Trump is three sheets to the wind, and I don't mean drunk

[Xipe Totec]

Derived from sailing ships. The 'sheet' in the phrase uses the nautical meaning, of a rope that controls the trim of sail. A sheet that is in the wind has come loose from its mooring and is flapping in the wind like a flag. A sail (normally jib sails) is said to be sheeted to the wind, when it is set to backfill (set to the opposite side of the ship from normal use).

A backfilled jib is normally a bad thing. But in a major storm when a ship is “hove to,” the helm is lashed to windward, and the jib(s) are sheeted to the windward side of the ship (sheeted to the wind) causing the ship to sit sideways to the wind and waves to minimize the distance the ship is blown off course during a storm. While hove to, the ship is at the mercy of the wind and the crew has no control of the ship.

As the storm gets stronger, more force is required to hold the ship in position and additional jibs are sheeted to the wind to keep the ship balanced. A ship that has three jibs sheeted to the wind would be sitting sideways to the wind and waves in hurricane conditions, causing it roll wildly from side to side and in constant danger of rolling over with each wave.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/three_sheets_to_the_wind

Donald Trump is at the mercy of the storm and with no control whatsoever. The sheets flapping wildly. Making much noise but no progress.

[pangaia]

1. Really interesting. Thnx

Question, i am reading THE MAYFLOWER. At one point during the crossing in a bad storm, they hove to. The way you describe it, it serms to me like a dangerous position just because of the possibility of being rolled over.

???

[Xipe Totec]

2. It's a trade-off between rolling over and losing your way

A tough call either way.

[pangaia]

3. I see.

I think I'd rather be lost and alive than on course and dead.



I've been sailing only once, last summer in the Lofoton Islands. A week on a 12m boat with 7 people. Loved every minute of it.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Heaving to as a storm tactic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaving_to

Heaving to has been successfully used by a number of yachts to survive storm conditions (winds greater than Force 10, 48-55 knots, 89–102 km/h, 55–63 mph). During the June 1994 Queen's Birthday Storm all yachts that hove to successfully survived the storm. This included Sabre a 10.4 m (34 ft) steel cutter with two persons on board, which hove to in wind speeds averaging 80 knots for 6 hours with virtually no damage.

During the ill-fated 1979 Fastnet race, of 300 yachts, 158 chose to adopt storm tactics; 86 'lay ahull', whereby the yacht adopts a 'beam on' attitude to the wind and waves; 46 ran before the wind under bare poles or trailing warps/sea anchors and 26 hove to. 100 yachts suffered knock downs, 77 rolled (that is turtled) at least once. Not one of the hove to yachts were capsized or suffered any serious damage.

The 'heave to' maneuver is described in the story of the first Golden Globe yacht race of 1968.


But this takes us far-far away from my point, which is that Trump is trying to survive a storm by letting go of all control. You may hear much noise coming from him, but it is not actively moving him in any discernible direction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaving_to

[pangaia]

5. Thank you again very much. It is fascinating to me.

And my apologies for getting away from your point, which I understood and of course totally agree with.

And now, with a little luck, "prepare to come about,"

🤣

[bdtrppr6]

6. i love it when i'm forced

to read something to actually understand it. i initially planned to simply post "what the fuck are you talkin about?" but backed up and read it again. thank you for knowledge. salud!

[Ilsa]

7. Is the main usually luffed

or completely down?

[Xipe Totec]

12. You decide

[janterry]

8. what to do with a drunken sailor

(not quite your point, but what I was thinking about)
Oh, and the 'captain's daughter is not really his daughter.........it's a whip!!)

[Achilleaze]

9. Way hay and down he* goes, way hay and down he goes...

* Comrade Casino, dangerously deceitful republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

[pangaia]

10. What a great tune.

In about 1979-1980 I went to Boston to visit my girlfriend. We just came up out of the T stop at The Common, and lo and behold Pete Seeger was in the middle of concert with a crowd of thousands. He was singing this song,

Really cookin' !

I'll never forget it.

Thanks for the memory.

[RainCaster]

11. It's not about sailing, and you will like this even more

I sail offshore for fun, going on 20 years now. I'm also interested in sailing expressions, and I believe this is not one of them. Yes, sailing does use sheets, but it doesn't make sense if you understand how rigging works and what the energy of a severe storm does to a boat or ship.

Think instead of an old fashioned windmill that was used for grinding grain. I've seen them in Holland and Greece, I'm sure they are in other parts of the world too. There is a 4 bladed prop with a wooden frame. When it's time to mill the grain, you reach out the windows upstairs and cover the wooden frames with big sheets of cloth to start the grist mill. You put these sheets up one at a time, and if the breeze is slow, it is a manageable task. Later in the day if the wind picks up, you have to slow down the blades before the whole mill is torn apart by all that energy. To slow it down, you have to take the sheets off of two opposing blades. Of course this is done one at a time, so after the first sheet comes off, the mill has "three sheets to the wind" and it is so out of balance the the entire building wobbles like a drunken sailor.

Now think of our butt hurt pResident waving his arms, ranting and tweeting.