 |
The mast shrouds on the right and the sail on the left
It all needs to be reversed as you Khaiyoor (gybe) |
Dan, an old friend from the Army, has a 26 foot Jalboot, the
Zou Zou. It is a local, wooden sailboat traditionally used for fishing and
pearling. The boat had been conveniently
moored for free at a great little Marina at Umm Al Qwain where Dan lives. Unfortunately, there was a change in policy
and only local fishermen were now permitted to use the Marina. Dan discovered this when he saw a large
sticker plastered onto the Zou Zou telling him, in no uncertain terms, that he had to move
it or be subject to a large fine.
Dan was still a member of the Ras Al Khaimah Sailing Club
where he was previously the Commodore so he had organised to moor the boat at
the Club. Dan’s car had died and could
no longer tow the boat on a trailer, so I committed to help sail the boat the 60 km from
Umm Al Quain to Ras Al Kaimah.
 |
Some lanteen rigged Omani Dhows with the mast shrouds and the foreman on top of the sail.
When you Khaiyoor, the sail and foreman must go over the mast after the shrouds are removed and placed on the opposite side. |
 |
Captain Dan in selfie mode as we huddled in the shade during the
middle of the day. |
Rigging any boat takes time but a traditional
Jalboot with a lanteen sail is heavily dependent on knots and lashings to hold the rigging
together so the time required increases. We woke at 4 am to prepare for
a 6 am departure to catch the favorable wind that had been predicted. We motored out of the harbour using the Yamaha outboard and
headed a little out to sea to catch the predicted wind from the west-south-west and it wasn’t too long
before we had the sail up and were on our way.
 |
| ...and the sail and shrouds reversed |
Boats with lanteen sails can’t tack but can only gybe. This is because, unlike a modern cruising
yacht, the single sail extends to the fore and aft of the mukhartif (mast). In addition, the
mast shrouds that brace the mast are only on the up wind side of the sail not
on all sides of the mast. To Khaiyoor (gybe), the
mast shrouds are detached and reattached to the other side of the boat to allow
the large single sail with the foreman that stiffens the top edge of the sail
to be “flipped” over the top of the mast and onto the other side of the boat.
 |
| Perhaps I should have been a more careful helmsman |
This is a complicated manoeuvre that is best done by a crew
of four who know what they are doing. We
had a crew of two and I had no idea. This meant that Dan after shouting the command 'prepare to Khaiyoor" was racing around the
deck, loosening lashings to slide in the distoor (bowsprit), remove
and re-attached the mast shrouds on the opposite side of the boat and then flip
the sail and the foreman over the mast after I had released the sail. All I had to do was steer and release the
sail so I had an easy life.
 |
Dan cooks a mean stew but it would have been
better if the weather was colder |
The forecast winds did not occur and apart from a morning
breeze there was little wind until the on-shore northerly started when the day
had heated up. As a result we spent considerable time under sail but with the Yamaha giving us a push along. The
one advantage to this was that we were able to stop during the day for long
enough to allow Dan to cook an excellent Irish stew complete with lamb chops (with a little
chillie). As it was about 45 dec C I
passed on a hot bowl of stew for lunch and stuck to a salad sandwich.
 |
They say alcohol and boating doesn't mix; but, there is an
argument to say that when coming into a harbour after long hot day
a can of cold beer has a certain therapeutic effect |
Our Khaiyoor improved throughout the day although when the northerly
winds were strong there were a few challenging moments which Dan handled with
aplomb. We did however save our best for last where we performed a precise
Khaiyoor in the tight harbour in front of the Coast Guard station before
registering in.
 |
| Red sails in the sunset? |
We then proceeded under sail around the corner to RAKSA,
where Dan envisaged us performing an equally precise manoeuvre in front of his
fellow club members. Unfortunately, only
the barman Jonathan was there to impress.
He is from the Philippines and had been the barman for a month so I
think the technicalities of sailing a Jalboot with a lanteen sail was lost on
him. A least Jonathan had a cold beer in the fridge for us.
