Posted by Grant Headifen on November 29, 2010 under About NauticEd, Skipper | 
“A sailboat!” yelped Alex with glee as he uncovered his eyes and gazed upon a shiny dinghy sailboat sitting proud on a trailer in the garage.
Alex’s dad was happily standing next to him with his arm over his shoulder. “Happy Birthday, Son,” he said, “he’s all yours now.”
That’s the opening two paragraphs in NauticEd’s new educational and interactive eBook called Alex Learns to Sail. The world’s first of its type ebook has been written especially for kids and is the latest invention of Grant Headifen, NauticEd’s Educational Director. “It’s an invention because no where have a I found such a book. It’s an educational, entertaining and interactive approach to teaching kids to sail” says Headifen.
Alex Learns to Sail a Dinghy
Readers are introduced in a step by step manner to the concepts of dinghy sailing using a fun fictional storyline and by utilizing progressive micro interactive applications through out the ebook. At the end of the book Alex, the main character, races in a club regatta with an edge of the seat finish. Readers can then electronically build and paint their own dinghy then race the same regatta course in a game that incorporates all the skills they have learned through out the ebook.
The micro applications teach the reader the how to assemble a dinghy, how to steer a dinghy with a tiller, adjust the mainsail for optimum speed, understand the telltales and to feel the heel of the boat. The dinghy sailing game at the end then allows the reader to compile all their new found skills learned in the ebook.
Headifen developed all the mathematics for the game using his knowledge of sailing and his engineering background. He then outsourced the flash programming but first, he says, he had to teach the programmer to sail via Skype chat. Probably a first as well he says.
Headifen came up with the idea while watching kids sailing on Waiake Beach in New Zealand earlier this year. “I had been approached many times to develop an online kids dinghy sailing course similar to the NauticEd big boat courses. I just didn’t think a factual online course could hold a kids attention for long enough and so the idea of an exciting fiction story developed. It’s got a really cool twist in the ebook that kids are going to love and the interactive elements will keep them captivated”.
NauticEd is expecting that kids sailing programs worldwide will pick up on the ebook due to it’s educational value. Instructors will be able to ask the kids to complete the ebook in their own time and show up with the certificate of completion before the first practical teaching session starts or they can use the ebook for rain out days.
Those wanting to post a message on their notice board at their yacht club etc regarding the dinghy sailing lessons can download this PDF file.
Dinghy Sailing Lessons Notice Board Flyer
NauticEd’s Kids Sailing ebook has been released at http://www.alexlearnstosail.com
Posted by Grant Headifen on November 24, 2010 under About NauticEd, Skipper |
Today, NauticEd Sailing School announced the posting of its online Safety at Sea Clinic. Written by Captain Ed Mapes who has logged close to 100,000 miles on the ocean, the Safety at Sea clinic focuses on safety and rigging issues that sailors will experience at sea.
Safety at Sea Online Sailing Course
In the introduction to the sailing course, Captain Mapes challenges the average sailor “What would I do if the rudder broke? How would I cope if a shroud terminal cracked? Could I get the crew safely into the liferaft if the boat went down? Asking these questions in advance is a great way to make ready for sea. We might not pre-fabricate replacements for everything that could break, but the exercise provides us the chance to have materials and tools ready to build a rudder, for example. We could have a plan in mind to substitute for a shroud and keep the rig standing. We would know what goes wrong with a wind vane, what to look for, and how to return it to use”.
The sailing course is focused towards advanced sailors who intend on sailing further than 20 miles offshore. Topics listed on the NauticEd Safety at Sea course description page are:
- Communications
- Rigging Failures
- Steering Failures
- Safety Gear
- Sail Repair
- Engine Issues,
- Fire
- Flooding
- Man Over Board
- Abandon Ship Procedures
- Medical Issues
- Helicopter Evacuation
Safety at Sea marks NauticEd’s 12th online course to be made available to NauticEd Students. It is also a required course to complete the Rank of NauticEd Captain. The investment cost in the education and test is listed at an introductory price of $39. The student is expected to take approximately 12 hours to complete the sailing course.
To learn more about the NauticEd Sailing Courses and Sailing Certifications go to http://www.nauticed.org/courses
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Posted by Grant Headifen on under About NauticEd, Bareboat Charter, Crew, Maneuvering Under Power, Rules of Right of Way, Sail Trim, Skipper, Storm Tactics, weather |
Today, NauticEd Online Sailing School announced its release of the NauticEd Captain’s Rank. This coincides with the posting of the NauticEd Safety at Sea Clinic which is the final required course to attain the Sailing Certification Rank. The NauticEd Captain’s Rank focuses entirely on sailboat operations both near shore and offshore and is directed specifically towards the recreational sailboater.
