1st actual sail goes quite well... not a lot of wind

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Our first sailing day this semester went quite well. At this point, we are not perfect in knowledge of boat parts & terminology, but we did get rigged up and underway.








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Most of the new sailors sailed the Javelins with coaches help. Here we see Coach Gormley with his cadets. There is not a lot of wind, but there is enough to get the boats moving along.







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The advanced cadets sailed the FJs, getting a bit of a refresher... for example, this spread-out group is supposed to be a "Baby Ducks" drill. However, we did practice tacking & gybing and also stopping... the necessary basic skills!





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Here is Coach Murphy with his new sailors.

 Lighter wind makes it more difficult to see what the sails should be doing, but with good coaching the new cadets kept their boats moving and practiced tacking (link).





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Practice... it's how you get good at stuff!

Stopping a sailboat (link) is a needed skill for advanced sailors and beginners alike. We practice in open water on nice soft buoys, so that we can bring the boat to the nice metal dock later.


... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

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How To Capsize, and How Not To... thank you Twin Rivers "Y"

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Having planned and prepared for today's lesson, the coaches relax while waiting for the cadets to arrive by bus.

left to right Head Sailing Coach Jerry Rezab,  Coach Joe Gormley, Coach Mike Murphy








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 The main practice for today is CAPSIZING... but of course, to do that you need to get into the boat, and assume the proper positions for sailing. There are one or two right ways, and many wrong ways.

At least this cadet skipper is holding the tiller, even if he's not really doing it correctly.






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 This boat is NOT going to "turtle"

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 This skipper maintained her grip on the tiller... "that steering thing-y" ... quite well indeed!










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This skipper has a good steering grip, but we hope she's not going to try holding the boom while really sailing.

Part of the fun of sticking with this program, and being one of the advanced sailors, is that you get to help the beginners capsize (holding mast, at right)




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Holding the centerboard, using the "righting line" ... this skipper is steadily pulling the boat upright, it takes some patience









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Steady! Steady! Having checked each others safety, then gained control of the boat, this is the last stage of the Capsize Drill.... skipper pulls the boat upright while the crew "scoops" into the hull as it comes up.






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Job well done!
Now we put the boat and all the gear away.

All the cadets did well at capsizing, and learned a lot about how to handle boats under adverse conditions.

Next week, sailing FOR REAL at Bridgeton Harbor!

posted by Assistant Sailing Coach Douglas King

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Sailing Class already begun... next week, capsize at the YMCA

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If you want to be a sailor this fall, you still have a chance. You will need to get a parental permission to LCDR Clark, and show up for the next classes.



Our next class is guaranteed to be fun. We will be holding capsize practice at the Twin Rivers YMCA.  Here is what it was like (link) last spring.



 Class meets immediately after school, every Monday. We will only have 10 classes and 2 of those have already met! You should study these brief pages: Terminology- parts of the boat (link), then study Terminology- Directions (link), then follow up with Rigging the Boat (link), because this is material we have already covered in class. A written assignment has been handed out, and if you missed it, you can pick it up in the Commander's office or from the Sailing Squad cadet leader.




Then, to truly be up to speed, check out the Capsize Drill (link). You may need to carry this out for real!

... Assistant Sailing Coach Douglas King



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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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Right Of Way Rules ...p1... Yes you should study this!

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Recently our lesson page on Right-Of-Way mysteriously disappeared. This is our replacement page.

•The concept “Right-Of-Way” can be applied to any & all vehicles, not just boats.

–Avoids collisions

–Keeps flow of traffic orderly & efficient

Imagine if there were no stoplights or traffic signals on our busy roads & highways. This would be unsafe, to put it mildly. Drivers using caution and curtesy could avoid wrecks, but it would be much slower and less reliable.

The phrase “Right Of Way” means that in any situation, the vessel (or any vehicle) -with- "right of way" has the right to continue on her way. The other one in the situation should take avoiding action: turn or slow down (or both).

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How about ships? This scene of a battleship ramming an ocean liner is fictional, but maritime collisions are serious and almost always incur fatalities.

