BOSUN’S BAG PRACTICAL TIPS FOR THE TRADITIONAL BOATER
WORDS TOM CUNLIFFE ILLUSTRATION MARTYN MACKRILL
A sail cover can hide a multitude of sins, with the front runner a poorly stowed main. On a modern yacht with a stack pack and lazy jacks, a tidy stow is nigh-on impossible, so zipping up the bag when the shorelines go on is the decent thing to do. For the classic sailor, gaff or bermudan, the neatly rolled, crease-free alternative is a thing of beauty. There should be no rush to cover it therefore, unless it’s to be left soaking up UV from the sun for a day or squadrons of incontinent herring gulls are out in force. I learned how to stow a mainsail on an American schooner in the days when ‘Dacron’ cloth (known as Terylene in the UK) was in its infancy. Back then, what we now know as polyester canvas didn’t come stuffed with today’s fillers. It is these that make new sails the stiff and slippery nightmare to fold away that we all now suffer. The sails set beautifully, so maybe the price is worth paying, and even on the stowage front there’s hope for the future. As the filler degrades, or falls out, or whatever else happens to it with time, the fabric becomes more pliable. It grows ever more friendly with passing years until, at the last hour, it is as kind as the dry cotton or flax that our grandparents could stow to perfection – as long as it was bone dry. If a sail is still crackly with filler, the only way to stow it is to flake it onto the boom. This is best achieved by lowering it slowly while the bosun heaves the leech out hard, keeping the foot flat while flaking it down. Any spare crew will assist along the bunt, clapping ties on as necessary to keep the whole slippery horror from sliding onto the deck. There is no pleasure in this job on a windy day, especially if there is a sea running. However hard we try, it’s never going to approach the beauty of an old-fashioned harbour stow. Gaff is easier to flake than bermudan, because the leech is more vertical and the final stow is tied up to the gaff with no chance of sliding off the boom. The sail is lowered on both halyards, keeping the gaff more or less at its sailing angle until the throat hits the gooseneck. The peak is then lowered steadily while the flakes keep piling up. When the sail is more pliable, either because it is of natural fibre or through the passage of time, the misery of flaking becomes history. A neat, tight stow is now readily achievable. Different boats have different methods, but here’s one that works on small sails, and is fine at least as far up as 1,000sqft (93m2). If the boom’s normal resting height makes reaching it a
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CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2022
stretch, lower it with the topping lifts until you can reach the sail easily, taking up slack on the sheet. Gaffers will have to ease the peak halyards as well to keep the gaff handy to the boom. Once the sail is stowed, you can top the boom back up. This time, the sail is not stowed while it’s being lowered, it is dropped smartly onto one side of the boom. The ship’s rugby player now grabs the leech. Starting at the peak of the gaff, or the head if the sail is triangular, he or she works down to the clew, hauling aft all the way, assisted by more of the crew if necessary. This removes any bunch-ups of canvas. The leech is now hauled hard aft from a point two or three feet above the clew depending on the size of the sail, forming a sort of bag between the fold created and the boom. The person on the leech now works towards the head or the peak, hauling aft all the time while bundling the sail into the ‘bag’. The rest of the team follow suit along the bunt, or body of the sail. When it’s all in, the crew shake the bag together to tighten the contents before working it up onto the boom in a neat, crease-free roll. If the sail is loose-footed you may have to miss out the shaking phase to prevent the stow from tumbling out under the foot. The ties should be ready rove between the foot of the sail and the boom so there’s no scrabbling for them while trying to hold the beast in place. The whole job can be done single-handed on a thirty-footer. As sails get bigger, the more hands the merrier. On a gaffer, ties are led over the gaff and under the foot of the sail, but never around the boom. Leading ties between the gaff and the head of the sail is a bad idea. Not only does it look awful, it stretches the head-rope into bights. The best ties are of broad webbing with a loop stitched into one end. If these are not available, stout rope ties will do, whipped at one end with an eye spliced into the other. By passing the end through the eye after it has gone round the sail, a whip purchase can be achieved for sweating up a tight stow, and the tie can be secured with a slippery hitch. When the stow is complete, the boom is topped up to a perfect angle and gaffers can set the peak to suit personal taste. I like to see it parallel, or slightly up at the throat. Scandinavians keep their peaks well up, but in all cases, that tight roll sheds any rain. Water affected the lifespan of sails cut from natural fibre prone to rot with damp. The sailors of old prevented this with a proper stow and, as is so often true, what working people developed for pragmatic reasons still pleases the eye today.
