Yes, we went sailing today!

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The NJROTC fleet gets underway! 

Beginners sailed in Javelins with coaches along to help & advise, the advanced sailors rigged up & held practice in FJs. The weather was beautiful and it was a great session as well as big fun.

 Here we see Coach Jackson's newbies learning how to steer, and how to work the sheets... it all requires the ability to see the wind direction!


Is something wrong here? Isn't that front sail supposed to be on the same side as the larger back sail ???
(answer- not always! What Point of Sail are they on?)






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Coach Rezab's bunch also worked hard at learning skipper & crew tasks. In small vessels, the skipper usually steers... in this case, he is steering quite well and is using the tiller extension properly. Well done!

Meanwhile, one crew keeps the mainsheet and anothe the jib sheet. These must be adjusted according to the wind direction, which determines the Point of Sail




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Coach Murphy's boat moving along smartly, obviously the sails are adjusted well and the trainee-skipper is holding a good course. Needs to practice using the Hiking Stick though, because in tight maneuvering or in stronger winds the human arm is not long enough to reach as far as the tiller must be pushed/pulled.

The NJROTC sailing program bought new sets of Javelin sails last fall, and these are in great shape. Remember a sail is a working aerodynamic FOIL, not just a big piece of cloth.



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Meanwhile, over at the beach, the advanced sailors (plus one newby) are rigging up the FJs. They were kinda slow today, must be out of practice.










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Definitely out of practice... if you look at the big version of this pic, you can see the yarns on the shrouds telling this "advanced skipper" that he is sailing downwind... but he's not listening, the sails are pulled in tight!

However the boat is balanced, helm in good position, they did a good series of tacks & gybes and actually outran the other FJs chasing them, so things weren't all bad.





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Here we see an advanced sailor.. who often is the skipper but in this case is the crew... completing a "crew task" of coiling & stowing the long ends of the halyards. Lines must be kept untangled and out from under foot. This skipper is also doing a good job steering with the hiking stick... the FJs are tippy and the emphasis is often on HIKING (not quite enough wind today)






Today's lesson was on STEERING and handling the SHEETs, hopefully we learned to recognize the POINTS of SAIL and we practiced TACKING. We should already know all the basic boat parts, terminology, directions, and rigging. We -should- have made a good start on ropes & knots. The sailing students have to move fast to keep up, in order to pass (and earn the ribbon!) you must be able skipper the boat thru basic drills by the end of the semester!

Don't forget we have a written assignment... ... you can refer to the books in LCDR Clark's classroom, or get a copy of our textbook, use our on-line lessons (link), or any other reference.

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King





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