End of Season Lightning Course in Sailing

In our non antipodean climes north of the Tropics for that matter too, the winter is nearly upon us and many a boat will be layed up on the hard this week. What then if you have just a few days left to teach someone how to sail?

How would I present an even further distilled course in sailing to a complete new wannabe helmsman on a dulcet weekend in October?

1) Wind Sense

The wind is of course our driving force, our freind and foe, our fickle lover and out raison d'etre more or less. Wind sense means knowing where the wind is coming from, how strongly and knowing if these are changing. Weather sense is then you could say the strategic side of this, where we learn metereology or just the signs of shifts in wind and weather ahead of their arrival over our sails.

Understanding the prevailing wind at the time you set off for a sail, and appreciating that the wind oscillates, bends and can suddenly shift direction and stregnth dramatically are at the core of good wind sense, and good wind sense is at the core of good sailing.

It is easy to teach as long as someone can understand how a flag or birgee flies relative to the course you are sailing. In other words they can see the picture of which direction that flag is pointing and relate that to where and how they are going to sail there.

Then you can introduce the principle of beating, tacking, reaching and running with the wind. Gybing can be introduced out on the water.

2) Course Plan and Sail Settings

These two are inexorably linked because as soon as you get in a boat you want to know which angle you will need to, or be able to sail on. In order to plan your course out of the harbour or to your first destination you use your new found wind sense and the instructor will then relate this to the three basic settings for sails, which are close hauled, reaching and running (broad reaching for safety in fact).

Take a run through while along side showing how the sails will be set for the first few minutes of the day.

( I would just get the rig set up for the day, and hoist the sails on the quay or yourself while sitting near head to wind on the water to keep the focus on wind sense and the first sail setting needed to get underway)

Another point here to make right away- as instructor you will be doing most of the sail trimming for the rest of the day out on the water, thus allowing the student to concentrate on two main things: Wind Sense, Desired Course and Steering.

3) Starting and Stopping
This may seem a bit banal, but these two are basics which are often under-taught and the racing fraternity can be damn awful at them in reality, often chundering into a leeward mark with no real concept of how to brake and perhaps stop, or hardening up for the start or out of a crash tack without any decent coordination. In more docile boats, like a Snipe or a Sonar, the two are acheived with little effort and an emphasis on doing it slowly, smoothly and correctly in the lightning-course.

Stopping usually involves coming up to head to wind in many sailing courses, but in the docile types of boats usually sailed in schools, then you can teach this on the reach and even on the run given there is little wind or following tide, with the mainsail first being centred (feathererd DDW), the jib flogged forward or furled,  and perhaps then the main or both are dropped in lighter winds to effect a controlled stop or very slow progress towards a quayside.

The first way though to teach starting and stopping should be in my opinion, reaching and then letting the sails out to rag, until the boat stops. Then sheeting in on the same heading in order to show the simplest start and stop. Luffing up can then be introduced to just arrest speed more, thus moving the bow up to a tight reach angle, and leaving the boat at basic-safe position (some people call this heaving too, but I prefer to reserve that for backing the jib and lashing the helm over)

Then you can teach coming head to wind to affect a dead-stop for the purposes of picking up a bouy or making an emergency stop, avoiding something which lay infront of a reaching course. It is worth showing a pupil though, how easy it is on many boats to get stuck in irons and thus why a 'basic safe' position is superior because you have controll to move off.

I like to teach 'speed spilling' which means taking several breif luffs towards say a quay or bouy from a reach or close hauled and thus like dabbing the brakes on a bike or car, you control speed but keep some on in order to control your approach. This is a good technique for higher performance dinghies and sports boats if that is your tool for the job this weekend!

There are then just four basic manoevres that need to be taught which also encompass much of what is just learnt in starting-and stopping:

3) Luffing Up and Tacking;   Bearing Away and Gybing

All of these then are taught slowly and have a natural lead into each other. Luffing up should be taught to achieve a close-ish hauled course, at least a 45' one so that VMG is achieved. Sheeting in can be introduced after the helming movement is tackled competently.

Tacking should be done with a cleated main (unless really windy) and the crew / instructor doing the jib after demonstrating a tack themselves on the helm. Often beginners are just taught to feather the tiller extension backwards along the tiller, and that is fine for a lightening course. You should teach them to push the tiller out no more than 60' and to look up over the bow to see what is happening. Be ready to help them correct oversteer or understeer by sitting right next to them within reach of the tiller yourself.

The purpose of tacking should be explained - ie the theory of velocity made good aka progress to windward. Also how you sail a course close hauled and decide when to tack at a very basic level. As an instructor I would aim to keep an eye on the big picture and make the pupil tack up to a Nav' bouy or racing mark, and use a 60' cone so that you dont end up out at the edges of a course, maybe getting headers or windshadow.

Bearing away is often a little trickier of course especially in dinghies where more controls and the centreboard may ideally require adjusting underway. However Keep It Simple Stupid, especially in light autumn airs when you can be a little lax with sheeting out and kicker etc. You should always teach to bear away close hauled to reach, reach to broad reach and then establish wind sense for that point of sail and explkain why broad reaching is the safest way of sailing down wind.

Gybing then should be show with the purpose, you need to correct your angle to your destination or next point on the course, and you thus need to put the stern through the wind. Of course gybing is the most dangerous part of sailing, and in fact a safety breifing on the quayside should include a laymans explanation of this!! Demonstrate the gybe yourself, taking helm and main sheet, and then let the student try. This is one manoevre I would step into the driving seat several times to help them see-learn and correct their own coordination and body movement mistakes.

4) Coming Along Side and Stowing Sails and Equipment

The final art is to end the day, coming along side, and as is age old tradition and necessity, the student should be involved in stowing the sails etc to make them aware of this responsibilty as a team task.

Coming alongside should be practised and of course best with a leeward side approach to the quay. Using a racing mark (rubber/plastic!) can be