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Basic Sailing & Seamanship

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If you are interested in picking up a new sport, refreshing your basic sailing skills or just wanting to have a great time, I highly suggest taking basic sailing and seamanship.

I had my apprehensions as to what basic sailing and seamanship was going to be like.

Jo has the patience of a saint; thank the sailing gods! He also has a way with teaching the basic fundamentals of sailing so that they stick. I walked away from this past weekend not just with a love for sailing and knowledge, but I learned about the people I was learning with and about myself. What other type of class can you say that about in less then two days? The thought of being put on a boat all day for 2 days with people I had never met before could be a toss up, but fortunately Marc Kraft runs a great program and I spent the 2 days in basic sailing with an amazing teacher Captain Jo and three very wonderful individuals.

The class will cover and touch on important topics; sailing theory, safety gear, points of sailing, knots, tacking and jibing, crew responsibilities, halmanship and commands, getting underway and making sail, sail trimming, securing the boat, nautical terminology, finding and reading the wind, mechanics of rig and sail, reefing and navigation rules. One of the most important things to always remember is to smile and have fun. Oh, and one hand for yourself and one hand for the boat can also go a long ways.

 

We plant the ship that will cross the sea,What do we plant when we plant the tree?

We plant the mast to carry the sails,

We plant the planks to withstand the gales-

The keel, the keelson, and beam and knee-

We plant the ship when we plant the tree.

Abbey, Henry; 1842-1911

 

Special thanks to Steve Allen for being an important part of our crew and taking some great photos. Also, thanks to Lesley Moussette and Brooks Bell, I’ll sail with you all any day. A very special thank you to Captain Jo and Pacific Sail. It couldn’t have been done without you.

By: Samantha Woods