Last ASA 103 Class...Attempt Two

A couple days ago we again made the trek to the reservoir for our last ASA 103 course...again.  Instead of too much wind, if anything it looked like we were in for another light wind day.

My wife and I were the only two scheduled for our second attempt at the "graduation cruise".  The owner was there and decided we needed another person, so he grabbed a student from one of the regular classes.  As it turned out, I think this was a mistake.

Everything on this sail was pretty straight forward, just a little larger scale.  Since I docked the boat last time, I took the boat out of the marina this time.  While the boat is a fair amount larger, it doesn't really feel that much larger than the other boats.  We raised the main and unfurled the Genoa (I like the roller furling headsail) and were able to catch just enough wind to sail.  We did some basic maneuvers and a couple of man overboard drills.  A little more room on this boat made it a bit more comfortable with three students and an instructor than is typically the case on the smaller boats.  The lesson ended with my wife bringing the boat back to the slip.

The problem was that the other student the owner had grabbed was only on his 3rd lesson of the ASA 101 course...and he hadn't been on a boat for over a couple months.  So, instead of helping the situation, he was actually more of an obstacle.  The instructor had to spend a majority of the time explaining the basics to this student and the student didn't seem to be "getting it" at all.  This made it a little frustrating all the way around.  I felt sorry for this student as he was getting a LOT of information thrown at him quickly and I think this frustrated him.  Having the instructor spend the majority of his time with this student frustrated my wife and I as we had hoped to learn more about larger boat handling.  I think having students of such different levels of experience also frustrated the instructor.

All in all I think the lesson was worthwhile.  We did get to sail a larger boat, see how it maneuvers in a marina, and got to experience a couple of new mechanisms.  I do think the experience would have been better had the owner left the classes as they were.