More Sailing Practice

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How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!

Well in our case, that's how you pass the Basic Sailing qualification. Aside from that, it's fun to sail and it's enjoyable to learn new things and to gain skill and confidence.

At this point, our students have learned quite a lot, they demonstrate their ability to accomplish most of the goals of the Basic Sailing class, but there are a lot (many many!) details to remember and so they need a lot of reminders and more practice.

As always, we begin by rigging up our boats. Student working with Coach Clay is checking the ropes that pulls the sail UP (what do we call this, again?) 




Last week we learned to STOP the boat (link) and keep it under control, and practiced everything else we've learned up to this point. We attempted the first Baby Duck drill but it most resembled a disorganized gaggle of stray birds. This week, we did another Baby Duck drill which went better and we also completed another beginners' drill.

One of the keys to this class... as with many many other endeavors... is remember what we've learned before. You can't simply forget Ropes & Knots, or Terminology, just because we're getting ready to practice our final sailing drills!

 You can also see here that the weather is a bit cooler. Still we have had very good luck to have many sailing days in a row, and get in a lot of practice. About half the class has been very successful, and is rigging up efficiently and with confidence.

 So now that the students are actually out there, going sailing FOR REAL, what do we need to do to pass this class?


1- Rigging and terminology- this includes all the funny "boat words," names for parts of the boat, knowing how to tie the 4 assigned knots AND where/when to tie them, standing rigging, running rigging... basically, everything we have to do when we get off the bus and get ready to GO sailing.

2- Basic sailing skills (yes there are advanced sailing skills we can work on later)- sailing the boat on any Point of Sail, maneuvering the boat from any Point Of Sail to any other including Tacking and Gybing, sailing to any given destination and then bringing the boat to a Stop at a given point (such as the dock!). This includes know and doing the crew jobs, the skipper jobs, trimming or easing the sails properly, and holding the boat in balance while sailing.

3- Operating safely in & around boats- This starts at the very beginning, and goes all thru the class. Every sailing student must constantly be aware of, and avoid, the many hazards; the final part of the class is when we learn the Navigation Rules (also called "Rules Of The Road" despite being about boats)(link) and how to operate our boats safely in the context of other boats and the marine environment.


At this point, we've got about 90% of requirement 1, about 75% of requirement 2, and about 25% of the final requirement 3.


What we need to improve- basic habits of sailing the boat, we need to remember to hold the boat in balance by sitting where we should, handle the sheets and the tiller the way we should, and this will in turn make it much easier to make good tacks (our tacks are noticably better!) and good gybes.



If you look closely, you can see the coach boat at left with the "L" flag for Baby Duck drill. You can also see how the boats are strung out over a wide area, although the closest one is practicing slowing to a stop.




There are several other drills (link) we should be able to perform as well as Baby Ducks.


This falls under class requirement #2 above, where the student shows the ability to sail the boat to any given goal and do the maneuvers while keeping the boat under control.



At this point, most of this is falling into place but we need to work on "Stop" and also Gybe, and start putting the Right-Of-Way rules into our sailing practice.



You can see why we need to know the Right-Of-Way rules. There were still a few mild collisions today, and often when the boats got close together there was a tendency for them to scatter randomly. This is not the way traffic is supposed to keep flowing!






The students need to be able to do all this as both skipper and as crew, so we need to change places within the boat.
















Here is Coach Earl Hampton in his Coach Kayak. This is a great way to keep close to the students underway, both to be able to keep a close eye and to offer helpful advice.








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Here's two of our better sailors, they rigged up their correctly and efficiently (although thy did not hoist their mainsail fully... look at the top of their mast), so they get the honor of sailing out first! Can you tell what Point Of Sail they are on, to get out from between the dock and the rock wall? 

Some helpful advice: their sails are trimmed well, the boat is in balance, the skipper is holding the hiking stick correctly. Once they are underway safely, the crew should stow the bow line securely so it cannot trail in the water under the boat.


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Another student sailing with Coach Dave Pettipas as crew. Here they are on a Close Reach (compare the position of the boom relative to the transom, with the photo above), soon after a successful TACK. Unfortunately this boat, which was recently donated, does not have a hiking stick (it will soon!).

You can see in these to sailing photos, the Javelins bustle right along in a fairly mild wind! This is a big part of the fun!













And finally, we have to pull the boats out of the water and trailer them back to school.


















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