Practice makes perfect
The more we do it, the better we get! Today was the second of eight lessons in our fall session of Youth Sailing. Each Saturday will look the same. We are divided into two groups: the beginner sailors, ages 9-12, who attend our STEM class, the SYSTEM, and the intermediate sailors, ages 12-17, who attend our NEXT LEVEL program. Both groups began at 10 AM and finished at 3 PM. The SYSTEM classroom is indoors, and the NEXT LEVEL meets in the second-floor breezeway. The SYSTEM is based on REACH (US Sailing's STEM education series), while the NEXT LEVEL is based on US Sailing's Intermediate curriculum.
Both groups, united in their love for sailing, were ready to sail simultaneously. It's a wonderful sight to see the coach boats leaving the harbor with their respective groups, each a part of our sailing community. We always have a coach boat to follow the sailors out.
Coaches got their students up to speed by adjusting the outhaul, cunningham, boom vang, and trimming the mainsail so that the top batten points in the same direction as the boom. Sails need to be adjusted according to their point of sail. Trim the jib so the leeward tell-tale is horizontal, then adjust the main to match the jib.
Now, it was time to line up for a nice picture with all the boats overlapped and pointing in the same direction. This is excellent practice because this is what it looks like at the beginning of a sailboat race. The picture is taken from Leeward. We encouraged them to hike the boat flat so their faces could be seen, preferably with sunlight shining.
At some point, the safety boat anchored. The NEXT LEVEL coach set up a short, windward-leeward course nearby so that we could video record boat handling techniques.
Alow the pictures and video tell you more about our day. See below.
LET’S HAVE FUN, BE SAFE AND LEARN A BUNCH
Encourage your sailor to learn more, please visit our online classroom. https://www.teamparadise.org/classroom