Tag Archives: sails

Tools of the Trim

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Rails and Sails! Last week (July 9th), I posted about my friends’ boat, Glorious Day!

It is a wonderful craft that was smooth on the water and a joy to be in for the day.

This picture was hanging in their cabin.

When I saw this, I loved it. It spoke volumes to me. I will summarize for you here in this post.

Before I get to the summary, here are three links for extra credit:

Rails and Sails

Glorious Day!

Wind in your face?

I found it intriguing that I had blogged about sailing before this post. Back in May 2015, the post, Wind in your face? was posted. Let us find out if anything has changed…

When someone sails, the wind needs to blow. No wind means no progress.

Keeping the sails at maximum efficiency seems to be at the heart of sailing.

Let me make some comparisons. Comparison #1 Wind equals problems.

Yes, there are days that the wind does not blow but those are rare. Wind can affect all areas of life. Everywhere and anywhere, the wind will blow.

Comparison # 2 Life equals sailing.

We all have goals. There are things we want to obtain or achieve. The range of these goals is wide. Spiritual, physical, financial, mental, vocational, or whatever category you want to use: we all have goals.

But like I said earlier, no wind means no progress.

Or, if we use my comparisons, No problems means no progress.

To use a sailing term, we must trim our sails.

Simply, trim means to adjust.

I can’t tell the wind when or where to blow. It does its own thing.

I can’t tell life what to do to me. It will move on regardless of me.

All I can do is adjust my sails.

God promises me the power and strength to do what I need to do. My relationship with God will allow me to “trim” when the wind comes. It could be a minor adjustment or even a new way of thinking.

Continual reading of God’s word and habitual prayer are the tools of the trim.

So just like a sailboat, I can make progress because of the wind, not in spite of it.

Blow wind blow!

Glorious Day!

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Sailing, I found, was peaceful. It was a perfect little escape. The weather was terrific and even better, were our host friends, Mike and Michelle.

Glorious Day is the name of their boat.

I also found out that I do not know very much about sailing.

Here are some terms that the average person most likely would not know:

  • Luff: The luff is the front edge of the sail between the tack and head.
  • Leech: The leech is the aft part of the sail between the clew and head.
  • Gybing- When you steer the vessel from a starboard tack to a port tack and vice versa downwind.
  • Mizzen sail: A mizzen sail is typically a small triangular sail set on the aft mast of a boat with several masts, like the ketch rig.
  • Boom Vang/Rod Kicker: A compression pole is used to tension the boom downwards. 

There are many more but those are some of the more peculiar terms.

Mike and Michelle are awesome! They were gracious hosts to my wife and me.

As we made out from the port, Mike would explain these various terms to me. He would also instruct me to “hold this rope tight”, “crank this lever” or “just sit tight for a minute”.

At one point, I even got to steer the boat! But make no mistake, Mike was and always will be, from the beginning, the captain of the Glorious Day.

After an hour or so, Michelle prepared lunch. So here we are sailing, eating, and talking with friends. As I said, it was a fantastic day!

On this map, the red star is the city of Green Bay. The water that goes up and to the right of the red star is the bay of Green Bay. If you find the town of Little Suamico (just north of Green Bay), that is where we entered the water.

As I recall this little excursion, this thought dominated my mind: Life can be like sailing and God is my captain.

There are times when my Captain tells me to “hold this rope” or “sit down”. He is telling me how to live and how to live right.

The storms of life provide an ample amount of wind for the sails. Is this a good thing or bad? More on this in my next post.

It even feels like I get to pilot the boat on occasion.

Sure, there are terms that I don’t know. Maybe I am not sure of the timing on when (or which) sail to unfurl. So many things are taking place at once.

And the Captain is 100% aware of all of them at any given second in time.

And He will even have a nice meal waiting for you and me!

So grab your life vest and come aboard!

Yes, that is me. I just wanted to be like Bill Murray in What About Bob?

P.S. If you are reading this for the first time, I would recommend going back to the post of July first. It will give some context for the content of this post and also the next couple of months. Click here.