boom swings over, the force of the jibe will in a moment drive the boat up into the wind's eye unless you meet, or rather anticipate, this tendency with your helm.
A boat carrying a single sail naturally has its mast stepped well forward; consequently, if such a boat is in the wind's eye, in irons, and gathering stern-way, she can be made to pay off again by holding the boom over to windward and the tiller to leeward. When the boat has paid off sufficiently, she will rapidly gather way again if the sheet is trimmed to leeward and the sail is allowed to draw.
It is often advisable, when running before a heavy sea, to unship the rudder and to steer with an oar. The open-boat sailor, by the way, should never leave his moorings without having his oars on board. It often happens that the novice is guilty of this omission, being too proud of his little craft to bear in mind that she is not a large yacht propelled by sails alone.
Moveover, when shipping the oar-crutches, one must not forget to secure them to the gunwale with the lanyards which are attached to the ends of crutches for this purpose. If a crutch falls overboard at a critical moment disaster may ensue. If a crutch is lost and there is no spare one at hand, a rope grommet, or even a piece of cord fastened in a loop to the rowlocks, will serve the purpose temporarily, and enable one to employ the oars as before.
