When the weather is light, the yacht small, or particularly easy in coming about, all the above may not need to be executed. Some vessels will come about without starting the head-sheets; others always need it; some always get stern-way, and need the helm shifted to bring them round; whilst the centre-board boats, as a class, fly round without touching any thing. But it is well to know how to get a yacht about in a heavy sea; and all the principles that will help bring about this result have been given above.
There are times when the sea is too high, and the sail so much reduced that a yacht will not go about by turning towards the wind, but must be gotten on the other tack by wearing, as it is technically called in ships, where the yards are square, and jibing, as it is called in crafts that carry fore-and-aft sails, i.e., sails that hoist up on a mast, and are stretched upon booms, in contradistinction to those that are fastened to yards that cross the mast at right angles, as in a ship often called by sailors, for this reason, a "square-rigger."
Jibing is at all times a delicate manoeuvre, as many have found out to their sorrow if they have ever been careless. It is also a very deceptive manoeuvre, to any but sailors. How easy it is for land-lubbers, after facing a good square breeze, to think, when the yacht is kept away before it, that the wind has gone down! And the writer has actually brought his yacht to the wind again, to convince one sceptic that it was the position of the yacht _wholly_ that caused all the change; which is extremely marked, as all must allow. It is from this treacherous smoothness, after so much buffeting about when close-hauled, that all the mischief occurs; for the boom often, if carelessly allowed to jibe, will fill with wind, and, as it goes over, either part the main-sheet, or carry away the mast, or do other damage, sometimes of a very serious nature. It is forgotten, also, in this manoeuvre, that, when the mainsail comes aft, there is a moment when it flutters in the wind's eye; and the yacht, relieved of its immense pressure, loses in a great measure her momentum, and then, when the sail fills with a rush, sufficient allowance for the loss of speed, and the force of the hurrying wind that fills the great mainsail, is not taken into account.