Underway! we go sailing, 4 real

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After what seems like endless drudge work reassembling our remaining boats from the damage of last year's Hurricane Florence, and commissioning our two newly donated Javelins, we WENT SAILING today!




 Here's our sailing coaches, doing what they've been doing since early August... working on our fleet... however THIS time we are at Lawson Creek Park on the Trent River, and setting up the masts prior to launching the boats.

Now we're going to have some fun!
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The coaches had the masts and standing rigging set up for the students. When the cadets arrived, we had a short review, then they rigged and hoisted the sails.



CLUE: what is the difference between the rigging that holds the mast up, and the rigging that makes the sails work?




Coach Hampstead's boat sailing along!

Can you see the dangerous obstacle in the water? Sailors must always be alert!






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The "we're sailing" equivalent of a selfie.

 CLUE: can you tell from the position of the boom, what point of sail the boat must be on?





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Here is Coach Pettipas' boat underway, the wind is light but you can see by the wake that the boat is moving along. The student skipper is steering with the tiller extension (hiking stick) properly, but the student holding the main sheet has the sail pulled in much too tight for the wind direction / point of sail, and is not using the ratchet block. Jib looks good!






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Two of our fleet sailing. We actually had a a couple of times the students were close and trying to pass each other. Perhaps we will race our fleet in the future.



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Student steering with the hiking stick but sitting MUCH too far aft. Come on, we reviewed this before getting underway!

We will probably review this again, too. The boat sails better when the weight in it is balanced properly. By "sails better" of course we mean faster but it is also easier to keep under control.






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 If you have any questions about any of the CLUES asked so far, check in with our Sailing Lessons (link)








Coach Hampstead's boat again, sailing along smartly. Nothing to "review" here other than complimenting the students!










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Unrigging at the end of the day. We all remember one of the precautions in handling HALYARDS, right? Next we get the mainsail unrigged from the boom, take the sails to a nice lawn, and roll them up neatly.

If we keep everything squared away, we will be able to do a lot more sailing.


The goals of the students in this class are to be able to sail their boats without being accompanied by a coach.



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Another big step forward would be to gain enough skill to sail one of our Lasers! They are the 'sports cars' of our sailing fleet.








... posted by NJROTC Sail Coach Douglas King