Sailing wrap-up for Spring

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Well our short sailing semester is now over. The boats are secured for summer, just in case we have another hurricane. The time has come to pack all the gear away, unrig the boats, put the masts in storage.

Here are the die-hard sailors, taking the masts down on our FJs. For the beginners, it's still like a class on boat parts & terminology.

We had more cadets returning to the sailing squad this spring; not all of our "Advanced" cadre attended every session but we usually got some of the FJs out, and some of the advanced skippers helped with training the beginners. This is a very good way to do it!

The advanced sailors also got to test their skills against the 5O5 this spring. So far we have had some great sailing and some not-so-great, but nobody has crashed or capsized the 5-oh! yet even when gybing in 15+ kt winds.



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Here is Coach Hittner's cadets putting FJ #2 to bed for the summer. As always Coach Rezab is keeping a close eye on us!








Unfortunately the weather was not good for our classes this spring, we had fewer sailing sessions and very few cadets managed to complete the sailing drills. It takes some work to complete this class, you can't just claim to be a skipper by showing up!

Here is Coach Murphy and a couple of the beginner sailors working on FJ #1

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Small but elite group of New Bern sailing cadets... the class started out as 23, and about twice as many as in this photo usually attended. But this gang got the job done!

... photos by Coach Fred Cornford
... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

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Pipeline Drill, then some racing practice... and CONGRATS to newly qualified skipper

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First things 1st: congratulations to our newly qualified "Basic Sailor" (on left)


If this doesn't sound like much, look at what the sailing cadets much accomplish in this class in order to achieve the basic qualification. They learn parts of the boat, terminology, rigging, steering and trimming sail at the same time, points of sail and maneuvers, and the Right-Of-Way rules. They have to demonstrate the ability to control the boat including stopping on demand, thru a wide range of circumstances and conditions. It's the equivalent of a college-level course.





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Now let's jump BACK IN TIME, all the way back to last week. We had stronger winds and two of the advanced cadets had a go in our 5O5.

Here we see the 5-oh! zipping past one of the Javelins... again... just think how fast they'd go if they trimmed the sails in a bit and HIKED OUT








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Our two advanced cadets took turns as skipper in the 5O5... here you can see the low boom, giving more area to the mainsail (more sail area = more power!)










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This afternoon began with a light south-westerly wind, the beginnings of a sea breeze which built into very nice sailing conditions for most of the session.









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Our 5O5 skipper from last week sailed a Javelin this afternoon, but one thing common to all sailboats is looking up at the sails to get them adjusted properly.

In this photo, a little more boom vang tension and slack in the windward (lazy) jib sheet would be improvements.





Today's sailing drill was "The Pipeline" which is pairs of buoys set as gates in a line to windward. This drill emphasizes sailing close-hauled, tacking, and specifically being able to judge where to tack in order to arrive at a goal.



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This pair of photos shows two boats tacking thru a gate in the pipeline. The boat on the left was leading the yellow Javelin, but tacked a little too soon and then lost speed in their tack also.








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The white Javelin (left) was ahead, and began to tack thru the gate first. However the skipper tried to steer at too close an angle to the wind before beginning the tack, lost speed, and was barely able to get out of irons. The yellow boat made an efficient tack, and is clearly pulling ahead in this second photo.







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It's easy to see these boats are racing! They are sailing the "Pipeline" but all began at the downwind gate at the same time, with a countdown given by the coaches boat... except for the red-stripe Javelin which jumped the gun a little, and got a head start.








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After sailing close-hauled, then tacking, these teams have balanced speed against sailing a closer angle to their goal upwind. The red-stripe boat has tacked twice, and done relatively well but still lost some their lead. The white Javelin (left) is now making their second tack, and does it well... a few minutes of skilled sailing and they pulled into the lead.

We had very successful sailing drill, then had fun with practicing race starts and a couple of actual races. Our sailing cadets looked great, and have a right to be proud of their knowledge & skill.


... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

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Sailing Javelins + our 5O5

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We had a good spring breeze this afternoon; enough wind to make the boats "do what it do" and bring some choppy waves also. We planned to get wet, right?!?



This is the closest we got to a "Baby Duck" drill (link) today. Sorry but this is not good enough. About half of the sailors, including some of the ones who are supposed to be among the advanced sailors, simply cannot control their boats well enough to get in position and maintain it.


The semester is rapidly coming to a close, and we have just 2 more scheduled sailing days. This means we might get another chance to sail, or we might not. So far only 1 basic-sail cadet has worked at completing sail drills.





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Here's where all the baby ducks come to a full stop, to let the other baby ducks catch up. The 5O5 is so much faster and more powerful than  the Javelins that it is challenging to keep in formation, but 'Really' did a pretty good job.

You can see by the wake that the yellow Javelin has stopped (actually they have just pulled in sheets to get going again) and the 5O5 has done the same, except the 5-oh! burns rubber.

Oops- you can also see that the 5O5 crew has not tucked their bowline away securely. Dragging the bow line can cause big problems, such as wrapping around the centerboard. We know this for a fact (although luckily it did not happen this time).



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Pass! 
Literally passing the coach boat after practicing how to STOP, but also passing the drill. Well done!











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Here's the 5O5 coming out of a tack. The sea breeze was starting to kick up, waves make the boat more of a challenge. Two of our advanced sailors took turns skippering this hot-rod.

Unfortunately we did not get any good pictures of the 5O5 at full speed today. It was just a BLUR I swear !!








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Last year we got new Javelin Sails from National Sail Supply (Rolly Tasker Florida)(link) with windows, reef points, full-length top battens, and heavier grade cloth than normally spec'd for this size... we wanted them to last long in hard use. These sails give the boats good performance, even in lighter winds, and here you see our red-stripe Javelin blasting thru the chop.

Hope we get another good day of sailing, this semester has been difficult with the weather.

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King



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