Posted by Grant Headifen on June 22, 2009 under About NauticEd, Crew, Sail Trim, Skipper | 
PRESS RELEASE
Today, NauticEd again lived up to its tag line of being “The World’s Most Advanced Online Sailing Education” by unveiling it’s latest teaching tool – NED. NED is a very high tech interactive online sailing instructor whereby new and novice sailors can learn how the sails should be positioned for any wind direction.
The player can:
- Turn the boat and watch the speed of the boat change with different wind angles
- Increase or decrease the speed of the wind
- Trim the jib sail and the main sail and watch the boat speed change with trim
- Gybe the boat
- Tack the boat
- Learn the points of sail
- Watch the boat’s heel angle change with wind condition and angle
- Learn exactly how you should set the sail trim with the wind angle
The simulation is very realistic because the speed profile was extracted from a real speed polar plot diagram of a racer cruiser sailboat.
Grant Headifen, the Educational Director for NauticEd developed NED. “It was just time” he said “For too long now instructors have been forced to rely upon blackboards and crude models made of plywood, dowel rods, sting, eyehooks, handkerchiefs and a fan to explain points of sail and how to set the sails for a particular wind direction. Now, students can simply log on to the internet and play with the simulator to really get the feel of the wind and properly understand the dynamics. Instructors now can get the students out of the classroom and onto the water faster which is what every student wants. It’s a very exciting and useful free tool”.
Once NED has been mastered, NauticEd also provides Advanced NED, an interactive game whereby the student must sail a course and achieve the best time.
NED the Sailing Instructor
NauticEd decided to make the tools, NED and Advanced NED available for everyone for free. “It’s one way of showing off NauticEd’s dedication to bringing technology to the sailing education world. But, by making NED free we are also helping potential sailors get out of their arm chairs and onto the water. You can’t resist it, once you play with NED you’ll want to test it out on the water… and that benefits the entire sailing industry alike” Headifen added.
NauticEd even allows anyone to embed NED. Sailing schools and others who want potential customers to spend more time on their site can embed NED into their own website. NauticEd provides the html Embed code for free to anyone.
To play with NED or to embed NED go to http://www.NauticEd.org
Posted by Grant Headifen on June 17, 2009 under Bareboat Charter |
This is an email to me from some friends, Chris and Chris and their kids, who took the plunge and went off cruising in their Catamaran – Stray Kitty. Cool name for a Catamaran by the way. It’s posted here with their permission. We thought that is was such an inspiring story that we wanted to share it. And oh by the way keep an eye out for the NauticEd Catamaran Confidence course that is currently in the works. Follow us on twitter to be informed about it’s launch.
>>>>
Subject: Limin’ in Grenada, West Indies
At the beginning of April, we decided to head back North to Martinique
from St. Lucia. We sailed half the way until we got tired of fighting
the current against us so we motored the rest of the way. Martinique
is another island owned and administered by France so it has very
European feel to it. We rented a car and drove all around the island,
the roads were very nicely paved and they even had round-a-bouts!
Yeah we are back in the land of baguettes and cheese.
We headed back to St. Lucia and picked up our friends Mike and Lynn
who came to visit us from Ottawa for a week. We sailed down to Bequia,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines with them and stayed there for the
week.. We had a great reunion. Thanks again Lynn for the girl guide
cookies and Tim Hortons coffee!!!
After they left we tried to visit all the islands of the Grenadines,
there are eight of them. We almost accomplished it, we stopped at all
of them except Palm Island. The Tobago Cays were amazing – clear
water, amazing snorkelling, we were able to snorkel with turtles every
day. We met our friends on sv Pickles and they introduced us to
another family on sv Alouette with two children the same ages as ours.
There really is nothing better than that.
Union Island, one of the Grenadine Islands is where Ryan turned
seven!!! There were no other kid boats around so we tried extra hard
to make it special for him. We gave him a children’s recipe book and
asked him to choose what he wanted for his birthday. We spent the day
eating chocolate chip pancakes, hot dogs, dishes of dirt, and
mudslides!!! Mike and Lynn brought down gifts from Grandma and
Grandpa and we found him a few things here in the Grenadines, Chris
took him tubing and the kids played in the water for a long time.
Good thing, because the next day there were thousands and thousands
and thousands of large green jelly fish that floated by the boat all
day long, so swimming was absolutely out of the question.
We have been in Grenada now for approximately three weeks and
counting. We hauled the boat out of the water and survived living on
the hard for five days. We replaced the fixed propellers to feathering
propellers (Kiwis), they turn streamline when sailing so they are not
left spinning. We also sanded the bottom and repainted it with salt
water anti-fouling as opposed to the fresh water anti-fouling that was
barely there. We hope to regain our speed now without all the marine
life that was clinging to the bottom of our boat!
There is a large cruising community in Grenada. A cruising net on the
VHF radio every morning broadcasts the upcoming social activities,the
weather and what people have for sale. We are exhausted as we are not
used to all these organized activities! So far we have been to a fish
and chips night, taken a two hour bus ride to see leatherback turtles
crawl out of the ocean and lay their eggs on the beach, gone to an oil
down which is the local dish of Grenada where they throw a ton of
locally grown vegetables, pig snouts and chicken in a pot then boil it
down on an open fire with coconut milk that they make themselves.
