main-sheet

Putting the tiller hard down, and holding it down with my body, I brought the main-sheet in, hand over hand, on the run, so as to retain all possible striking force.

White and Yellow 2010

The main-sheet slacked and dipped, then shot over our heads after the boom and tautened with a crash on the traveller.

The King of the Greeks 2010

We had to be constantly on the alert to avoid a capsize, and while Charley steered I held the main-sheet in my hand with but a single turn round a pin, ready to let go at any moment.

DEMETRIOS CONTOS 2010

But they jeered defiantly, for they knew it was in my power to luff the helm and let go the main-sheet, so as to spill the wind and escape damage.

White and Yellow 2010

And then, and not until then, did I luff up and ease out the main-sheet.

White and Yellow 2010

Then it was up and in, Paul at the main-sheet and I at the tiller, the Mist plunging ahead with freedom in her motion, and the little white light astern growing small and smaller.

To Repel Boarders 2010

"You'd better slack away three or four feet of that main-sheet," he said in a hopeless sort of way, as though it did not matter much anyway.

To Repel Boarders 2010

We ran down the flying jib, hauled the jib-sheets to wind-ward and the main-sheet flat, and came up into the wind.

Chapter 18 2010

The next instant the big boom and the heavy blocks swept over our heads, the main-sheet whipping past like a great coiling snake and the Mist heeling over with a violent jar.

To Repel Boarders 2010

I hauled in the main-sheet a foot or two, took a turn with it, and bracing my feet, put my back against the tiller.

White and Yellow 2010