FVSPS Sail Course, Class 1
Welcome to This Course!
FVSPS Sail Course with OTW Training
We are Bringing Together:
- Old FVSPS members and soon-to-be new members from
my introduction to sailing meetup class
- Sailors and power-boaters, people with substantial
sailing experience and those with none
- Traditional USPS bookish instruction combined with
OTW training
Welcome to This Course!
FVSPS Sail Course with OTW Training
What to Expect:
- Those of you continuing from the meetup sailing class:
There will be some overlap, but more material, depth,
and OTW practice.
- Variety of instructors and teaching styles
- There will be some rough edges in this class, but let’s
help each other and make it the best class that we can!
Introductions
1) What is your boating background?
2) What USPS have you taken/taught?
3) What do you want from this class?
• Me
• Leslie
• Steve
• Other FVSPS Instructors
• Everyone else
Other Preliminaries
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Your information in our records
Leslie’s house
Lunch
Boater’s one-minute IQ test
My sailing DVD – copies available, $1 to
help cover the material costs
A Musical Interlude
Lin and Larry Pardey singing their song, “Yacht
Club Bar”, from their “Storm Tactics” DVD.
Yacht Club Bar Song, Chorus
I love to sit around the yacht club bar
and talk about the things we’re going to do.
I love to sit around the yacht club bar
because it doesn’t move.
The swells are big and the winds are high
but that don’t bother me.
Cause I never get lost and my tummy doesn’t toss
It’s a wonderful life on the sea.
Yacht Club Bar Song, Verse 1
My boat it is a big one boys.
My crew it is the best.
We race around the entrance buoy,
beating all the rest.
We’re the first ones home with a bent elbow
and a powerful salt spray thirst.
We sit around and drink all night
and see who comes in first.
Yacht Club Bar Song, Chorus
I love to sit around the yacht club bar
and talk about the things we’re going to do.
I love to sit around the yacht club bar
because it doesn’t move.
The swells are big and the winds are high
but that don’t bother me.
Cause I never get lost and my tummy doesn’t toss
It’s a wonderful life on the sea.
Course Approach
Combine:
- Concepts, from the classroom
- Practice sailing, OTW training
Rationale for this approach:
- OTW without background from study does not
work well.
- Show video, new sailor confused at the helm.
Note: OTW training is in the Sail course is optional. You can take the Sail
course and exam without doing OTW Training.)
Specific Course Goals
Learn Basic Sailing Knowledge and Skills
- Basic Keelboat book
- Brian’s instruction
- OTW training
Learn Deeper Sailing Knowledge and Terminology
- Sail book
- Leslie/Steve’s instruction
Result: You know what to do on a sailboat and can
serve as useful crew.
Class Meeting Structure
10:00-12:00 Classroom (Order will vary.)
- 10:00-11:00 Leslie-Steve cover material from the Sail book.
- 11:00-12:00 Brian presents sailing material oriented towards the
OTW training, Briefs on OTW training for that day.
12:00 Lunch
12:45/1:00 Leave for OTW Training
OTW Training: General Issues
and Safety Issues
Should You Do the OTW Training?
• Your decision – Can make each day.
• Reasons not to:
– Takes time, your Saturday afternoon.
– You may not like sailing.
– You may get scarred, esp. heeling, in higher winds.
– Conditions on a particular day (e.g. high winds)
• If you want to do OTW, consider the daily conditions
and you.
– Show video of contrasting reactions – sailing off of Newport.
OTW Training: Possible Themes
- OTW 1: Basic Skills in all Crew Positions
- OTW 2: Basic Skills in all Crew Positions
- OTW 3: Basic Skills Refinements, Follow the Leader
- OTW 4: Shortening Sail, Sailing with only Jib or
Main
- OTW 5: Heaving To, Helm Tied-Off when Sailing to
Weather and Tacking
- OTW 6: MOB Patterns
- May also include asymmetric spinnaker use, on a light-wind day.
