Duck the Boom

Don’t get hurt in the first place.

When you make a turn on a sailboat you should turn with the wind crossing your bow. This allows the boom to gradually cross the over the cockpit of the boat.  However, if you turn with the wind behind you, the wind will slam the main sail and the boom to the other side like a door slamming in a draft, this is called a jibe.

Sometimes a jibe is intentional for example – in a race, sometimes it’s an accident.  If the jibe is intentional, the skipper will tell you beforehand so you can prepare for the jibe and duck the fast moving boom from hitting you, oftentimes in the head.

If the jibe is an accident, then the first person to notice that the boat is going to jibe should yell out the shortest possible warning which is something like “Jibe.”  Call it out loud and clear like you would if you needed to scream “Fire” or call for “Help”.  There is no time to waste.  Anyone in the way of the boom should duck very quickly.

There are things and times in our lives that we don’t want to duck.  Take the risk and reap the benefits if you make it work.  And there a lot of things that happen that we should duck; just get out of the way!  If you don’t get into undesirable trouble in the first place, then you don’t need to fix it up.