Boat Setup / Cleanup
- Find and flip your boat
When you find your boat, first untie the bow line and then untie the stern line.
Ask someone to help flip your boat over - it's easier done with two people!
You can do it yourself, however. Just be careful - a boat on its side can easily catch the breeze and be blown over.
2. Prepare your boat
Untie the boom and rudder which have been bound by the main sheet to the center seat of the boat.
Release and tidy up all of the lines in the boat.
3. Prepare your dodger
The dodger is a triangular piece of fabric that covers the bow of the boat to keep water out when waves are high.
Thread the forestay block through the hole in the top of the dodger.
4. Raise your mast
First, find your mast from the mast rack.
Make sure both ends of halyard are reachable. Untangle shrouds and headstay before raising mast.
Stand your mast on the dock and rest it against your body so that both hands are free.
Attach the forestay to the forestay block / clasp that you threaded through your dodger.
Lift the mast onto the step.
Next, attach the shrouds (starting with the high side) by placing the shroud bolts into the oarlocks. Fix the shroud bolts in place with cotter pins in the second-from-the-bottom hole in the bolt. In light air, some will sail with the pin in the bottom hole. Do not tape the pins! You can secure the pins with a rubber-band or hair band.
Adjust the forestay so that it is tight. A correct mast will either be straight up or slightly raked forward. The shrouds should not be tight, but the leeward shroud should have some slight slack in it.
IF THE RIGGING IS VERY TIGHT check to make sure that it isn't twisted.
5. Attach your sail
First, find your sail. It will be marked with the letter of your charter boat. The sail size will be indicated by the flat on the committee boat (green for large, red for small).
Next, make sure the halyard is running free and not tangled in the shrouds or forestay.
Secure the head of the sail with a hitch and stopper knot in the aft halyard. Then feed the bolt rope into the slot of the mast, hoist about 2 feet of sail, and cleat off the halyard
Attach the clew of the sail to the hook on the front of the boom.
If the outhaul is attached, make sure it is released and slack. A tight outhaul can prevent hoisting the sail.
DO NOT HOIST YOUR SAIL - that comes last!
6. Inspect your boat
Your boat is almost ready to sail!
Your main should be hoisted only 2 feet and cleated off.
Your boom should be resting inside your boat.
The shrouds and forestay should be holding the mast upright.
Your dodger should be stretched over the gunwale and attached at the ends.
Always make sure your boat is tied down, especially you walk away. Boats can be blown off the dock!
7. Attach your rudder
Scoot your boat backwards to hang off the dock by 6", being careful not to scrape against a dock cleat.
Unfold the tiller and place the rudder UNDER the traveler, holding it horizontal and pointing toward the port side of the boat.
Rotate the rudder into the water so that the clasps on the rudder capture the rudder rod. Once connected, slide down the rudder so the top of the rudder rode is captured by the top of the rudder plate.
8. Launch and hoist
Ease your boat into the water. Tie off the bow line.
Take note of the wind direction. It is best to hoist while pointing into the wind.
Free your mainsheet to make sure the boom can move freely.
Hoist your sail and cleat off the halyard. The large sail will be raised to the top of the mast. The small sail should be raised until the jaws of the boom reach the black mark (~3' from the base of the mast).
If not done already, attach the outhaul to the tack of your sail.
Stretch the sail by attaching the downhaul. Adjust the sail by tightening the halyard.
Tighten, then cleat the outhaul by lifting your boom parallel with the water. A hand's width between the foot and boom is appropriate for most conditions.
Attach the boom vang and tighten enough to remove any slack. Make sure your boom vang has a quick release.
9. Leave the dock
Make sure you're ready to sail. All boats on the water must have:
A bailer tied to the forward seat knee
A paddle
Sit in your boat.
Put down the centerboard.
Untie the bow line and tuck it beneath the dodger.
Let 'er rip! You can leave the harbor once there is a crash boat in the channel. Do not sail past the red nun until all boats have left the dock and you are signaled to sail to the race course.
How to derig after sailing
Return to the dock you launched from to return your boat to the spot you found it
Drop your sail into the boat
Raise your centerboard
Remove your rudder
Exit the boat
Pull the boat onto the dock
Be careful not to drag the hull of the boat over an exposed cleat
Put away your sail
Fully remove the sail and bolt rope from the mast
Unclip the outhaul from the tack
Untie the stopper knot in the halyard from the head of the sail
Unhook the clue of the sail from the boom
Roll up the sail. Lay the sail flat and fold along the leach at the first batten. Roll from the head to the foot of the sail.
Put away your mast
Remove the boom vang and cunningham from the mast
Loosen and release the forestay
Unpin and free the shrouds
Gather the shrouds and forestay and wrap around the mast
Cleat one end of the halyard
Use the slack in the halyard to secure the stays in place
Cleat the other end of the halyard
Remove and place the mast on the mast rack - if you have spare line, consider securing the mast on one end to the rack.
Secure the boom and tiller
Fold the tiller backwards onto the rudder and place athwart on the seat
Place the boom on top of the rudder and tiller inside the boat
Gather the main sheet, using it to bind the tiller and boom to the seat by weaving under the seat and over the boom
Tie off the tail of the main sheet to secure the rudder and boom in place
Flip the boat
Ask for help to turn the boat over
Make sure the bailer, paddle, dodger, boom, and rudder are completely under the boat
Secure the boat
Tie off the bowline to a cleat on the deck
Secure the stern of teh boat with a stern line, usually run through the rudder rod