Learn the shoot-up: how to stop a dinghy or yacht head to wind on a target – with a buoy drill, mistake list and an honest note on man-overboard rescue.
The honest answer upfront: a shoot-up is a brake from the wind – you steer the boat into the wind, the sails lose their power and the boat glides to a stop. With the right distance to the target you come to a halt exactly where you want. Why it works: head to wind the sails flap and the boat stops [2]. So you use the no-go zone once on purpose instead of stumbling into it.
The shoot-up is the foundation for docking, picking up a mooring and man-overboard recovery. RYA training includes tasks like "the boat must be stopped next to the buoy" and "the boat must be stopped dead when you pick up the man-overboard dummy" [1]. Without that you cannot dock under control.
You do not brake with the rudder but with the wind – and your feel for the glide distance is what you train here.
Realistically: you grasp the idea in an hour, but the feel for the distance takes many attempts, depending on boat and wind.
Sail slowly into the no-go zone once on purpose and watch: the jib flaps first, then the speed is gone [1][2]. Milestone: you explain in one sentence why the boat stops.
Approach your target on a beam or broad reach. The RYA also uses a close-reach final approach for the rescue manoeuvre [1]. Milestone: you hit the approach line calmly without the boat getting too fast.
When you are still a few boat lengths away (you find the number by trying), head up towards the wind and let the sheets run. The RYA describes this as spilling and filling the mainsail to control speed [1]. Milestone: the boat visibly loses speed without you working the tiller nervously.
When the bow is head to wind, take the rudder off. Every rudder movement brakes [1]. The boat glides to a stop. Milestone: the boat stops at most one boat length before or beyond the target (practical criterion).
Approach the buoy from the right and from the left, in more and less wind. Milestone: five attempts, at least four in the target zone.
After stopping, the boat sits head to wind ("in irons"). You practise getting going again on land and with an instructor – the RYA teaches "getting out of irons" explicitly as its own land drill [1]. Milestone: you get going again and bear away in a controlled way onto a reach.
Here the rule is: man overboard is an emergency, not a practice experiment. Falls overboard (39 to 44 percent) and capsizes (20 to 40 percent) are the main causes of fatal sailing accidents, and up to 73 percent of deaths are drowning [4]. A lifejacket roughly halves the risk (risk ratio 0.51), with the authors' caveat that the estimate may be biased [5].
Practise rescue only with a dummy (a fender with a tyre), never with a real person in the water [1]. The shoot-up is one building block of it – you learn the full sequence with a sailing school and an instructor, not from a text. In the German motorboat/sailing licence exam, "docking under sail" and the "rescue manoeuvre under sail (man overboard)" are mandatory; you get two attempts [3]. The regulation does not use the word shoot-up, but the tasks assume the ability. This guide does not replace a supervised course.
Practise hovering: the RYA uses a training drill in which boats hover next to a buoy for as long as possible before bearing away and accelerating [1]. It trains precisely the feel for speed, sail position and rudder – and it is fun.
A shoot-up is the manoeuvre in which you turn the boat into the wind and reduce speed under control. Head to wind the sails flap and the boat stops [2]. You use it to stop at a buoy or a dock.
Head up, ease the sheet and let the boat glide into the wind. The sails lose their power [1][2]. The distance to the target is the key – you learn it by practising with a buoy.
When the bow is exactly head to wind, the sails flap and the boat has no power to keep turning. This is called being "in irons" [1]. The way out belongs in training; practise it on land with an instructor [1].
The German licence regulation does not name the term but requires "docking under sail" and a "rescue manoeuvre under sail (man overboard)" as mandatory manoeuvres [3]. Both assume you can bring the boat to a controlled stop.
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