On Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:12:10 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

The question in my mind is: what did the lone sailors do before the wind
vane? How did Joshua Slocum steer the Spray?

Their routes were carefully chosen to be dead down wind or nearly so.
You can do that if you are going around the world, much harder
Portland, ME to Portsmouth, NH.

They would typically use a double head sail rig: Two jibs wung-out on
opposite sides, each with its own pole. The jib sheet on each side
would be led aft to a turning block, and then tied to the tiller. As
the boat would begin to head up too much in one direction or the
other, jib sheet tension would increase on one side and decrease on
the other, thus pulling the tiller in the correct direction to head
down wind again.


Did they tie off the helm? And if yes, how long would the boat stay on
course?

Yes. They could go downwind for days and weeks at a time with little
or no adjustment.