Excellent excellent day for sailing... not bad sailing either

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NOTICE- our next sailing day will be next Tuesday May 21, not Monday!

After several Mondays of bad weather, we had an absolutely beautiful day with some real wind. The average wind strength was around 10 kt (what is the difference between a knot and a mile per hour? (link)) but we had gusts up to 18, which is enough to more than get your attention.


The Javelins do not have hiking straps! However these cadets are getting more power by getting their weight up & out as far as safely possible.



Today we sailed all 3 Javelins, plus Coach Murphy generously used his own boat again. The advanced cadets (did anybody bring their blue book?!?) were not enthusiastic at first, but in the strong winds that kicked up for much of the days sailing, they did manage to get some thrills anyway.







Here is one of our beginner skippers, learning how to hold the tiller extension. This photo shows one of the good ways to NOT hold it! This cadet did quite well for most of the day's sailing, however.







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Right-Of-Way situation! Here is Coach Murphy's personal boat, a Montgomery 15, with a Javelin headed right at it.

Which boat has the Right-Of-Way? The yellow Javelin has the wind coming over it's port side, the Montgomery 15 is on the opposite tack.

Both cadets in the yellow Javelin are advanced sailors, and the skipper is doing the right thing by letting his mainsail luff. This slows the boat down and makes it easier to bear away and pass safely astern of the Montgomery 15.







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Which is exactly what he is doing! We teach 'when in doubt, pass the other vessel's stern' and that is what happened here. A nice safe interaction between two boats in close quarters, despite the gusty winds.



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Baby Duck Drill!

Everybody GO!!!

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more Baby Duck Drill

Everybody STOP!

This was well done, even by our two beginner skippers in the two Javelins behind.







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Here is another of our beginner skippers, learning to work the mainsheet & steer at the same time. He is doing well at holding the hiking stick and steering on course, although his crew has the jib pulled in too tight (as shown by the "telltale" ribbons near the leading edge of the jib).







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Time to go in... sailing is over for today.

In the lee of the dock, it is deceptively calm. There is also a strong current running down the river (left to right in this photo) which makes it easy to stop short of the dock.


Next Tuesday will be our last scheduled sailing day this semester. Several beginner sailors missed todays session, and several beginner sailors HAVE NOT completed the qualification they need to become Basic Skippers. However we sailing coaches understand that exams are coming up and STUDYING takes priority. Generally our sailors do very well academically and we encourage that.

...posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King