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Think Landings

© Anne Schwab

"I'm gonna crash, I'm gonna crash! What do I do Dad?" I screamed against the wind as my x-boat and I neared the dock at an alarming rate. How was I going to land this thing at the dock?

My father stood on the shoreline and calmly watched my panic.

"Think," came his reply.

Think! I was thinking. Thinking about how the dock would soon by smashed to smithereens, about how I would be wounded in the process, about my boat sinking to the depths of the lake. Thinking about how I didn't' know beans about landing a boat and why wasn't there someone on board who would take over and do it for me?

I pulled and pushed at the tiller. Was it let the main sail out, or haul it in? Should I do something with the centerboard? Should I send my unsuspecting crew up to the bow to catch the dock?

"Think," my dad's voice glided through my frenzied thoughts, over the sound of madly luffing sails.

"Think..."

So I did. I pulled the sail in, turned the boat around, glided parallel to the dock, then turned the boat into the wind, drifting on softly luffing sails, right up to the dock. The bow of the boat kissed the dock edge, and my crew stepped off gracefully, securing the boat with a quick clove hitch.

OK, so that's not quite how it happened that day. But after my first few crash landings, complete with lots of screaming, yelling, and people falling overboard (that only happened once..or twice), I did learn now to execute a pretty good landing.

That's the thing about landings, they're hard to master. But with patience, perseverance, and a good teacher, it is possible to be a master boat lander.

Think.

If you're just learning, or even if you've been working at it for a while, remember to approach the dock heading upwind, not down. Downwind landings are recipes for disaster. When you're a few boat lengths away from the dock, depending on the wind strength, head up into the wind, let your sails luff, and gently drift into the dock.

You might not want to send your crew up to the bow on windy days until you've become fairly adept at landing. We all hate to see a good crew crushed; they're so hard to replace. And on those calm days, be sure to have a paddle on board, just in case you head into the wind and stop before you've reached the dock.

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