Thread: Learning to Sail.

I really think the best way to learn how to sail is to do it by yourself in the very beginning.

Allthough this is definitely not how the sail is working, just imagine the sail to be a mirror and the wind is supposed to be "reflected" aft This will not make you sail optimal, but it will make you get where you want.

With just this information, jump into the boat and sail for a few weeks. Once you have a little bit more of understanding of how to handle the boat pick up those articles. They will then make sense, and you can learn how the sail is actually a wing with lift and how to have the sail in optimal angle.

My opinion is that reading a lot before is waste of time. In the very beginning, you will not have chance to think about it and you will forget until you actually need it.

I have never been to any sailing school, still I have learned how to sail by myself.

Howdy,

Rules for sailing are international, but are related to racing.

International rules for the prevention of collision at sea always apply and tell you what happens when sailboats, motorboats, rowboats etc meet.

I'm writing a quick briefing on sailing for my website. Might as well be there where it can be widely seen. I think I can get away with about 5 or 6 technical terms.

Click here for the sailing lesson to cover the basics.



MIK

That makes sense Engblom. My wife wants to learn to sail with me but I have to build the PD Goose first and that's not going to happen this year. I thought over the winter months I could get in a bit of reading.
Thanks.

Cheers, kev.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Howdy,

Rules for sailing are international, but are related to racing.

International rules for the prevention of collision at sea always apply and tell you what happens when sailboats, motorboats, rowboats etc meet.

I'm writing a quick briefing on sailing for my website. Might as well be there where it can be widely seen. I think I can get away with about 5 or 6 technical terms.

MIK

I look forward to it Michael.

Cheers, Kev.

I've been thinking about writing something for a long time.

It is really interesting when you get into it. Because basically there is one main idea to learn and everything else comes from that. And the technical terms for describing it are actually very few.

Just short hand reference terms when the idea is made clear.

Actually better than books ... I would probably go to youtube and look for
optimist sail training
or
Laser sail training

I haven't seen a good learn to sail book for years. There are some very fine ones for intermediate sailors to really help them improve, but not so many super good ones that deal with beginners.

I would say if they go straight into naming boat parts it is a wrong approach. Then if they draw a circle and introduce a whole lot of sailing terms ... then it is just wrong.

You don't NEED any of that stuff. Which is the exact point Engblom's learning to sail by himself shows. Language only needs to be introduced later. But I guess people have to fill up their books somehow.

MIK

My dad taught me to sail when I was... 9 maybe 10 years old. He had never sailed a day in his life. He read a book, shared what he thought was important with my older brother and me, put us in a styrofoam dinghy (Snark for the WIN!), and pushed us off the beach. Then pushed us off the beach again. And again until we figured out how to beat upwind (sorry for the lingo).

My point is that it's not rocket science. My dad was a science teacher, so he absorbed the concepts of aerodynamic lift and centers of balance well enough. But he taught us, "you can't sail directly into the wind; you have to zig zag to get upwind. There are no brakes, but if you point into the wind, you won't move forward anymore. Watch your head or it will get hit by the boom." etc., etc. Easy peasy.

I have a hard copy of this book:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Sailing-Basics-Book-Launched-Thousands/dp/1585748072/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346937657&sr=1-4&keywords=sailing]Amazon.com: Sailing: The Basics: The Book That Has Launched Thousands (9781585748075): Dave Franzel: Books[/ame]

It does a pretty good job explaining certain basic topics like "points of sail" and the difference between keel boats and centerboard boats. It does use nautical terminology, but it's good idea to become immersed in that (English) vocabulary. It's easier to state "when I'm on a beam reach, I get a weird flapping of the leech, but it goes away when I point higher..." than it is to describe in plain English each of those terms.

Oh yeah, now that we have the internet, you can always throw you questions to us in the global StorerBoat community. My dad didn't have that!

Originally Posted by davlafont

Oh yeah, now that we have the internet, you can always throw you questions to us in the global StorerBoat community. My dad didn't have that!

Yes, and aren't we the lucky ones.

A week ago I finally decided to build my sailing canoe. I got on the internet and started reading articles and quickly became frustrated with the terminology. Also having to scroll back and forth between the article and drawings became quite tedious. I gave up and started watching YouTube. That was far more productive.

I think we have a big advantage over the typical beginner sailor sincewe will be building the boat we will be sailing in. Learning the parts, their purpose, and how they work together during the construction of the boat will be a huge benefit.

Hi, learning the basic's is easy, learning the language is nuts
The first time you go out go in gentle wind, you can sail anywhere so trust in you self thet you can get back to the beach, all you have to do is thunk of where you want to go in triangles, if the wind is behind you that is one side of the triangle every other direction is the other sides of the triangle in either direction so you either go straight or you go in triagles to get back to where you started, every thing else is skill and finesse that you learn with pratice.
There is heaps on wiki for the language and also a flash game sort of that you can practise where you put the sail for different angles but I can find it, this is a good resorce though
Sailing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My sailing briefing/lesson is up.

http://www.storerboatplans.com/wp/sa...and-boat-trim/

MIK

And comments on unclear bits or where you think there needs to be another diagram or image ... tell me

It may as well be a group collaboration like my plans! Quality goes up and up that way.

MIK

Excellent!!! Thank you so much for posting. I do need help with sailing. Last night I browsed through Apple store and bought an e-book for my iPad. "Learn to Sail - enhanced edition" This book was written mainly for dinghy sailing and even has built in videos as well as a lot of color photos. Multi-media book. I am going to try to read it as well as MIK's posting this weekend while I am flying down to Los Angeles.

MIK, I just read your posting on how to sail. Nicely written. Almost everything makes sense and I can see all the things that I did wrong. I think my sail might be too tight. But I am still not sure how lose I need to make it. Perhaps just trial and error.

I couldn't see photos of GIS and OZracer. Public wifi or iPad that I am using might be the issue.

Otherwise, to the point and useful instruction. Thanks

Great stuff Michael. Even I can understand that. Now all I have to do is build a boat