Short but pretty good... wind kicks up!

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Yesterday we had a pretty good sailing session... had to cut it short because the wind was kicking up and the chop was building to the point where the boats were getting difficult to handle. When we have waves coming over the bows of the Javelins, then it's getting a bit rough out there.

Here's two of our 3 Javelins, heading out from Bridgeton Harbor... their course is towards the old grain elevator in New Bern

The good news is that we carried out sail training, completing a basic exercise: bring the boat up to a given point, then sail UPWIND including tacking a few times, then back downwind to a another given point. The goal is to practice keeping the boat under control when conditions are difficult. The bad news is that we had a collision between boats. Fortunately there was no damage done but that was due to very good luck rather than any applied skill.

Looking upwind toward the highway bridge... the Javelin on the left has eased her mainsail in a gust, the one on the right is heeling. To the sailors on board, it feels like the boat is laid right over but you can see the angle of heel is not extreme

In light winds, steering a close-hauled course is a challenge. In heavy winds, that becomes easy and steering down wind... broad reaching or running... is more difficult. Gybing is the most difficult of all, the boat's steering & sails must both be kept under close control at all times thru the maneuver. Our cadets, including one of the beginners, gybed several times and did very well: no slamming, no broaching, no clonking the head!

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All 3 Javelins, historic New Bern in the background... now they are sailing downwind and going FAST (look at the wakes)




Yesterday was a bad day for coach boats, due to trailer problems with one, and engine problems with another (note- these boats are owned by the coaches who generously volunteer to use them in the program), we had only one small coach/safety boat. Since we completed the exercise, it was decided to call it a day and send the fleet back to base!

Now this was a good day to build some confidence, and to show Coach Rezab that 'yes you can sail in stronger winds' so let's get some more practice! The major exercises left are the CAPSIZE DRILL (we will want to do this on a calm day) and Right-Of-Way rules...

...posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

Bulldog Regatta, hosted by The Citadel in SC

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Well another milestone for New Bern NJROTC Sailing... our first "away regatta" and it was a good one. We have been holding our own regatta for 3 years now, using our FJs. This was a similar deal with the host providing a fleet BUT the boats were Lasers (link).

Here's the scene on Saturday morning, rigging up the Laser sailboats we'll be racing:

OK, sailing in a strange place, unfamiliar boats... sounds like a lot of things could go wrong. Lake Moultrie is over 6 miles across, which is open water (our sailing area on the Neuse River is about 1 1/4 miles across). But not much did go really wrong. Yeah, a couple of our team capsized. We had a solid lead in almost every race and blew it (except for 2). However we showed both good sportsmanship and solid Right-Of-Way skills. We learned about a new kind of boat, everybody sailed out & then sailed back in OK... it was definitely a great learning experience.


Start of the first race: our team is in yellow lifejackets, the two at the left. Althogh it looks like they are behind, they are actually in quite good position considering distance to windward not just forward.



Now let's look at some of the racing action... although it's been said that watching sailboats race is almost as exciting as watching paint dry...



The starting line is between the pontoon boat & the yellow bouy, the first mark is directly to windward so the boats will have to go close-hauled and also tack at least twice to get there.

A few seconds later- you can see that not only does our team have good speed, but they are closer to the camera and thus in better position to windward.

After rounding the first mark, they go downwind to another red buoy. The larger buoys that we use are easier to see, for sure!


The two schools represented here are us (New Bern High School) and West Ashley, near Charleston SC. All the sailors in the 1st race have been sailing for at least 2 semesters, but the basics are the deciding factor. All boats spent at least a little time stuck in irons, nobody made good tacks, and the sail trim + boat-handling was less than stellar. However, in the first set of races everybody got around the course fairly well.

Here we go around the first mark: New Bern sailors are in 1st and 2nd place! Hey what's so difficult about this?!? Well it's harder than it looks, we ended up with a 1st and 3rd place. In the next race, we scored 1st and 4th...

New Bern NJROTC is not a "yacht club" program. Our sailors generally are starting out with no experience in boats. However, we have had a few cadets with sailing experience and our racing team features a young man who has been sailing for years with his family. The team placed him in the second set with the idea that it would be like batting clean-up in baseball...



There were 8 sailors and 6 races. Overall our top skipper placed 2nd, with two wins out of our races he sailed. Our 'Clean-Up Batter' did win a race but in another race he capsized and failed to finish. As a team, we finished 2nd out of two...

