Single Handing or Single Handling?

With boats, there is without the L, Single Handed or Single Handing...

I agree with Lars

Handing, as they said.

Although I wouldn't find anything objectionable to someone saying handling.

Gee, I'm surprised at the responses. Is this a case of descriptive grammar versus prescriptive grammar? I would have thought "the yacht can be single handed" or put another way, "the yacht is great for single handling."

Interesting question. I always used "single handed" based on a hand being a deckhand, a crewmember. I found that definition in one nautical dictionary, but not in others. One mentions "all hands" meaning all ship's company, enlisted and officers.

If its properly laid out, and the person has some stamina, then its not as bad as one would think.

A number of older gentleman have raced across the ocean, and around the world, while sailing their vessels by themselves.

Phil Weld even made the comment that single-handed sailboat racing was one of the few sports he could still be competitive with the younger generation, even at his advancing age
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/11/8/famed-sailor-philip-s-weld-dies/

http://melrosemirror.media.mit.edu/servlet/pluto?state=30303470616765303037576562506167653030326964303033353731


Reply

Ah, here is one of those references, "Ocean racing is a sport "where the accretion of wisdom can offset diminishing physical power". So says Phil Weld, a 65-year-old grandfather who shattered every previous record with his victory in the 1980 Observer Singlehanded Trans-Atlantic Race"

It is handing according to my sort of careful reading of my 1960ish copy of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. The hand in the word handing refers to a person as a crew member, not a five fingered body part. Handling is a manner of treating or dealing with something or someone as in managing. Confused yet?

Most of us have probably operate as a one handed crew many times...

Single handed or single handing is an very old term used by sailors (crews of sailing ships ) and just means the task or boat is handled by one man. In the old days there was a saying: "one hand for the ship, one hand for yourself", when working in the mast or during a storm on deck of an square rigger. So, actually one man had only one hand for the ship. That's why it's called single handing or single handed.

Just my two (Euro) cents

Thanks, I had forgotten that old saying.

Imagine those guys in that photo you posted standing on frozen lines and reefing those sails as they sail around the Cape in the stormy winter months. !!

Is that Capt. Irving Johnson on the Peking, third from the port side?
Scratch that; he's taking the picture if it's the Peking.