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

A CHILI day... thank you, Cape Lookout Sail & Power Squadron!

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This past Saturday a small crowd wolfed down chili for a cause... the annual CLSPS cook-out benefit for -us- the NJROTC sailing program. We really appreciate the support, and the chili was delicious too!





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Coaches Gormley & King brought their own home-cooked pots of chili, along with a dozen more Power Squadron members. LCDR Tyson brought a pot of "Official Navy Game Chili" featuring venison & Guinness... hot enough to get your attention, and delicious! There was also no-bean chili, white chili with chicken, generous helpings of cornbread, and a steaming pot of clam chowder (not a Southern tradition, but a welcome treat).


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There was some discussion of various ways of cooking chili, and everybody got to vote on the HOTTEST, the BEANIEST (is this good?), and the overall BEST chili. Although Coach King's chili, which featured curry as one of the spices, was the first to disappear, it did not get any votes. Bob's Oktoberfest Chili was almost unanimously voted the 'Best Overall' even though it was almost sweet rather than spicy-hot.

Richard Tobacco, Power Squadron Commander, announces the winners. You can see all the chili lined up on the counter... nobody went home hungry!

Meanwhile, out on the river, winds were strong and our head Coach Jerry Reab was winning the first of the Winter Series races. Overall it was a very good day!

... posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King

Columbus Day Sail... what did we discover...

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This holiday would not normally be a school day, BUT thanks to Hurricane Irene we have to make up some lost time. We get to gain some more sailing practice too.

This is appropriate since Columbus Day commemorates one of the great sailing achievements in history.

Should we expect that after our precision sailing demo this Saturday, that we could get all the Javelins close together and on the same point of sail for a picture?


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Here's some of the 'blue-book' sailors mixing it up in the FJs.

Good news: today we have a bunch of new sailors who are ready to step up to the 'sports cars' of the fleet after sailing the Javelins.







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These next two photos show how one skippers puts an agressive move on another. Instead of simply following in FJ#1's wake and 2nd-hand wind, FJ#1 cuts to windward and passes.

Of course, both boats would be moving faster if the sail trim were a little more accurate, the boats being held flat, and weight a little more forward in the boat. It's also disappointing to see these two skippers NOT steering with the hiking stick.

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This passing move works for several reasons. By turning closer to the wind (but not quite close-hauled), FJ#2 generates more apparent wind. This will be especially helpful in lighter breezes.



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Not satisfied with beating FJ#1, the team in FJ#2 chases & passes two of the Javelins, this time on a close-hauled course.

In way this is a shame, because the Javelins sail well and a skillful skipper & crew have in the past humbled the FJ sailors... and the team in #2 are making some mistakes that another boat could take advantage of.


Next time we sail, let's get more of those FJs in the water! The weather is not turning cold yet but the days are getting shorter!

...posted by Assistant Coach Doug King

Mumfest Sailing

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New Bern has a BIG open-air festival every autmn. It has been going on for 31 years now and is called MUMFEST (link). This year the NBHS-NJROTC Sailing Squad participated in this grand event and put on a sailing demonstration for the first time.

The weather turned out beautiful. However "just in case" things turned out not so great, we used the Javelins which are built a bit tougher than the Flying Juniors (they also weigh more than twice as much!). Our sailing demo was scheduled to happen right after the rescue demonstration by the Marine Corps HH-46 helicopter & Coast Guard crews.

Here is the VMR-1 Search-And-Rescue helicopter, universally known by it's call sign PEDRO, hovering over the Neuse River off the town front of New Bern. Their SAR missions have included the rescue of many civilian boaters over the years; we are very lucky to have such a capable unit stationed nearby.

In most military operations, in order to be sure of being at the correct place at the correct time, we arrive plenty early. The Mumfest demo sail was a good example of this "hurry up & wait" principle, but this time it was a lot of fun to loiter just outside the operation area. There was a GREAT breeze for sailing!

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Here is the PEDRO rescue demonstration. You can see the down-wash of the helicopter would present a major hazard to small craft especially sailboats. At the far right is the Union Point pavilion, at the far left is the USCG 41-foot vessel.



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Next, it's our turn to show off! Here is the Javelin fleet headed right into Union Point, sailing "wing & wing" which is one o the more difficult points of sail. Of course only the real sailors in the crowd on shore can appreciate this, and unfortunately the sailboats cannot approach the shore closely because of shallows & rocks along the edge of Union Point.


However, anybody can see the boats being handled skillfully in close quarters. And everybody would enjoy the sight of these graceful little vessels sailing along the historic New Bern waterfront.


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The boats have gybed, then turned onto a close-hauled course... these are basic maneuvers we cover in the sailing course, when sailing near a rocky lee shore it pays to have perfect control of the vessel... not to mention we don't want to wreck one of our boats in front of a crowd of onlookers.





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This was a longer day of sailing than our usual training sessions. The sailing cadets got to stop in town (thanks to the Galley Store (link) who kindly let us use their dock) and also met the Coast Guardsmen on their 41-ft vessel.

Here is the Sailing Squad Commander forgetting his dignity for a moment, signalling that he is ready for MORE SAILING!

We hope that the NJROTC Sailing Squad will be ready & able to make this an annual event. We have events in the Spring, the Open Regatta; and now a Mumfest Demo Sail in the Fall.



...posted by Assistant Coach Douglas King