One of the most famous collisions occurred to the luxury liner ANDREA DORIA (link). Here is a gruesome story(link) of two battleships colliding during WW2, told by a US Navy sailor who was aboard. But this is not just old history, collision between ships occur nowadays too.



The Right-Of-Way Rules are also sometimes called the "Rules Of The Road" even though we are talking about boats and ships. These rules begin with some common sense

• Every vessel must maintain a proper look-out

• Every vessel must keep their speed within safe limits 

• Every vessel must avoid collision when necessary

These first 3 should be easy for everyone to remember. 

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The Right-Of-Way Rules makes sense because they place the obligation to avoid or dodge on whichever vessel is best able to. 

Here is the priority list of vessels granted Right-Of-Way. Any vessel lower down the list must give way to (ie dodge them safely) any vessel higher on the list.

• A- Vessels not under command
• Any vessel that is unable to maneuver... anchored, docked, disabled, capsized... this does NOT include ignorance or incompetence of the sailors aboard.
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• B- Vessels restricted in their ability to maneuver
• Means a vessel that is difficult to maneuver because of the type operation of the vessel. Examples: a tugboat pulling barges, a dredge, any craft carrying out a rescue.
• A vessel "constrained by draft" ie one that sticks down deep in the water, and cannot steer off course because of the risk of running aground (easy in small sailboats, huge problem for ships & larger motorboats)  . 

• C- Vessels being overtaken 

Sailboat "B" has the Right-Of-Way over "A" in this diagram. Sailboat "A" is astern of "B" and if she is passing (overtaking) then she must keep clear or dodge "B"

• D- Fishing vessels with gear deployed
•  This means commercial trawlers and vessels handling long-lines & seine nets, not sport or recreational fishermen.

• E- Manually Propelled Vessels

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• F- Sailing vessels... with the exceptions noted above, sailing vessels have Right-Of-Way over motor vessels.
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• Sailing vessel on Starboard Tack has Right-Of-Way over another sailing vessel on Port Tack
• (diagram) Sailing vessel to leeward of another sailing vessel has R-O-W over the one to windward.... ie on her upwind side

• G- Vessels CROSSING another vessels course from their starboard side

Here we see boats' "running lights" which are used at night to show other vessels. The vessel on the right is crossing from starboard, and has the Right-Of-Way. The vessel to port alters course to avoid a close call. You can see where the idea of red & green lights to control traffic came from!

• H- Power driven vessels... or you may call them "motorboats"
• Power driven vessels give way to sail or manually powered ones, with the exceptions granted in rules above
• A sailboat with an auxiliary engine is "power driven" under the rules when her engine is running

Some of these rules grant right-of-way based on the TYPE of vessel (canoes over motorboats etc), some grant right-of-way based on the relative positions of the vessels (overtaking etc). But they are arranged in order such that the vessel which is least able to keep clear of the other gets right-of-way.


Finally we have a couple of rules which don't need numbers. Like the first 3 rules, they are just common sense codified into legal form, and they are always in force.

• Every vessel must display or sound appropriate signals
• running lights at night
• fog horn
• "day shapes"

• Every vessel must come to the aid of any vessel or persons in distress  
• Skippers are -not- required to endanger themselves, their crew, or their vessel, but it is illegal as well as morally repulsive to ignore anothers' emergency.

 Let's see how this all works out in practice.

How about if you see a canoe while you are sailing one of our FJs or Javelins? 'Manually Propelled Vessels' are above 'Sailing Vessels' on the list, so you must dodge the canoe safely. They have Right-Of-Way!

What if you are sailing fast on a windy day, and you are coming up behind a slow motorboat? Sailboats generally have Right-Of-Way over motorboats, but there are some exceptions and this is one..... an overtaking vessel must always make sure to pass safely. How about a sailboat crossing a motorboats course? The motorboat would have to steer clear of the sailboat.

•Are these “real” rules?

–Navigation Rules and regulations for prevention of collision are embodied in U.S. Law (33 USC 1802-1806)

•Can anybody get a book of the Navigation Rules?

–It’s over 160 pages, available on the WWWeb; one good source of info is the Navigation Center of the U.S. Coast Guard… www.navcen.uscg.gov

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...  written & posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King



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