Everybody helped cut the vegetables and prepare the food. It was
absolutely delicious and the kids loved it too. And been to a rasta
organized beach bbq.
We met a few other families with young children. SV Airbender, a
couple from California have six year old twins on their 60 foot
catamaran. (We thought we had a lot of room until we saw their boat)!
They are on the same route as us and we plan to buddy boat with them
which will be great as Ryan and Elliot were so happy to make
acquaintances! SV Heat Wave with six year old Charlotte on board was
another boat we spent time with in Grenada. SV Wild Vanilla has two
children on board and we spent a couple of afternoons hanging out at
the beach.
June 1st is the official start of hurricane season. People we have
met here are either staying for the season in one of the protected
anchorages, getting ready to haul out here or in Trinidad (an
overnight sail away) or leaving for the ABC’s (like us). Charter
boats are nowhere to be seen now, the season is over for another year.
Also while here in Grenada, we are working like mad fiends trying to
finish the school year. Our goal is to be done by Friday. Chris had
an alternator repaired and we are getting some sun covers for the
cockpit made. Once school is done, we plan to go on an island tour as
a celebration. Then we are very excited to start heading west into
new cruising territory. We plan to go to the Venezuelan offshore
islands, then the ABC’s which are Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We are
getting ready to say good-bye to the Eastern Caribbean!
The big news is that we have booked flights to Ottawa on July 26th.
We will leave the boat in a secure marina in Aruba and fly to Ottawa
for a three week visit. The kids are so excited. We have booked them
into camps for two weeks and the rest of the time we just plan to hang
out and spend time with family and friends.
Till next time………
Christine and the crew on Stray Kitty
Posted by admin on June 9, 2009 under Bareboat Charter, Crew, Skipper, Storm Tactics |
Last week we made a pretty good point about using the engine as your first method of pick up when you have a man overboard while under sail. And it was quite well received by followers – thanks. Many sailing schools teach the figure 8 recovery method whilst under sail and this is correct we believe so long as it is used as the second method for recovery.
But it may need to be the first if someone has the engine keys in their pocket. Durh!
The problem is that it’s usually the captain who turns off the engine and puts the keys away secure in his/her pocket. And it’s many times the captain who is the most competent sailor and worse yet if the only competent sailor aboard or not aboard as in the case of COB.
The scenario is now pretty easy to realize. Captain goes overboard with keys in pocket and a non experienced crew left on board to sail the boat to a recovery pick up.
Leave the keys in an accessible place. Have a second set of keys available in the chart table and ensure every one knows the COB (captain overboard) recovery plan.
Sailing schools in particular should take notice here because many times you have novice students who are just learning to sail loaded on the boat. Make COB part of your initial briefing.
When on a bareboat charter make a keys talk part of your initial briefing to everyone.
Stormy conditions? Remind everyone about MOB and COB during the batten down the hatches phase.
Posted by Grant Headifen on June 6, 2009 under Bareboat Charter |
There is a myth that you need a sailing license to charter a boat. Call any charter company outside of Croatia, Greece and Spain (whose governments legally require a certification) and none will insist on a certification. What charter companies want is competence. And they will take competence in lieu of a certification any day. How does anyone define competence? The charter companies define it as total time on the water as master of the vessel which is within 10 feet of the vessel being chartered. They also list yacht ownership, blue water sailing experience, previous charters as master of the vessel, time sailing in the last 5 years, anchoring experience, and experience as crew as important factors in deciding whether or not to release the boat to a potential customer. No question however, they also certainly do put credence into a sailing certification and practical teaching by a professional.
What the charter company does then is look at the combined factors above and then make a decision. They most certainly would not charter a boat to some one who showed up with a Bareboat Charter Certification from any organization or association with just the minimum time required on the water to get the certification with the exception of perhaps the RYA Day Skipper certification – who require a significant amount of sailing experience for the certification.
In addition to the theory side of the certification, what NauticEd provides is easy access to the information you need to be safe. NauticEd also recognizes that you must have the experience to handle situations that arise and thus there is no substitute for time on the water. In addition to that – if you can get practical competence verification from a sailing school then you’re really good to go.
If you don’t have any experience and don’t have access to a boat, then starting out with practical training by a sailing school is the best way to get “helm time”. Then once you’re deemed competent, many schools can charter you a sailboat by the day. After about 20 times out, you’ll be at a point whereby you’re probably feeling pretty comfortable and a sailing vacation destination company would probably charter a boat to you.
In Summary
Good
Documented sailing experience including some of:
- 20 + outings as master of 30ft (9m) plus vessel
- anchoring
- yacht ownership
- blue water experience
- crew experience
- last 5 years experience
- Mediterranean mooring
- previous charter experience
Better
Documented sailing experience above and documented education
Best
Documented sailing experience above, documented education, verified practical competence.
When you show up at a charter company with time on the water as master of the vessel and proven education from any certifying body, they’ll be delighted to let you charter their boat. NauticEd recommends that you show up practiced, educated and taught by a professional.
