it pass through an eye on the top of the rudder head, and belayed to a cleat fastened to the end of the tiller. Thus the sheet could be manipulated without the necessity of turning the head round, and taking one's attention from the foresail.

FIG. 18. MAIN AND MIZEN RIG.

We found this a particularly useful rig among waves, and we attained considerable skill in sailing the little craft in and out among the fishing boats moored in the haven, where there was a minimum of space. Although

we constantly handled her alone,

yet we do not advise that it FIG. 19. TILLER AND Bumpkin. should be done unless the wind is light and the glass is steady, for the following reason: The hand must not leave the tiller for an instant, the leverage of the sail upon it is very great, and if anything forward necessitated your leaving it, the sail would put