New (to us) Boat... big THANK YOU

 .

We have had some very generous people donate boats to our fleet... in fact this is how we acquired most of them! Most recently we were given a 5O5 class sloop (link to international 5O5 racing association) which is quite a hot-rod... it is as much of a step above the Flying Juniors as the FJs are above the Javelins.

Not to say that the Javelins are bad boats, in fact they are great for learning. They are reassuringly stable, they sail well if handled properly, and they are very strongly built. However they are like family station wagons when the FJs are the sports cars... and the 5O5 is quite a bit faster and more responsive yet, although it is also a strongly-built boat. It will take attention to detail and proper skills (ie doing it the way the coaches teach it) to keep the 5O5 upright and moving... and if it's moving, it's not going slow!


Well, rank hath it's priviledges, so the Sailing Squad CO was the first cadet to sail the new boat... of course he had a check-ride with Coach King first, which he passed with flying colors. Then the "Racing Team" with experience in FJs and Lasers took full control of New Bern NJROTC's 5O5. They found that the boat is very responsive with quick (instant!) but precise steering, and just a slight adjustment of the sheets make the boat either accelerate or wallow... and they also found that the boat is more stable than the FJ  BUT it sure helps to be respond quickly when that big mainsail start to heel the boat!


.
Sailing a boat like this is a lot of fun, and it's a good test of skill. All the cadets did a good job today, while there was a few sloppy moments, most of the tacks & gybes were good. It made us coaches feel good that our work was not being wasted!

So, if the 5O5 (link to info) is supposed to have a SPINNAKER and a TRAPEZE, where are the pics of our cadets using them? Well, this is a complicated boat and we have simplified it for cadet use... the trapeze has been taken off (learn to HIKE!) and the spinnaker was not available this first time... this was a test sail, what do you expect? At a point in the near future, we hope to carry out spinnaker practice in this boat. It looks like this level of performance encourages the cadets to learn & to stay attentive, so the plan is to rig the spinnaker for future sessions.

Meanwhile, lets look at some more pics of the cadets SAILING

Here is one of the 'old salts' skippering with a 1st-semester sailor as crew. Maybe it's a newbie thing, maybe it's a leadership thing, but this crew has obviously not been motivate to HIKE... get your feet under the straps and get your body mass OUT






.

Getting ready to fly the "Go Home" signal... after almost 2 hours of sailing, everybody has had a turn with the new boat although a few did not want to skipper the boat... it is definitely a handful and can be intimidating... but everybody got a chance to practice their knowledge & skills.

.

The boat is held with the BOW into the wind while rigging or un-rigging. The new boat is a bit more complicated but the basics never change!

...posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

Finally some real sailing... drill, umm not so good

.

.

This coming Saturday, 12 May 2012, we have a Regatta and you are invited! (link)

.

 After a couple of weeks of bad weather have kept us in the classroom, but today saw some action in the Javelins. It's started to turn hot, days in the 90s are upon us but this afternoon a nice SouthEast breeze, 70F, sunny, and a fleet of boats to sail... what more could you ask for?

Some of us have learned to sail CLOSE-HAULED better than others.

The drills for this afternoon's session- sail around a triangle with one leg straight to windward... practice docking using the buoys... practice timing runs & accelerating, such as might be done at the start of a race... is this too difficult? Apparently so.

 One of the boat teams had little difficulty sailing around the triangle they weren't great but did OK. One never managed to figure out how. Two of the boats managed not-completely-terrible docking but none did a good docking and none practiced at more than one buoy (gosh, does it matter whether the buoy is upwind or downwind?) At this point, the coaches on the water were almost ready to give up.

Instead, we decided to drop back to the basic of basics... the good old "baby duck" drill (link). In getting lined up, we had a near-collision and a lot of trouble figuring out how to follow the coach boat. Once we got going, it wasn't so bad.

Here is the Baby Duck drill, except the boats should be a little closer to gether and more in a straight line.

Do these guys actually know how to steer? You can't prove it by their performance in this drill!

Alright, at least now we are all going in the same direction, on a consistent point of sail, and not getting stuck in irons all the time... now let's try to show we know something. How about STOPPING? After all we have a very good lesson (link) on that topic.

The whistle sounds, the coach signals STOP, and the boats all.... zoom past with deer-in-headlights looks on the skippers faces?

Well, after a couple of tries, the cadets did sort of OK. It was a poor performance but we're running out of time.

Every lesson should end on a positive note. We don't really have one here, there were more collisions and more obvious examples of skippers totally forgetting lessons they have already practiced successfully. This is not funny, the sea cannot be 'dumbed down' for people with short attention spans.

Wait, there are some positive notes... the motor on Coach King's RIB ran pretty well today. We have a regatta coming up this Saturday, so we don't have to wait until Monday to prove we can do better.

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King