Having learned the names of all the important spars, sails, and ropes, and their uses, it becomes necessary to study the other appurtenances of a boat to acquire a thorough knowledge of boat-sailing; and for that purpose we will pass briefly in review the following.
Nearly all yachts are made of such a model as to need some heavy material placed within them to enable them to carry sail, and stand up against sudden squalls and flaws of wind. This material is called _ballast_, and, as a self-evident rule, yachts that are shallow, and of great breadth of beam, need less than those of a deep and narrow model.
Many articles may be used for ballast, and a yacht ballasted in many different ways; but the following-named are those that are most commonly used. Pig-iron, in pieces that can be handled, is a favorite kind of ballast: sometimes each piece is painted, so as to preserve it from rusting, and discoloring the inside of the boat. Iron in the form of fifty-six-pound weights is also used; whilst a cheaper and very common ballast is found in the small clean pebbles of the seashore. Water contained in movable tanks has been at times, with some, a well-praised ballast; and in yachts where it can be used, and that are fitted for it, it is of great practical value, as, like no other, it can be discharged and renewed by means of a pump, according to the will and weather.
The slag from smelted copper and iron is extensively used, as are also broken pieces of iron-casting. But perhaps the ballast as commonly in use as any other in medium-sized yachts and small boats, or, at least, a part of the ballast, consists of common sea-sand enclosed in canvas sacks of a not too unwieldy size, that are movable about the bottom of the boat by means of canvas handles, and can, in emergency, be dumped bodily over into the sea, thus relieving the yacht of so much dead weight.
Nearly all yachts that are ballasted, when filled with water, will sink; and there have been many ingenious ways devised to prevent this, so that, in case a yacht should be swamped, i.e., completely filled with water, she would yet float, and make a sort of life-preserver to the occupants, and not go to the bottom, and leave them struggling on the surface.