Practice for Mumfest? hmmm...

.

Today's sailing exercise was similar to what we'll be doing for the Mumfest sailing demonstration. We sailed a 'Baby Duck' drill (link) which is quite basic, and some skills were GOOD! but others need work. Most of the beginner skippers have TACKING down pat, however we still need to work on Points of Sail before the maneuvers will make sense.






This graphic shows the Points of Sail, it's a nice drawing so perhaps this will be a little better to learn than the very simple diagram.Here









.







Here is what our sailing practice looked like. Usually, when we have a photo of two boats sailing towards each other and it looks like there might be risk of collision, it turned out fine. This time it went KA-BLAM! Fortunately the boats were not badly damaged and nobody was injured.

Perhaps this is a mistake that we learned from?



Anyway, today's sailing class was fun and everyone improved their skills. At this point, all the students should have studied up thru the first 9 on-line lessons (link) to Right-Of-Way. We have one more sailing session, then Mumfest (Sunday Nov 13) !!!


.

Rigging up, going sailing, business as usual !!

.

We have made good progress in the class. We know how to rig up the boats... although I did see a few knots being tied twice with a frown... We can hoist the sails... We know how to steer with a tiller... We are not quite sure about Points of Sail and Tacking, but we're getting the boats going pretty well much of the time. Some of the cadets have definitely found the Javelin's gas pedal!

 

Here we see Coach Hallquist's team, which includes an advanced sailor, rigging the mainsail on their Javelin. You can tell that the coach is not really needed at this point

.



Here is Coach Jackson's team already out sailing. Can you identify any mistakes they are making? For one obvious catch, YES the skipper should be looking where he is going! But there are a few other minor things that could be done better.


The real key to basic sailing is to always know the wind direction. Everything about what the boat is doing, or what to do with the boat, follows from wind direction.




Most of the sailing class is probably tired of hearing about POINTS OF SAIL. However, we must be able to figure this out before being able to do anything further.

Just to help refresh the memory, here are the Points of Sail.

What is the difference between Port Tack and Starboard Tack? This can be very important!

.





Which boat here has the Right-Of-Way? Both boats are on a Beam Reach (approximately).








Once we know the Points Of Sail, we can learn the maneuvers. Today we practiced Tacking, and many of the cadets could make decent tacks. All needed more practice, especially if we expect to be sailing the FJs! A sloppy tack can stall or capsize an FJ.

Success!

Coach said "Sail right to that buoy" and they did!

Notice the jib is backwinded (deliberately trimmed to the windward side). This helps steady the boat and slow it down. Usually a maneuver we teach advanced cadets, but it comes in handy when getting untangled.

.


OK, let's talk about TACKING.

A TACK is a turn. It can be a turn from port to starboard, or the other way. However, a tack ALWAYS swings the bow towards the wind, then past the wind, so that the sails change sides.

The first step of a tack is to get ready. The lookout must confirm that the path is clear, crew must be ready to handle the sails and to shift their weight (especially when it's windy).

The next step is the actual turn. The skipper will always put the tiller TOWARDs the sail, and hold it there for a brief time.

The crew should release the jib sheet, and start trimming ... slowly... on the new sheet. Why slowly? Because if you backwind the jib (see photo above) it will stop the boat's turn, and the tack will fail. We know this is true, because it happened several times today!

A successful tack is from CLOSE-HAULED to CLOSE-HAULED, Spinning the boat around from a beam reach to a beam reach might work, but is likely to fail because the sails flog for most of the turn. 

What happens if the boat is on a BROAD REACH and the skipper pulls the tiller away from the sail? And keeps turning until the sails change sides? We saw that happen several times today too.

Here is a crew under good control and sailing along . By the end of the day, the cadets had reduced the numbers of mistakes they were making.

Next week, we shall try the Baby Duck Drill (link)!



.

... posted by Coach Douglas King

What do we do when there is NO WIND??

.



Hurricane Matthew came thru our area a week ago. We were fortunate to have little damage, the boats were unrigged and stored. Now, the coaches have re-rigged the boats.






Beautiful weather, not a breath of wind.





The plan is to launch the Javelins and move them to their regular slips. Not only is there no wind, but the hurricane rains inland have flooded some areas and the river current is MUCH stronger than usual.


The cadets had to paddle against the current. It was a workout but it was also a success.


At this point in the class, we should be beginning sailing drill. Everyone should know the ropes & knots (link). We should be familiar with steering with a tiller, and Points of Sail. Everyone has TACKED (link) several times in our two previous sailing sessions.



Approaching a dock under (arm) power is different than under sail; however some things never change.

It is more difficult to steer a boat moving slowly, yet it is obviously a bad idea to approach the dock too fast. The crew must be prepared with dock lines (in this case, the boat's bow line).






When handling boats around docks, one of the precautions is to NEVER get a body part (particularly hands or feet) get caught between the boat & the dock. Yet we must also take care to not let the boats be damaged against the dock.






There is always more to learn. The class is making good progress, today we also reviewed Points of Sail, Tacking, and Stopping. The whole course is available in our on-line lessons (link). In our next session, we should begin sailing drills and students should be able to sail the boats without coaches assistance. That's what this is all about!







... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King


.