Regarding Education we recommend a minimum of
Posted by Grant Headifen on June 5, 2009 under Bareboat Charter, Crew, Sail Trim, Skipper |
In continuing our learn to sail series of blogs we discuss the annoying problem of autotacking.
Scenario – A gust of wind comes ripping through and causes the sailboat to round up and autotack or you’ve given the helm to a novice, they’re not paying attention and sail too close to the wind and they autotack. How annoying now you’re heading in a direction you don’t want to and have to re-tack the sailboat back. Worse yet – if you’re in a race you’ve probably lost 200 ft. And in other circumstances it can be dangerous because you have essentially lost control of the boat and especially if there is high traffic, you might tack right into another boat.
To explain, an autotack is the process when the sailboat tacks over with out your permission. Most often caused from a severe roundup.
Here’s a cool little trick whereby you can prevent most of them.
Once the sailboat’s center line has crossed the line between it and the point where the wind is coming from, your head sail is going to back wind and begin to really push your sailboat further around to the other side. Thus you now have a huge force at the front of the boat pushing it right around to the other side. Once this happens, it’s all over – you’re going to autotack.
Preventing an autotack of a sailboat
So … here is your prevention technique. As the boat comes up to the line of wind or even if it is through the line of wind, no problem, simply release the head sail sheet. This prevents the wind from back winding your head sail. Since all forces to round the boat up or to push the sailboat around to the other side have now disappeared, there is only one force left on the boat and that is your rudder going through the water. Since you have head way you can just steer the boat back to it’s original position. As the wind come back to the original side, just tighten up the head sail and go on your merry way.
Sounds all good in theory but does it really work? Yes as long as you are quick with the release, it works almost every time.
The NauticEd online sailing school is full of tips like this. And once you’ve registered for a sailing course you can always comeback to retake any sailing lesson with out cost. Learn to sail with NauticEd.
Posted by Grant Headifen on June 4, 2009 under Bareboat Charter, Crew, Skipper |
Last evening we were sailing our Beneteau 373 under a pleasant Texas sky with 10 knots of wind. A very experienced sailor was on board with us albeit he had not sailed for about 15 years. His past experience was impressive with 10′s of thousands of miles in his logbook – mostly racing. One cringing story was he himself going overboard with a spinnaker up at night and he was the only one on deck. Fortunately he was tethered using a jack line and is alive today to tell that story. At that speed he was not able to get back on board and had to wail on the hull with his fist to wake up his other crew member. Wow!
Fact of the matter is Man overboard happens and it IS life threatening. Please don’t discount an MOB happening on (off) your boat. Personally – I’ve had three.
(1) This happened to us in the Mediterranean about 10 miles out to sea off Corsica. The helmsman set the autopilot and stepped to the back of the boat to take a pee. The ladder was not secured and off he went. He was so scared that he could not yelp out any distress sounds.
(2) On a catamaran near St Lucia in the Caribbean reaching at about 8 knots, a crew member was not paying attention to how close to the edge at the back of the boat. He fell over – and called his own “Man Over Board” then grabbed the dingy as it went past and pulled him self in to the dingy.
(3) A crew member steps to the back of the boat to wash her foot. She steadies herself with the ladder which was not tied on. Over she went.
All pretty simple ways of people going overboard and no amount of good skippering and leadership can prevent one.
So – last night a koozie goes overboard and the experienced skipper decides to do a figure 8 retrieval and scoffs at the suggestion of an engine on retrieval.
After 3 attempts by the – again – very experienced sailor, the failed MOB routines resulted in a damaged ego and eventual retrieval with a swim in the lake.
The point I’m making is that you should retrieve your MOB by the best means available to you. And by far, an engine will get you accurately back to your MOB in the best time, and keeping you in the closest proximity to your MOB. I’m sure this shakes up some of the staunch proponents of the figure 8 MOB methods or the quick stop MOB methods of retrieval. But this suggestion doesn’t go against any of that. As a good skipper you should be versed in all means of saving your crew member’s life. However, I’m suggesting here that your first and best means is to use your engine. Secondary methods, because of the possibility of a failed engine, should absolutely be practiced. Knowing the theory is not enough.
The following is a graphic in the NauticEd Skipper Course showing the engine on MOB retrieval method.
- MOB happens
- Immediately announce “Man Overboard”. Get life ring and anything else that floats over board. Hit the MOB button on your GPS. Appoint a dedicated watch person. Gain control of crew.
- Ensure no lines are overboard. Start engine. Head into wind and begin a crash tack.
- Tighten up the main sheet. Maintain control of the crew. Act decisively with your crew. It is imperative that you lead the crew.
- Furl the head sail.
- Head back down wind towards your MOB.
- Get throw lines ready and cleated to boat. Determine if a Mayday call on channel 16 is appropriate.
- You’ll need to approach from down wind.
- Bring the boat around.
- Ensure boat and crew are ready for pickup.
- Head towards your MOB from down wind.
- Bring the boat alongside. If you don’t have a rear transom on your boat you’ll need a block and tackle to get your MOB on board. Be aware that pulling a person out of the water is virtually impossible.
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