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Posted by AKSailor on November 30, 2008 under Skipper | 
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I enjoyed the Skipper’s Course very much. As someone new to the world of sailing, it was very helpful. Although I have not been able to put my new skills into practice as of yet (I live in Alaska and November is not a very popular sailing month due to the feet of snow we have), I feel confident that when I push away from the dock, I’ll be ready. Thanks, NauticEd!
Posted by Grant Headifen on under Maneuvering Under Power | Be the First to Comment
Well that’s it – we launched the new maneuvering under power clinic. Full of diagrams, wind directions and boats under power. Funny tho, cause I took the test and even got a few wrong myself. I was reading the questions too fast. The test is quite difficult and you really need to read carefully and know your stuff before you take it. The passing grade is 85% so you can only get 3 wrong out of the 23 questions. So if you take the clinic, read the questions carefully. The good thing is that you can take the test as many times as you want and come back to brush up later on. Please enjoy – learning how to maneuver a sailboat under power.
Cheers
Posted by admin on November 26, 2008 under Maneuvering Under Power | Read the First Comment
In anticipation of launching the new Maneuvering under power clinic for the NauticEd sailing school, I thought I’d get out a few tips and graphics that were put into the clinic. In the course we spent a lot of time focusing on reversing a sailboat for two reasons really. The first is that reverse is a very powerful maneuvering tool and very underutilized and the second is that it is underutilized for the reason of not knowing how powerful reverse is. I’m not being too funny here but I always notice that many sailors are reluctant to drive their boat in reverse around a marina.
The biggest point we made in the course is that sitting still in a sailboat with your wind to the stern is the most stable point for a sailboat to be sitting in. The wind always tends to want to move the bow of the sailboat down wind. So it’s easy to just hang out like that. Especially if you’re in a busy marina and have to wait for other boats to clear out of the way.
Stern to wind then gives you a starting point to start steering the boat backwards. Of course you have to deal a bit with prop walk before the boat really starts moving but so long as you understand that propwalk is going to happen then you can set up for it first. Once a sailboat starts moving backwards with flow of water over the rudder then it becomes very easy to maneuver. With practice using the exercises laid out in the online course anyone can back a boat into a slip with ease and in fact almost easier than maneuvering in forward gear.
For this reason we now park our sailboat stern too. The boarding is so much easier with the swim platform.
Trying to start out in reverse has bad results
To the right is an example of some of the diagrams that are used. In the diagram it explains that starting out in reverse with your stern not into wind results in your loss of control. And in a marina is where you want control the most.
We also go into an in depth discussion of what causes prop walk and how to deal with it to your advantage. Then we show an incredible array of realistic diagrams on how to get in and out of tight marinas with every direction of docking and wind possible.
While maneuvering a sailboat with a bow thruster is pretty simple we even show you a few tricks based on your new knowledge of prop walk to make the boat move completely in a lateral direction for as far as you want. Very cool and fun stuff. The online lesson is based on a series of exercises and teachings that I’ve been using and improving upon for 7 years. The results with sailors from new to very experienced has been incredible. Everyone got value out of it. I encourage anyone who takes the course to please blog here to discuss its value. In coming blogs we’ll give more tips and tricks but the crux of it all is inside the online course on Maneuvering a sailboat under power.
Posted by Grant Headifen on November 25, 2008 under Bareboat Charter | Be the First to Comment
Two christmas’ ago, 5 of us went to Guadeloupe Island for Christmas. We chartered a sunsail 44 ft Beneteau and sailed for a week around the local islands of Guadeloupe, Marie Galante and Dominica and Iles des Saintes.
It was an incredible trip and we had great winds all week including a 30 knot blow. The highlight was Christmas day in Iles des Saintes, a very quaint French Community. We rowed ashore and bought Croissants from the local bakery and then proceeded to have the most fabulous day. Spirits were high in the bay. One of the crew donned a grinch suit and then we went dingying around in the bay wishing every one Merry Christmas. In Dominica we went scuba diving and were quite impressed with the dive. Not the best in the world but excellent non the same. the locals on Dominica Island were friendly and we hired a guide to drive us around the island. Took quite a few hours to do this but again it was worth the drive. We were amazed at the lush growth and fruit growing on the trees everywhere.
The sail from Dominica back to Iles des Saintes was about 5 hours on a nice beam reach.
On Marie Galante, we rented scooters and rode around the island. The funny thing was negotiating for the scooters in my best french which at this stage is not that great.
We took a few days at the end of the sailing charter to explore Guadeloupe island and what a treat that was. Again the forest is extremely lush. I’d recommend renting a car to drive around the western island of Basse-Terre. The dirve up through the center of the island is gravel and a biut hairy but certainly worth it.
Posted by admin on November 24, 2008 under Videos and photos | 2 Comments to Read
Funny Video of a guy learning to sail
He should have used Nauticed – Online sailing courses.
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Posted by admin on November 13, 2008 under Crew | Be the First to Comment
crewing a sailboat
Welcome to the first blog on the qualified Crew Member course. Please feel free to add to this blog on anything relating to crewing a boat or on the crew course itself. Any improvements?
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Posted by admin on under Bareboat Charter | 2 Comments to Read
Bare boat charter in Belize
Welcome to the Bareboat charter blog. Please feel free to add anything relating to chartering a boat. Stories, where you went, what you liked, or how can we improve the charter clinic?
Places I’ve chartered?
St. Marteen, Greece, Corsica, New Zealand, Croatia, British Virgin Islands, St barts, St kitts, Grenada, St. Lucia, Guadaloupe Islands, The Solent.
Posted by admin on under Storm Tactics | Be the First to Comment
Storm
Welcome to the first blog post on Storm Tactics. Please feel free to add to the blog on anything related to storms.
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Posted by admin on under Sail Trim | Be the First to Comment
Learning finer details of sail trim
Welcome to the first Sail Trim Post. Please feel free to comment or add new posts to this blog on anything concerning trimming those sails and getting the most out of the wind.
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Posted by admin on November 12, 2008 under Skipper | Be the First to Comment
Skippering a sailboat
This is the first blog post for the Skipper course and we encourage everyone to post their comments about general leadership, operations of a modern sailboat and general learning to sail topics. Also feel free to let us know about the NauticEd Skipper Course and it can be improved and expanded.
My first comment and blog about Skippering is that it is the most excellent opportunity to be a good leader. Inherently, you’re put into a position of ultimate command and now is not the time to blow it in front of family and friends. Good leadership is subtle – in fact if you do it right – no one will know that they were actually lead once they get off the boat.
Leadership is also about confidence. One time when out with a father and his two girls, the girls were experiencing quite high levels of anxiety every time the sailboat heeled over and it was becoming obvious that they were not having a good time. This is really bad because if we’re all trying to get new people into sailing then scaring the heck out of children is not a good place to start. So I made a deal with them – I said “hey girls – every time you are getting worried about something – you look into my eyes. If you see me scared and worried then you can also be scared, but if you see me happy and smiling then you should do the same – how about that?”. They immediately calmed down and ultimately they all had a great day and the father went on to buy a boat some time later.
Confidence comes from knowledge and experience and so the more learning you do about handling situations the more confident you’ll be and the better leader you’ll become.
So – welcome to the NauticEd Skipper course. Here we’ll cover a wide range of topics about operating a sailboat and leadership is certainly one of them. There is also a good discussion on leadership in the Bareboat Charter Clinic where it is vitally important – you’re taking friends and family out for a week and you want them to still be friends and family when you come back.