A good sailing class is also worth the time and expense. Check your local marina, or the various sailing journals such as "Small Craft Advisor", "Good Old Boat", "Sailing" (for higher budget sailors), and the publishers of "WoodenBoat" offer excellent classes. Steve M-15 # 335 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Conbert Benneck" <chbenneck@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 12:36 PM Subject: M_Boats: Musings
Hi gang,
I wrote this for someone else, but thought that you might find it interesting too.
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Your interest in becoming a rag sailor (power boat owners are call stink potters by rag sailors ) will have you opening a new book that leads to a life-time of learning a whole series of new specialty subjects.
It starts with the know-how of basic sailing, but as soon as you have mastered that you are off, into a whole new world of sailor-specific topics and knowledge.
- Weather, and weather forecasting: and what do weather maps tell you? ... is it safe to undertake the planned trip? .... or should you wait till the front has passed?
- Sails: since they are your power source, how can you get the most out of them? Additional sail controls? How do they work, and what do they do for sail shape?
- Sail maintenance and repair. If a sail tears you have to be able to fix it. (sailor's palm / sail needles / waxed thread / scissors / sailor's knife)
- Anchoring: This is a skill that is hard to learn, because you can't see the bottom where your anchor is looking for a holding spot, but it is _/*not*/_ just drop the anchor and hope for the best, keeping your fingers crossed that the anchor holds. To be safely at anchor, you have to KNOW that your anchor is holding properly. That becomes the art / science of anchoring, gained the hard way....
- Boat maintenance / painting / modifications / improvements. Each requires accumulated knowledge to be applied to the problem at hand. You have to learn knots; and where they are used and why; you have to learn how to splice lines; it is part of being the self-sufficient sailor.
- Navigation. Just how do you get from A to B, or is it better to get to B by going via C? Wind directions / tide status: incoming or outgoing? with you or against you? .... GPS is fine, and very useful, but what do you do if the batteries are dead, or if you drop the GPS into the water and it no longer works? What then? That is why you need a chart, a compass, and know how to use them. Fog is something that you encounter on the water. Can you sail / motor in the fog and reach your destination safely? Do you know where you are located, or are you just guessing? Eventually, as you stretch distances and new places you wish to explore you will have to learn to sail at night: what do the flashing lights on buoys tell you? Can you identify lighthouses? It is a step-by-step learning process; the more you sail the more you learn; and the more you know, the further you want to go.
- On the water you meet maritime birds: the gulls and terns, the cormorants; and the things living in the water. You see a fin sticking out of the water. What are they? ...or in Florida you may sail with a manatee, or large turtles, or spot alligators sunning themselves on a river bank.
- Sailing on a small boat also influences your thinking. You have to ask yourself is this large item I want on the boat worth the storage space it requires? . ..or can I find a smaller version that does the same job better and requires less space? You will find that line of thinking will also apply at home.
- Maritime history: That is another subject you find yourself immersed in. It is why Brazil speaks Portuguese and the rest of South America speaks Spanish. Why? Well, back around 1494, Portugal and Spain each were claiming ownership to half the world. It was finally settled by a Treaty of Tordesillas, brokered by the Pope, that gave Spain the western half of the world, and Portugal (who already knew their way out to the East Indies -Indonesia) the eastern half. The line that was drawn through the Atlantic Ocean gave the South American bulge, which is now Brazil to the Portuguese, while what remained became owned by Spain.
This is also the reason why other countries went off looking for a route to the East Indies (to get to the very lucrative spice trade - controlled by the Portuguese) -Columbus went west; Henry Hudson went north; someone else tried to go over the top of Russia and got stranded in the winter ice and escaped on foot back to Europe.... They all were trying to get around the Pope's Treaty dividing up the world between Spain and Portugal. They wanted their part of the wealth too.
You are thinking of entering a new world through sailing. Open the door, start learning, and enjoy it for your whole lifetime. It is a never ending learning process that is always fun and interesting.
Connie
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