Sailing keel boats... thank you FHYC!

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For our last two sailing exercises, as the weather gets more risky, we have a small fleet of very nice keel boats thanks to some members of Fairfield Harbour Yacht Club (more below).

Sailing large, heavy boats is a different skill, but all the basics we've learned still apply. We still need to know the Points of Sail, the running rigging which controls the sails, and how to tack or gybe. We also need to remember everything we've learned about on-water safety!

 Here is Russ & Barb Robinson's Rampant Lion, a 37-foot Tartan keel boat... it also has a centerboard! At the moment Barb is skippering while the students learn about WINCHES.

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Weather conditions were not good, it was cold and drizzly. But there was wind, and that's what we really need! Each big keel boat was manned by 2 or 3 students and all of them had a chance to work as skipper and crew on these vessels.

 Among the differences between the NJROTC small boats (Lasers and Javelins) and these big boats... they are much heavier, the sails are much bigger; and the forces, strains, or loads, on the sails and rigging are require far more strength than just the muscles of sailors. We use winches to magnify or amplify strength so we can handle these big sails, and like any other powerful equipment, winches take training to handle capably and safely.

Here is Peter B's "Wicked Good" a Catalina 28 with a diesel engine for auxiliary propulsion. 

Do we learn about engines in this class? Not really -BUT- to be capable sailors we need to know a few things about how to properly handle boats using engines instead of sails.

For example, we know to not let lines or ropes just trail in the water. It makes a mess and can cause problems. A dock line or a stray sheet or halyard on these boats can wrap around the propellor, causing major damage and serious injury.


These bigger boats require deeper water, so we not only need to learn how to steer & control them using engine power, but also how to navigate them keeping to deeper water. The cadets were introduced to the old saying "Red Right Returning" to keep in mind where the deeper water, the channel, is!



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Here is Ed & Evelyn Thompson's cruising machine "Dutch Wind."






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