Ahoy
There was a TV commercial that showed two guys building then sailing a small sailboat. It made me flash back to my sailing experiences.
One bright and sunny day on lake Wichita it was decided that I should learn how to sail. These people were really into sailing and needed a back up crew member for their Windmill. They had a number of different boats and they took me out on the Sunfish. A little, short, yellow sail boat that was big enough for one person to move around comfortably.
They towed me out into the middle of the lake with a little power boat. I thought they were going to get into my boat and give me instructions on how to sail. Instead once Mickey got into my boat he promptly stood up, grabbed the mast and tipped us over.
I swallowed half of Lake Wichita and came up swearing, wondering why these people hated me so much that they were trying to drown me and leave my body for the fishes.
Mickey explained that sailboats tip over and before you could really learn how to sail I had to learn how to tip the boat back upright. I said "##%$%^&**.
But he explained how I should swim around to the bottom of the boat. Once there I noticed a board sticking out of the bottom. (I later learned that is was called a DAGGER BOARD and the bottom of a boat was call the KEEL.)
Mickey told me to gather up the SHEET, the what? The rope for the sail. Oh. Yea the sheet.
I was told to stand on the dagger board and haul back on the sheet. I did this and VIOLA, the little boat righted itself.
I scrambled on board and sat there deep breathing, feeling pretty proud of my self and Mickey said "Tip it over and do it again".
This went on for about an hour but I started to feel confident with this part of boat handling so then we moved on with actual sailing.
I picked up pretty quick on pulling in the "sheet" to tighten up the sail to make the boat go. It was like making a wing out of a piece of canvas. I could make the boat go and I could make it stop. We were pretty much into the wind and I learned the basics on how to tack and guide myself towards a certain spot. This case being a buoy. I even learned the correct terminology.
Every time you were getting ready to tack you announced to the crew "Ready about" and then you swung the tiller (the stick that guides the rudder) and ducked. You ducked because the boom swung across the boat to the other side. You then gathered in the sheets and you were on you way on another tack.
Now let me tell you about doing this downwind.
When you are sailing down wind your boom is way out to one side and to change tacks you have to swing it all the way over to the other side. You announce to your crew (me) "Prepare to Jibe"
then you push the tiller, and duck. Really duck. That freaking boom comes across at about mach 2 and when it hits the other side it really throws the little boat out of whack if you are not quick with the sheets. Did I mention that sailboats tip over? When you do a flying jibe like that it doesn't just tip over. It crashes. You don't just fall overboard. You are thrown way out of the boat. I was a good thing that I spent the first hour righting a sail boat.
So for the next 30 minutes or so I practiced jibing. I would jibe. I would right the sail boat. I would jibe. I would right the sailboat. I did this until I thought I could handle it.
By this time I had spent more time in the water that in the boat and I was ready to head in. I took a bead on the docks and started in. A couple of tacks and I was feeling pretty good even if my fingers were wrinkled from being in the water so much.
The last maneuver I had to do before docking was a flying jibe. There was a small group of people on shore watching so I had to do it right.
"Prepare to jibe"....duck...Oh #%&@....
While I was thrashing around trying to find my sheet and swim around to the dagger board, my feet touched the bottom. I just said to hell with it and walked in to the docks, pushing my little yellow Sunfish. I tied it up and climbed up onto the docks. The small group of people gave me a nice round of applause.
Believe it or not, I went on to some fun things and won some bling. More about championship sail boating in another post. Stay tuned.
One bright and sunny day on lake Wichita it was decided that I should learn how to sail. These people were really into sailing and needed a back up crew member for their Windmill. They had a number of different boats and they took me out on the Sunfish. A little, short, yellow sail boat that was big enough for one person to move around comfortably.
They towed me out into the middle of the lake with a little power boat. I thought they were going to get into my boat and give me instructions on how to sail. Instead once Mickey got into my boat he promptly stood up, grabbed the mast and tipped us over.
I swallowed half of Lake Wichita and came up swearing, wondering why these people hated me so much that they were trying to drown me and leave my body for the fishes.
Mickey explained that sailboats tip over and before you could really learn how to sail I had to learn how to tip the boat back upright. I said "##%$%^&**.
But he explained how I should swim around to the bottom of the boat. Once there I noticed a board sticking out of the bottom. (I later learned that is was called a DAGGER BOARD and the bottom of a boat was call the KEEL.)
Mickey told me to gather up the SHEET, the what? The rope for the sail. Oh. Yea the sheet.
I was told to stand on the dagger board and haul back on the sheet. I did this and VIOLA, the little boat righted itself.
I scrambled on board and sat there deep breathing, feeling pretty proud of my self and Mickey said "Tip it over and do it again".
This went on for about an hour but I started to feel confident with this part of boat handling so then we moved on with actual sailing.
I picked up pretty quick on pulling in the "sheet" to tighten up the sail to make the boat go. It was like making a wing out of a piece of canvas. I could make the boat go and I could make it stop. We were pretty much into the wind and I learned the basics on how to tack and guide myself towards a certain spot. This case being a buoy. I even learned the correct terminology.
Every time you were getting ready to tack you announced to the crew "Ready about" and then you swung the tiller (the stick that guides the rudder) and ducked. You ducked because the boom swung across the boat to the other side. You then gathered in the sheets and you were on you way on another tack.
Now let me tell you about doing this downwind.
When you are sailing down wind your boom is way out to one side and to change tacks you have to swing it all the way over to the other side. You announce to your crew (me) "Prepare to Jibe"
then you push the tiller, and duck. Really duck. That freaking boom comes across at about mach 2 and when it hits the other side it really throws the little boat out of whack if you are not quick with the sheets. Did I mention that sailboats tip over? When you do a flying jibe like that it doesn't just tip over. It crashes. You don't just fall overboard. You are thrown way out of the boat. I was a good thing that I spent the first hour righting a sail boat.
So for the next 30 minutes or so I practiced jibing. I would jibe. I would right the sail boat. I would jibe. I would right the sailboat. I did this until I thought I could handle it.
By this time I had spent more time in the water that in the boat and I was ready to head in. I took a bead on the docks and started in. A couple of tacks and I was feeling pretty good even if my fingers were wrinkled from being in the water so much.
The last maneuver I had to do before docking was a flying jibe. There was a small group of people on shore watching so I had to do it right.
"Prepare to jibe"....duck...Oh #%&@....
While I was thrashing around trying to find my sheet and swim around to the dagger board, my feet touched the bottom. I just said to hell with it and walked in to the docks, pushing my little yellow Sunfish. I tied it up and climbed up onto the docks. The small group of people gave me a nice round of applause.
Believe it or not, I went on to some fun things and won some bling. More about championship sail boating in another post. Stay tuned.
posted by Rob | 11:06 PM
1 Comments:
I love hearing your stories- it seems like you have done it all! Sailing, flying...
I remember taking a kayaking class in high school PE. I had to flip my kayak over and then escape. It was one of the worst feelings I have ever had. I thought I was going to die!
Funny that you spent more time in the water than on the boat. Who knew?
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