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The Art of "Dinghy Tacking"
1/23//01
Blaine Parks
Definition:
Tacking – To move the bow of a sailboat through the eye of the wind,
bringing the wind onto the other side of the boat.
Reality:
Tacking – 1) To move the bow of a sailboat directly away from the
direction you really want to go 2)
What we do in the dinghy to avoid getting sopping wet when it’s blowing
20-30 knots and the dogs just HAVE to go to shore.
January 23, 2001.
Charbonneau is lying to her anchor in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon
Florida Keys. The temperature
is a cool 60 degrees and the wind has been blowing 15-30 knots for the
last few days. The boat is
doing its best impression of the “Funky Chicken” as the wind and waves
bounce us around in some sort of nature dance.
The crew cuddles up with a book or works on small projects until
that dreaded time twice each day – The dogs need a trip to shore.
Most trips to shore are uneventful.
Sure we’ve had our share of difficult beach landings where I yell
“Hold On!!” as we surf onto the beach and come to a very sudden halt.
I’ve even begged God to teach Max & Bailey to climb ladders
so my back wouldn’t suffer irreparable harm when lifting them up
ridiculous heights to the docks during low tide.
But I’d take those trips to shore every time if it meant NEVER
having to take them to shore in 25-knot winds.
Maneuvering a dinghy when the winds
are over 15 knots becomes an interesting challenge of man against the
elements. Our dinghy is
really just an 11-foot balloon in the water with a 15-hp motor on the back
to provide the appearance of forward thrust.
Add those details to the wind blown waves in the harbor and you
have all the material necessary for a great comedy.
Add two dogs to the mix and it becomes downright hilarious.
It never fails that the spot on land
that you need to reach will be such that the wind blows directly across
your dinghy, both going and returning.
Those of you who have ridden in dinghies know what this means.
The boat goes through the water, hits the waves which splash up on
the boat, and then blow directly across everyone in the dinghy. A five-minute ride is the best salt-water bath you’ve ever
seen. Which brings me back to
this idea of “tacking.”
While the shortest distance between
two points is a straight line, it is not necessarily the driest distance
between those same two points. The
Charbonneau crew has perfected what we call “Dinghy Tacking.”
This is a skill that requires a lot of practice and many wet rides
before you get it right. It
also helps if you don’t know many people in the harbor.
First you load the dinghy with your
crew and beloved pets – two large golden retrievers in our case.
After starting the outboard motor and releasing the dinghy from the
boat, you begin to alternate running downwind and then quickly turning
back into the wind. These are
the only two dry directions in those very windy conditions.
It becomes more interesting when you “tack” back and forth
between hundreds of boats on your way to shore.
We normally change directions with the
same commands as tacking Charbonneau.
The captain announces, “Prepare to tack!”
The crew responds with, “Ready!”
The crew then makes a very funny face while trying to duck as low
as possible in the boat. The
captain then spins the boat as quickly as possible to the new “tack.”
The funny faces are a natural occurrence requiring no effort on the
crew’s part. They are a
direct result of getting slapped in the face with a little spray on each
turn.
You’re probably asking yourself,
“How will I know when I’ve perfected this technique?”
You will have mastered the skill when all those people in the
harbor (the ones I suggested you not know) are laughing loud enough for
you to hear. We find it
helpful to act drunk, laugh a lot, and just wave.
That ensures that you’ll never get to know those people or have to
explain what in the hell you’re doing in the dinghy. |
