18th September 2012
Today was a Force 2 and it was dry & sunny.
Nice weather for learning the basics of sailing in and not bad Birthday weather either. :D
Our instructor was Brian.
My personal goals for today were that I just wanted to learn the basics of sailing really. How to rig a boat and some basic terminology used when sailing. Not too much, just getting started!
Getting Started...
Brian showed us the sail boats that we were going to learn to sail in for the first few weeks, they were very small dinghy’s called ‘Toppers’.
We went through all the names of the different parts of the dinghy and then Brian showed us how to rig a dinghy. We then split up into 2 groups and we had to try & rig the dinghy as well as we could without any help. Then Brian came over and checked what we had done, told us where we had gone wrong and showed us how to do it right.
We went through all the names of the different parts of the dinghy and then Brian showed us how to rig a dinghy. We then split up into 2 groups and we had to try & rig the dinghy as well as we could without any help. Then Brian came over and checked what we had done, told us where we had gone wrong and showed us how to do it right.
I thought this was a great teaching method because I believe people always learn better from their mistakes. This way, you learn lots of wrong ways to do it and you’ll remember that the next time and do it the right way.
Brian gave us a theory lesson on different wind directions and how to use the wind to your advantage when sailing, e.g where your sails should be, whether your centre board should be up fully. This was a good idea to go through a bit of theory before we went out on the water. However, I felt like I had been a little bit bombarded with information.
But then, they do say that ‘when your brain hurts, you are learning!’
Our task on the water today, was just to be able to sail in a figure of 8 around two buoys, using the wind and letting our sails in/out. There were no complicated maneuvers involved in the session (which was a relief!) because Brian just wanted us to get a feel for the dinghy & how to steer the way you want to go.
I was really nervous about going off around the buoys, not so much about being in the dinghy, but it was more the fact that everybody was going to be watching. We only had 3 toppers for 6 people and we had to do it one at a time first so that Brian could watch us & give us improvement pointers.
I think if I was running this session I would take into account that some people might not feel comfortable sailing for the first time in front of everybody in their group. If I couldn’t get more dinghy’s on the water, I would probably just let them go in pairs and take it in turns on the helm.
However, it wasn’t so bad once I had done it, I was just nervous before I set off, but like most outdoor groups, everybody was really supportive and wanted each other to do well. So perhaps it was a good way to improve my confidence issues when performing in the outdoors.
We learnt how to tack today, (pushing the tiller away from your body, towards the boom) Brian didn’t want us to Jibe today (pulling the tiller back, away from the boom) because it is much trickier and you are more likely to capsize.
The highlights of my day today were the Birthday cake that Liz baked for me and served up to everybody at lunch time with custard! (It was seriously yummy and much needed after a long morning sailing!)
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| Emmet helping himself to some nom nom Birthday cake! :D |
It was great to go sailing and get used to being in the dinghy and maneuvering around the buoys.
Thinking back over the day, I know it was silly to get nervous and self conscious when Brian asked us to sail individually. If I don’t stop doing this then I am not going to improve much each week so I’m going to try my best to over come this.
I think I did well today, I tried hard to get the hang of tacking and learnt how to get basic control of the dinghy. I am looking forward to getting out again next week and improving/learning more.
Environmental Interest of the day...
There are fig trees growing at Petersburg. I found out that they would grow two large crops a year if they were in a warmer climate. But this isn't possible in Ireland because the temperature is way too low! They grow wider than they do tall. This is a handy piece of information to know incase I ever had a group out & I saw a Fig tree, I’d be able to tell them a little ‘fact of the day!’
(For more information on fig trees you can follow this link: http://www.garden.ie/howtogrow.aspx?id=996 )
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