Talk Like a Sailor

A few days ago was International Talk Like A Pirate day.  Since we started to learn to sail, it has amazed me how much of our vernacular appears to come from the sailing days of old. While going through some of the sailing blogs I read (I hope this is the one I found it on), I just happened to come across a link to a pretty good list of terms and phrases used today that can trace their origins to sailing.  Many of these you would not even expect came from sailing ("devil to pay"...really?).  When you have a little time, take a look at the list:

The Nautical Origins of Everyday Sayings

Hope you find it as interesting as I did.  And who knows, maybe you did talk like a pirate...or at least a sailor....that day.

Third Sailing Lesson

Far  from  our last lesson, this was the last one for the ASA 101 (basic keelboat) standard.  The wind had been howling for the past 24 hours and was even blowing our car around on the drive to the reservoir.  So...of course...when we get on the water, barely a breeze.

We covered how to tweak sails to deal with varying wind conditions.  Adjusting the outhaul adjusts sail shape, loosening it to help with the light winds.  Although we definitely didn't need to, we also went through the process of reefing the main sail to demonstrate what to do when the winds are strong.

We also went over a technique called heaving-to, which is used when you want to take a break.  With it, you can essentially "park" a sailboat so it will stay reasonably in position without having to remain at the helm.

One last chance to practice docking and it was done.  Now, all that is left is to memorize all the terms and information here, and take the test.

First On Water Sailing Lesson

FINALLY!!!  After a cold that turned into a sinus infection and then threats of snow during a prior weekend, we had our first on-the-water sailing lesson at the local reservoir.

My wife and I and two other students went out with an instructor in one of the J/22's (on the right side of the dock in the above picture) that the sailing school uses for primary training.  It was a beautiful day with light to moderate winds, just perfect for our first lesson.

We learned quite a bit.  Making the boat ready to sail (we actually found an issue with the engine and switched boats), rigging the jib and main sails, departing and returning to dock, sailing various points of sail, tacking, gybing, when to use some of those knots we covered in the classroom, how far the boat can heel (and how exciting a wind gust can be when the water is almost to the deck), and the list goes on.  Each student had a chance to take the helm (steer) as well as handling and trimming the sails.

In an earlier post I mentioned all the terminology in sailing, and I'm pretty well convinced that vocabulary is the hardest part of this class.  When I "had the helm" I found that I had to ask the instructor  what the proper commands were on several occasions.  "Ready about?", "helms-a-lee", "ready to gybe", "gybe-ho"...why can't we just say "Ready to Tack", "tacking", "ready to gybe" (this one makes sense) and "gybing".  In the legal system there are some initiatives to write laws in plain English...wonder if someone has thought sailing could benefit from this. Of course, without all the terminology, sailing wouldn't seem all that romantic and mysterious, right? ;-)

All in all, a great day.  Can't beat educational AND fun.

Lesson 2: Knots Not Knots

Our second classroom session last night was all about knots.  A knot is a measurement of speed in nautical miles and is approximately 1.15 standard miles, but this is not the knot I'm talking about.  Knots are also the things you use to keep the myriad of lines (ropes) on a sailboat in order.

Now the only knot I really knew how to tie well was the one you accidentally create in your tennis shoe laces...you know the one that takes a forever to get untied...and usually occurs when you are in a hurry.

Well, the ones we learned last night differ a great deal as they both serve a useful purpose and can be untied easily.  Here are the ones we learned that the ASA wants us to know:

• Bowline - Creates temporary loops.
• Figure 8 - Stops lines from pulling thru guides, etc.
• Reef (Square) - Links two lines of identical size and similar characteristics.
• Clove Hitch - Ties to a spar (such as fenders to lifelines).
• Round Turn & 2 Half Hitch - Ties a boat to a dock without cleats.
• Cleat Hitch - Proper way to tie a rope to a cleat.
• Sheet Bend - Links two lines of dissimilar size or characteristics.

And a few other useful items that aren't on the ASA exam:

• Cow Hitch - Useful for stowing reefing lines (or, I guess cows).
• Prusik - Can apply force to an existing line when you can't access the ends.
• Truckers Hitch -  Multiply pulling power (cheap block and tackle).

Here is a site I found that has a bunch of animated knots if anyone is interested: http://www.netknots.com/html/boating_knots.html

The most interesting thing I learned though, is that there are different ways to tie a given knot, but some are much easier than others.  When you are on a rocking boat, I assume the easier the better.

Now if I can ever get over this cold, next lessons are on a boat.

Sailing Lessons Day 1

Had our first sailing lesson on Monday evening from 7~10pm.  No, we didn't go sailing in the dark, the lessons include two classroom sessions and this was the first.  The school hasn't actually launched their boats yet...they apparently don't have ice skates.  I guess they will be available starting sometime next month.

As would be my usual luck, I ended up coming down with a cold over the weekend, so sitting thru a 3 hour class wasn't the best.  The class was an OK introduction to sailing and sailing terms but the instructor skipped around his slides a lot.  The claim is there are only four maneuvers in sailing:

• Heading Up: Turning toward the wind.
• Bearing Away: Turning away from the wind.
• Tacking: Turning the bow thru the  wind.
• Gybing: Turning the stern thru the wind.

On a sailboat everything seems to be based on the wind (yeah, duh, just call me captian obvious). We also got our course materials at this first class.  Fortunately I had been doing research ahead of time, so it was mostly review of what I had already read...good thing...as comprehension definitely goes down on cold meds.

One of the "materials" for the class is a Personal Flotation Device (PFD). A basic one is included in the tuition as I guess a student drowning would be bad for business.  The thing I didn't know ahead of time is they had three "better" options to choose from for a small additional fee (the total cost for students is below retail).  We decided to go with the auto-inflating ones with integrated safety harnesses.  Since the plan is offshore cruising, these sounded like better options than the basic ones that were manual inflation only and didn't have an integrated harness.  Hope it was a reasonable choice.

Next classroom class is all about knots (tying ones, not measurement ones)...then we'll finally go sailing.