Getting it all together, learning as we go

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Here we go... getting started pulling the New Bern NJROTC's fleet out of it's winter sleep.

We have some work to do before we can turn this (1st pic) into THIS (2nd pic)

  This work takes 2 forms, we need to get the boats ready to sail by putting the masts up, attaching the rigging properly, getting them ready to launch... we need to work on getting the SAILORS ready too, by learning terminology and skills.

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 Bridgeton Harbor Marina provides an excellent venue for the boats and for learning to sail. The coaches are equally important. Here is Coach Mark Hittner with some of the advanced sailing cadets, most with a year's experience, on getting the FJs ready.

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Coach Mike Murphy is working with the beginner sailors on the 3 Oday Javelins, which are not much bigger but heavier and more stable. 

The Javelins are kept on trailers during the winter, and moored in a slip for the sailing season. The Flying Juniors (FJs) are kept on shore, the cadets carry them and use a dolly to launch them at the Bridgeton Harbor beach every sailing session.

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 Now this Javelin has the mast up, stays pinned, the boom rigged, and the students have learned the names and functions of many of these parts of the boat while they are doing the work.

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 This has done some traveling... at Twin Rivers YMCA pool for last weeks lesson on capsizing... and now we are rigging it again for sailing.

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 It takes some muscle, but more skill and knowledge, to get these small boats masts up and put in place correctly. These cadets have done this a few times, and know the basics well. But there is always more to learn. The geometry of where the mast is stepped and how it is rakes, which the stays control, strongly affects how efficiently this boat will perform when sailing.

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Head Sailing Coach Jerry Rezab has been in charge of this program since before 2008. It was a going concern when he joined, but he made it much more vital and exciting using smaller more responsive boats, acquiring a fleet and and all the needed gear to sail, and recruiting volunteer coaches with the expertise and the personality to make it happen.

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... photos by Fred Cornford

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