Sailing Basics for Skippers and complete rookies

I have received many comments about how to sail, where can I find more good information how to control sailboat and enjoy by. Honestly sailing is a hobby that you enjoy it when you learn more and have much more experience how to control boat. Good page that I have found on the web site about sailing basics is definitely skippercourse.com.

The web page gives you good advises and teach you complete basics about sailing and mention also some useful stuff for more experienced skippers. It is well explained in which direction can sailboat sail and how the boat is constructed. I am still amazed that you can sail with boat to almost any direction concerning the wind. You can sail almost against the wind or with the wind. All you need to do is trim the sail into the right position. There are many pictures on the mentioned page.

Basic of sailing are definitely knowledge about various sails. Small sailboats have only one sail from mast to the back of the boat. Usually most of the boat have two sails Front Sail (from mast to front of the ship) which is called Genoa or Jib and the Main Sail that is from Mast to the end of the boat called Main sail. There are various types of Main sail: Roll sail, Standard sail with lazy bag and not that often also roll sail on boom. For less experienced sailors it is advisable to use Roll sail, however if you want to get more from the sailboat then you should charter a boat with Lazy bag sail.

Preparing the boat and leaving the dock are definitely sailing basics. Those details are covered in details on the mentioned web site. What is the most important thing to do before you leave the dock. They have even basic check list to do before you leave the docks. Important thing from checklist: check weather, discuss with the crew, food and drink supply for the trip, navigation plan and of course secondary drive if there is no wind check power engine and the amount of fuel in the engine.

In my opinion site is really well designed and you will receive a lot of useful information. There are also good information about sailing schools especially one with RYA cerfiticate.

Different/Various Skippers

There a various skipper jobs and at the beginning you need to go through the same basic training but later you need to specialize for one area that are the most competent.

So in the beginning as I have already mentioned you need to pass basic course for controlling boats. This license gives you permission to control boats till 25 meters. However most of the skippers do later also specialization for various jobs that they will work at. You can specialize to sailing skipper, yacht skipper or powerboat skipper.

Powerboat skipper

Person who will like to control powerboat needs to control boat at high speeds where there are just a few milliseconds to act and do what is wrong. There is not any time for errors and errors could be fatal. Powerboat skipper is person who usually drive also racing boats and have a lot experience. There knowledge is not just "push the throttle to the metal" but also in what kind of conditions you can go faster and in what conditions you need to slow down.

Yacht Skipper

Usually those skippers have some other sailors that help them out with controlling big yachts. That kind of skippers are specialized in maneuvering big yachts, doing leisure yacht trips or sometimes a bit faster with a giant yachts that are not usually as maneuverable as you would thought. Yacht Skipper does the most work during the anchoring or getting in or out the marina, otherwise the riding with yacht is much easy to do.

Sailing Skipper

If you are sailing skipper you need to have a deeper knowledge of winds and how does the wind affect sailboat. Sailing skipper jobs is the most difficult when you are by yourself with lifting sails and tighten them up for the best positions while you are controlling the sailboat and checking that the wind is and how will it change. It is job that you can not predict the situation of the wind and you have to be on a constant watch. There are a few signs to see if there are refills of wind, but more of that in later chapters.

All of Skippers need to have a good basic knowledge of lights on boat, engines, ties and especially navigation if all modern devices broke down.