Sailing is over, got work to do...

Our program is not really oriented toward racing, which is just a game after all. It's fun and it can help build skills & confidence, but our program is mainly oriented toward SEAMANSHIP and LEADERSHIP. It is great to be able to participate in events like this, it was really fun as well as a learning eperience. The sailors learned a lot, the coaches learned what the sailors need to improve on... count on hearing more about that.

Our goal for this event was to sail well, to avoid collisions & show rules knowledge, and to gain experience in a new environment. So, to bring home a trophy at all was a BONUS !! We give a huge 'Thank You' to the Citadel for organizing and running this event, and we hope to be back next year.

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

New (well, new to us) boat!

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Dan Bowman of Annapolis Maryland donated a 505 to our program, along with giving Coach King a lesson how these boats are rigged and tuned.

link to International 505 class

This is a high-performance boat, those of you who went from the Javelins to the "sports car" FJs will need to step up even more to sail this one.

Weather or not.... no sailing this week (sad face)

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Unfortunately we still have some issues with boat-handling skills, control, and especially gybing. We also saw a crash or two, which is why we are having more emphasis on the RIGHT-OF-WAY rules! So we did not sail in Monday's 20+ mph winds.

Javelin donated by the son of the late Jimmy Coxe of Trent Woods, sailing with the New Bern skyline in the background (Cornford photo)

Cadets, do you know what to do to fix this problem (not sailing in moderately strong winds)? Hint- it does not involve controlling the weather!

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Meanwhile we have some more excellent photos of last weeks' action.

Here's a Javelin sailing thru a pipeline gate (link) close-hauled. Nicely done! Of course when you have the Brigade C.O. as crew, it provides motivation to not screw up. You can see that Coach Hittner is feeling the pressure!




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Here's some FJ action- along with some tips on how to sail better!

First of all, sit in the right places within the boat. This FJ is dragging it's transom, which will lead to water coming in thru the bailer (tennis ball). It's also slow, and makes the boat more difficult to keep under control.

Now let's look at the pointers in the photo:
1. Yarn on the side stay, this is always a very good indicator of wind direction and thus which point of sail you should be on.
2. Close-hauled: jib and mainsail should be pulled tight, slightly inside the gunwhale of the boat.
3. The front edge of the jib will be the fine-tuning for the skipper to steer by. There are yarns there to tell the air flow over the sail, and a lifting or bubble in the front of the sail means that the skipper is trying to steer at too close an angle to the wind.

In the above pic, the cadets are actually doing pretty well.
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Here's a beginner skipper at the helm of an FJ... and doing OK! Now, we need to work on keeping control of the boat in tacks, and steering with the hiking stick will help with that.

Yes steering with the hiking stick feels awkward until you get used to it, but it is the only way to be able to keep your weight where it needs to be in the boat -AND- keep full control of the tiller ie steering.


Don't worry, we will get more practice!


... all photos by Assistant Coach Fred Cornford
... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

Basic Lesson- the RIG

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Just like any other complicated machine, we divide sailboats into components, systems, subsystems, etc etc.

The two main parts are the HULL and the RIG. Guess which one this lesson is about!







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At the risk of making this seem too easy, let's continue with the obvious... we have some big flappy pieces of cloth up in the air...


Our boats have 2 sails. The bigger one is the MAIN sail which is why we call it the mainsail, the smaller one in front is the JIB.



This arrangement of sails is called the SLOOP rig (link to GLOSSARY). Sloops have one mast, and mainsail & jib.

Sailboats can have more than one mast, or a single mast & more than one jib, no jib at all, etc etc. Can a boat with two masts be a sloop?

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Now let's look at what holds the sails up in the air.

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The pole-thing is the MAST. The other one is the BOOM. These are called SPARS

The word SPAR has several meanings (isn't English a great language)- it is a mineral, it means to practice fighting, and it means a special kind of long skinny pole-like structure.

Our SLOOPs have wires holding the mast up. These are the STANDING RIGGING. Although we generally don't work with this on sailing days, to be a qualified sailor you must know the basic rigging.

Just like most words have more than one meaning, here are some boat parts with more than one word for their proper name: the FORESTAY may also be called the HEADSTAY, the SIDESTAY may also be called the SHROUD.

The STANDING RIGGING helps the rig stand up. It also does not move... most of the time... when sailing. But the sails have to be hoisted & adjusted. So we need more rigging to make the sails move.

