into the water. It is sometimes convenient to hoist a jib without removing the stops—short yarns with which it is tied when rolled up. When the sail is hoisted, a pull on the sheets breaks the yarns and the sail falls out free.
If the jib is being hoisted when the vessel is under way, take the halyards to the lee-side of the foresail before hooking them on to the sail.
To take in a jib, slack up the out-haul and pull the sail inboard, 'muzzling' it—that is, gathering it with your arms as it comes in. Then let go the halyards and pull the sail down. If two hands can be spared for the work, one of them should commence to lower the halyards as the sail is coming in along the bowsprit. It requires an experienced hand to take in a jib smartly in a strong breeze when the boat is tumbling about; and the novice, when undertaking this task single-handed, must be careful not to let the jib blow out of his hands into the water, to tow under the keel.
When the jib is in, unhook the traveller, the sheets, and halyards, and make these all fast in their respective places.
Even on a cutter of considerable tonnage one hand suffices to hoist or lower the Foresail. To hoist a foresail, hook the sheets and halyards on the sail, and belay one or both sheets according to circumstances. Then hoist the sail with the halyards and get down the tack—if there is a tack tackle.
To reef a foresail it is best to lower the sail on