Is Sailing Dangerous, Part 1?
(I’m scarred when the boat Heels!)
- Keelboats have thousands of pounds of lead ballast.
- Monohull sailboats are designed to heel.
- Compare sailing and powerboat death/injury rates.
- Compare sailing and powerboat liability insurance rates.
- Hull speed on these boats is about 7 knots.
Is Sailing Dangerous, Part 2?
• I know lots of sailors and do not know anyone
who has been killed or even injured. My own
injuries have been in other sports.
• In the Perfect Storm, the sailboat the CG forced
a captain to abandon never did sink.
• It would be very hard to kill yourself in a
sailboat on the Columbia River in Portland!
- What are the ways?
My Three Safety Concerns
When Sailing on the Columbia in Portland
1) Falling Overboard
2) Tugs / Tows
3) Inadvertent Jibes
My advice - Don’t worry so
much about everything else!
Training OTW – What Might Happen
• On S/V Ubiquity I will let you make lots of
mistakes.
• Other captains might micro-manage more.
• We will rotate through different crew positions.
• We will use points of sail all the time when sailing.
• We will take fewer people in stronger winds.
Expectations for Crew during OTW Training
on S/V Ubiquity and S/V June Bug
- Wear non-marking shoes. No dark rubber soles.
- Wear no clothes with hardware that could scratch the
boats.
- You will have a life jacket.
- Bring enough warm clothes, wind/rain parka.
- No smoking, no alcohol during OTW.
- Use bathroom just before leaving the dock. Wait if
possible for return to use again. If head use needed
OTW tell the captain. Only liquids in head!
END OF
General Issues About
the OTW Training
Why Sailing?
• Why not do only power-boating instead?
• “Life is too short for sailing” – a power-boating
friend of mine.
• How do power-boating and sailing differ?
• Why do sailing?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages
of sailboats compared to powerboats?
Basic Terminology:
Parts of a Sailboat
• Basic Keelboat, pp. 6-7
• Go to look at the boats
Basic Terminology:
Sails and Major Control Lines
• Most sails have:
• 3 corners, each with a name
• 3 sides, each with a name
• Basic Keelboat, pp. 28-29
• Halyards – To hoist sails
• Sheets – To trim sails
• Inspect the boats to identify halyards, sheets
Core Concept in Sailing
How the Boat is Oriented to the Wind
Implications:
- Must keep track of wind direction.
- We need terminology to describe boat’s orientation to
wind.
- Orientation of boat to the wind determines how we
adjust (trim) the sails.
Orientation to the Wind
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Basic Keelboat, p. 15
Sails, p. 115
Can we sail in all directions?
General Terms:
• Beating
• Reaching
• Running
• Points of Sail gives us more specific terms.
Points of Sail
See Basic Keelboat, p. 15
See Sails, p. 115
Terminology for Changing our Heading
Always relative to the direction of the wind:
- “Head up”, “Heading up”, “Come up”, “Bring it up”,
“Sail closer”, “A little tighter”
- “Head down”, “Head off”, “Back off”, “Bear off”, “Bear
away”, “Fall off”, “Not so close”
- Basic Keelboat, pp. 16-17
- Sail, Glossary
Even the Sails Act Differently
Depending on the Point of Sail
- “Pull Mode” vs. “Push Mode”
- Basic Keelboat, pp. 8-9
- Sail, p. 89
- Illustrate “Pull Mode”: Do Bernoulli Effect exercise
with spoon under faucet.
OTW Briefing
• We have two boats available today for
inspection and practice of sailing skills.
• If you already know about what we are
going over today, please try to help others
who need help.
Boat Inspections
• Boat Inspections: See “Boat Inspection Guide”
handout for items to inspect on both boats.
• Sailing Skills: See “Sailing Skills” handout for
skills to practice on the boat or on the dock.
Sail Book Material
Next Instructors Take Over!