We call this the RUNNING RIGGING. The two most important parts of the running rigging are the HALYARDs and SHEETs.

Halyards make the sails go up & down.

Sheets adjust the angle of the sails to the boat, and to the wind. In our boats, the sheets are held in the sailors hand to make sure you are in control of the sail.




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The big white piece of cloth is NOT the sheet... the sheet is a rope!

All ropes on sailboats have special names, so don't call it a rope !!!

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More details of the RUNNING RIGGING- here is a look at the JIB's running rigging.

We see the halyard (red) & it's CLEAT (near the bottom of the mast), we see that the jib has 2 sheets... one to each side.

The crew will normally control the jib while sailing. It's important to trim the jib on the correct side, and also not get the sheets tangled.



New Word: CLEAT (link to GLOSSARY) A "cleat" is some kind of device that holds a rope in place. There are several kinds of cleats, and our simple boats have 4 or more.





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Last but not least, the MAINSAIL. It has only one sheet, but it has a number of additional ropes to control it.

In this diagram, the MAIN HALYARD is blue. It also has a cleat, near the bottom on the mast. In our boats, the main halyard is cleated to the starboard side of the mast.

The mainsail has an OUT HAUL to pull it tight along the boom, and a VANG to pull the boom down. These are not normally adjusted for basic sailing, but it is important to remember them when rigging the boat.


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Did this lesson seem very simple?  (link to GLOSSARY)  Here is an outline of the terminology covered:
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Standing Rigging: Forestay, Sidestay, Spreader, Shroud, Headstay
Spars: mast, boom
Sloop: Mainsail, Jib

Running Rigging: Main halyard, Jib halyard, Main sheet, Jib sheets, Outhaul, Vang, Cleat

Here is the next lesson on the RIG (link)

Here is another important lesson, hopefully you have already passed the Capsize Drill (link)

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King


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Merry Christmas !!! !!!

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And we heard them exclaim

As they sailed up out of sight

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

And to all a good night!

We Get Lucky... with the weather, more actual SAILING !!!

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Today was a great day of sailing. We had 7 boats in the water, 6 of them skippered by cadets...all skippers completed the "Clock Drill" (link) and almost all cadets took a turn skippering a boat. There was also one ugly ducking in the flock, FJ#4 was sailed by Coach King and LCDR Tyson... hey we like to have some fun once in a while, too!

This photo shows Coach King leading the sailors thru a GYBE... in light wind, it's easy but we want to be ready for stronger winds, right??!? BTW where was FJ#2 and why were they not in this picture?

What does the "Clock Drill" accomplish? It puts the boat(s) on everypoint of sail, and the boat(s) must both tack & gybe to sail around the circle. At the beginning of today's exercise, not every skipper knew the difference between tacking & gybing; but by the end of the sailing session we were not only tacking smoothly, gybing with good control (most of us).




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We also got a chance to practice the RIGHT-OF-WAY rules! Coach King spent most of the session looking backwards (offering helpful advice to the student sailors) but that is no excuse for getting in a collision! But wait a minute... isn't the R-O-W vessel supposed to take avoiding action when it becomes obvious that the one who is supposed to give way isn't ?? ok it wasn't really a COLLISION more of a gentle bump. Still, not good!


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If we can get in some more practice this fall, we are ready to begin some sailing games. This might include some racing... although clearly none of the cadets are ready for the big league, since Coach King and the Commander were easily faster while looking backwards & giving instructions... and working on finer points of control such as sailing backwards.

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Not such a great photo, but it was taken with a cell phone while skippering an FJ... that Coach King is full of excuses! This picture shows close action with all the Javelins together, they are moving right along in this light air.

Still, it's possible to stall the boat and stop accidentally. We are seeing less & less of this sloppy boat-handling as we make progress. The fact that all the boats kept together, all the boats completed the drills (umm, wait, did every boat do a STOP at a buoy?), and everybody got a chance to skipper, shows that we're moving forward on this!



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All good things come to an end.

It's well into autumn, the sun set at 1708 this evening (that's 5:08 pm to you civilians) and we were already putting the boats away. There will be less & less time after school BUT with any luck at all, we can get in a few more sailing days this semester!

Thanks to Coach Drew McCrocklin for all the photos (except for the cell phone shot).

Now remember, we will also have AT LEAST one more written assignment to turn in this semester! If you have work to turn in, do so... not everybody is going to pass this sailing course and turning in assignments doesn't hurt your chances.

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King