Despite the picture accompanying this article being of Hilary struggling to survive a sinking Titanic, the sub-heading of this piece is obviously a sailing metaphor. I say "obviously" with 18 years of sailing experience under my belt, but I would imagine to most of the population it is less clear. So a cursory explanation of being "in irons" follows.
Many people could deduce from context that the literary device means "to stall", and that's actually very close to the mark. Sloops use two sails to propel themselves creating lift from the wind. Many times the Main (rear) sail is a larger than the jib at the bow. (Larger headsails do exist, genoas, and can change the boat's handling characteristics and balance, which vary from design to design anyway) The result of more sail area in the stern is the tendency of the boat to round up (turn into the wind) when the boat is over powered (weather-helm). Think of it as a balancing scale, the keel at the center of the boat acts as the fulcrum with the two sails acting as the weights on either side. If the stern of the boat has more force applied, it will be forced down wind, and the bow in turn is forced upwind.Luffing the sails is part of being in irons, but you also need to remain head to wind, not generating lift for a while. This is because as long as a boat is moving through the water it retains at least some steerage. And if you can steer you should be able to ease the main and turn away from the wind, provided it is not blowing too strongly. But once the steerage is gone irons will settle upon you like a hippo on a newborn. From there your options are to try and backwind the jib or just wait until you're being blown to the leeward shore quickly enough to generate some steerage from your backwards momentum. Neither of which, I think, will work for Senator Clinton in this case.
No comments:
Post a Comment