Cast the tyers off the mainsail and hoist it, pulling up best on the throat halyards and then "swigging" on the peak till the after-leech is taut and the sail begins to wrinkle slightly at the throat. While you are setting the sail, let the sheet fly. Next coil down the throat and peak halyards clear for running, and see that the mainsheet is free from kinks and coiled so that it can be eased off at a moment's notice without any danger of jamming in the block. A kink in the mainsheet has capsized many a cat-boat. Before you reeve a new mainsheet, stretch it well and take all the kinks out of it. Take care that the running parts of all sheets and halyards are coiled uppermost, with the ends underneath.
Let us suppose that there is a nice breeze blowing and that your intention is to essay a four or five mile beat to windward, and then conclude your trial trip with a run home. Cast adrift from your moorings or get your anchor aboard, as the case may be, and start out on whichever tack is convenient. When on the starboard tack the boom is over to port, and _vice versa_. Lower the centerboard and fill away on the boat with one hand on the tiller and the other holding the mainsheet, which should never be belayed, but may be held by half a turn round the cleat.
Do not make the mistake of trimming in the sheet too flat, but let the boom off till it is well on the quarter and keep the sail well full, not allowing it to shiver. This is called steering "full-and-by," which signifies as close to the wind as possible with the sail not shaking. If your boat is well balanced—that is, if her weights are well adjusted and her sail of proper cut—she will carry quite a little weather helm. So much so that if you allow the rudder to come amidships or on a line with the keel she will fly up in the wind and her sails will shake. This is by no means a fault unless it is carried to excess, and it may be said, indeed, that there is something radically wrong with a craft that requires lee helm—a defect that should be remedied at once.
The young sailor should bear in mind that to accomplish the best results in beating to windward the sail should always be kept full. Nothing is gained by sailing a boat right in the wind's eye with the sail shivering. The boat then points higher but she goes to leeward like a crab. Instances have been known of a fore-and-aft racing yacht sailing within three points of the wind, but these are rare, indeed. The ordinary cat-boat will not often do better than pointing up within four points of the breeze, and her best windward work is generally thus accomplished. There are occasions, indeed, when what is known as a "fisherman's luff" may be indulged in with profit, such as when rounding a mark or shooting up to an anchorage where there is little room. The maneuver consists in luffing the boat up into the wind so that the sails shake, and she shoots dead to windward by her own momentum. If the boat is a heavy one she will shoot quite a distance. Care must be taken to put the helm up and fill on her before she loses way, or she will get "in irons" and acquire sternway, or perhaps pay off on the other tack. If a boat acquires sternway the helm must be shifted at once. The rudder will now produce the reverse effect to what it would if the boat were going ahead. Putting the tiller to starboard turns the vessel's head to port, and _vice versa_ in the case of sternway.