Until now, many recreational sailboaters have been gaining a commercial boating license to attain the educational equivalence of Captain but with out the intention of operating commercially. Now with NauticEd, students can gain a Captain’s Sailing Certification with out jumping through the significant hoops associated with a commercial operator’s license.
This is very exciting for the sailing industry says Grant Headifen, Educational Director for NauticEd. ‘It means that we can have more educated boaters on the water and the investment cost in the education is well within reach of every sailboater. We’ve lowered the barriers and made the experience fun and interactive with multimedia learning. Now, if anyone wants to learn to sail, gain a sailing certification or just increase their sailing education, doing it online makes it more accessible and thus more likely to be done”. The Educational investment in the Captain’s Rank is less than $US300.
Headifen estimates it will take the average student 60 hours of study over time to complete the theory courses and online tests associated with the NauticEd Captain’s Rank. The NauticEd online Courses required to gain the rank cover a wide breadth of topics listed as follows:
Captain's Rank bundle of Sailing Courses
In addition, a NauticEd Captain must have logged a minimum amount of real sea time which is denoted by a level associated with the Rank as follows:
- Captain Level III - 50 days of sea time;
- Captain Level IV – 100 days of sea time
- Captain Level V - 200 days of sea time.
Time is logged on NauticEd’s online sailing logbook and can be accessed via iPhone and Android apps or on an internet connected computer.
NauticEd which stands for Nautic Education offers 2 lower level Sailing Certifications; Skipper and Bareboat Charter Master. These are achieved by passing fewer courses than listed above. NauticEd also offers other online courses such as a Catamaran Sailing Confidence, Celestial Navigation, and a Crew Course.
To learn more about the NauticEd Sailing School and Sailing Certifications go to http://www.nauticed.org/faq_sailing_certification
Posted by Grant Headifen on November 16, 2010 under Bareboat Charter, Coastal Navigation, Crew, Skipper |
They say that there are two types of sailors – those that have hit the bottom and liars. Well, with this blog, I can firmly place myself in type I.
I believe the reason “they” (I never really know who “they” are) make this statement is to promote caution, that you’re never too immune from the bottom of the ocean no matter how much experience you have.
Certainly – I’m one of those who demonstrated to myself that the bottom is to be kept at a distance. Here’s a story that happened to me that will hopefully stick with you and help reduce (probably not eliminate) the number of times you’ll be introduced intimately to the bottom of the ocean.
The setting is the beautiful Bay of Islands, New Zealand. We were motoring amongst the picturesque islands photo documenting the anchorages for a website that we were building for Sailing New Zealand (http://www.sailingnewzealand.co.nz).
When rocks like these are present it's a good sign others are lurking under the water
In one particular instance, there were two ways to get around to the next bay. Cut through a 30 meter wide channel between a set of rocks and the island or around the outside of the rocks. We consulted the GPS map and the paper map, both indicated deep water between the rocks and the island. And on top of that, it was high tide (2.5 meters above datum). Clear Right?
BONK! Said the rock and the boat simultaneously.
So what happened? Was I off on my positioning? Nope – I infinity checked that after we’d given the keel the headache of it’s life.
What happened was pure thoughtlessness. What was I thinking? I had put pure trust into data. Assuming that each and every rock in the entire world has been accurately positioned and that data exists on all electronic and paper maps.
Very simply, that is just not the case and I should have known better. Would Captain Cook made such a rudimentary mistake as he performed his amazing exploration of the unchartered world? I doubt it! In those days they constantly lead lined off the bow and sent dinghies in to doubtful waters. Lives were at stake.
While I do believe that it’s pretty safe now-a-days to assume that in deep waters almost every rock has been marked – at least in the first world countries, the mistake I had made was in shallow water close to an island.
Fortunately the story ends ok with out any injuries except to my wallet and to my two year old who bonked her head in the berth below decks while sleeping. That’s a really sucky way to wake up by the way. We reported the issue to the charter company. They hauled the boat and we paid for the damages. Even though we were going slow, the abrupt stop caused a separation gap between the keel and the hull introducing a leak.
Moral of the story. The ocean’s beauty allures us to it but it can be treacherous. Keep your head screwed on and play it safe – every time. Your experience does not give you a get out of jail free card. In fact your experience can lead you into a false sense of security. Time for me to push the reset button on what I think I know and go back to the basics. Lesson well learned. I hope this story helps you “go around the outside”.
To learn more about coastal navigation, take the NauticEd Coastal Navigation Sailing Course.
One final note – it’s really important to report incidences like this to the charter company. First – it’s a matter of integrity and secondly it is a safety concern for the next charterer. There are a lot of awful what if scenarios you could probably think of and for the price of the insurance deductible the peace of mind is worth it. And after it was all said and done and amortizing it out over my sailing career the cost was about 50 cents per sail. No big deal but the re-learned knowledge is worth so much more.
