fficient, but if they do not, the sooner
the training commences the better. For a racing crew to be handy, every
man in it must know his especial part in all the manoeuvres, and when
a manoeuvre is ordered must do it quickly and with the least confusion
possible, and not try in an excess of zeal to attempt to do more than
his part, unless so ordered. Above all, every man must obey implicitly
and without question any order of the Captain, for no boat can be
handled properly by its crew when anybody but the Captain is permitted
to give orders. As to the number of the crew, the average cat-boat of,
let us say, eighteen or twenty feet will require a helmsman, usually
Captain, sheet-tender, centreboard-tender, and a man to look after the
halyards. If your boat is so small as not to have so many men allotted
to it, the centreboard and halyards may be tended by one man. If, on the
contrary, more men than the requisite number are allowed, take the extra
men, if the day is windy, as ballast only, or if movable ballast is
permitted, as shifters.

Do not divide the work up into small parcels and give each one a little
to do, it creates too much moving about when under way, a thing not in
the least desirable. You might, however, have an understanding with them
as to what they are to do in an emergency, such as taking in or shaking
out a reef. Here a slight digression on taking in a reef when under way
may be pardoned. When under way drop the sail so that the desired
reef-points are about in a line with the boom, and when they are in the
right position let the boat come up into the wind so that the boom will
be inboard. Then order the crew to spread along the boom, and when the
bow-man has fastened the desired cringle at the jaws of the boom, have
them catch hold of the sail, stretch it along the boom, the sheet-tender
making fast the cringle on the leach (outer edge) to the boom. As soon
as this is accomplished tie the reef in. When all the reef-points are
tied, let the boat's head fall off and continue on course, as the peak
and throat may be properly hoisted, especially when you are strongly
manned, nearly as well under way as when in the wind. This operation, so
long on paper, may, with a well-trained crew, be accomplished almost in
the time it takes to read this. Shaking out a reef is a very easy
matter, and will need no mention. The whole aim in the training of a
racing crew may be summed up as follows: Every man to know his pa