Using Your Sails - Not Your Motor - To Leave and Get Back To The Slip

Sailing To and Back To Your Slip

Sometimes your engine won’t work.  Sometimes your fuel is low, or you have run out of fuel.  Sometimes you have damaged your propeller.  Sometimes you just want a challenge…

There are many reasons that might come up that require you to use your sails (yes your sails) to maneuver out of the marina or back to the marina and your slip.

Check the wind.  How strongly is the breeze blowing?  What direction is the breeze blowing.  Think about the course(s) you will need to sail to maneuver the boat to where you want to go.  Sailing against the breeze in a series of short tacks along a slip row is nearly impossible.  There is not sufficient room to get the boat up to a speed where tacking is possible.  But beam reaching, broad reaching or running are more than easily accomplished.

Next consider which sails to use.  I would recommend using your working jib or another jib that is easily handled from one tack to another… and a jib that will fill easily with the breeze you have.  It is particularly nice if the breeze is at an angle that allows you to stay on one tack throughout the maneuver.

Okay, here’s one way to sail away from your slip and the marina.  Start with the jib sail down on the deck and ready to hoist.  Sheets attached and rove through the lead blocks, etc. 

Hop aboard and hoist your jib sail.  As the sail fills, you will begin to sail down the slip row.  Get ready for the turn.

Make the turn and head for open water.  As soon as you are clear of the marina and any other obstructions, head up into the breeze and hoist the mainsail. 

Enjoy your sail.

Coming back to the marina and sailing to your slip is done in much the same way as sailing out of the marina.  Make sure that you know where the breeze is coming from.  You will not be able to easily tack your way up a slip row.  So, check to see if you will be sailing on a broad reach or a run.

Douse your mainsail and flake it securely to your boom.  Start heading toward your turn into the slip row.  When you have made the turn into the slip row, trim or ease the jib sheet as needed.  Keep the boat moving.

This part of the sail back to your slip will be easiest if you are on a broad reach or run.  A beam reach will do alright too… but don’t try sail close hauled unless you are very confident that your boat won’t gather any leeway and slip sideways into parked boats in their slips.

Get ready to take down your jib sail.  If you have a roller furler, this is pretty easily done.  If not, you might rig a jib downhaul line before you leave the marina.  The jib downhaul line is secured to the jib halyard shackle and is rove through a block at the base of the forestay, then back to the cockpit.  Releasing the jib halyard and pulling on the jib downhaul line will quickly douse the jib and hold it on the deck.

 As your boat approaches your slip, gauge your speed and then douse the jib so as to be able to turn and coast into the slip.  BTW – it is a good thing to have practiced this maneuver in open water so that you will know how far your boat will coast at differing breeze velocities.

Now you are “parked” in your slip with the sails down.  Secure the boat to the dock lines.  You are home “free”.

Sailing away from your slip and out of the marina - - or sailing back to your slip are both easy to do.  It takes confidence and a knowledge of how your boat will react on different points of sail with only a jib sail hoisted.  So, perhaps something that you can practice when you are out sailing.