Here's "the rest of the story" on getting out of irons, which is probably more than anyone wants to know but if a sailor wants to understand the technique it is what he needs to know. A rudder needs steerageway in order to work. In irons, the rudder is useless because water is not moving against it. Put yourself in irons and flip the rudder and you'll see what I mean. The rudder may as well be out of the water for all the good it will do. The idea is to get the boat moving so the rudder can be effective and in our example the only option is to get the boat moving BACKWARDS. Any bit of backward motion will make the rudder effective. Once you get the boat moving backwards you have to do something with the rudder. Keep it straight at first as that will help you to start sailing backwards. Once you get moving you have to REVERSE the rudder. If you have a tiller, what you want to do is point the tiller itself in the direction you want the boat to go. Say you are on starboard tack before you got into irons. I don't want to use the main (see reason later on) as an example but it is easier to explain by using that sail. The RUDDER (not the tiller) was pointed to starboard. If you had a tiller it would be pointed toward the port side. The wind was coming over the starbord side of the main. When you "backed the main" you were forcing the wind to come over the port side of the sail. If you don't "reverse" the rudder (point it to port) - (point the tiller to starboard, which is the direction you want to sail) - your not going anywhere. As soon as you do that the main should fill and soon off you go. If you have wheel steering you want to turn the top of the wheel in the direction you want the STERN to go. Back the main about 30 to 40 degrees in the direction OPPOSITE that which you want to go. If you want the bow to go right push the main to port. If you back the jib to starboard the bow will swing to port. On using the main to get out of irons: in strong winds do not use that sail. Use the jib. The problem with the main is its location. Its location near the center of the boat causes it to lack leverage - think of a seesaw - and it is therfore not as effective as the jib.
