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.

Skipper a yacht with a student group

First of all I would like to mention, as I have already mentioned, that here are written only my observations and are not always describing specific group. But in my opinion are most of the time true.

The youngest groups are teenagers but they do not go to sailing without their parents. However students do.  Student or people around 20-30 years go sailing probably because one of the participants is enthusiast and want to share his joy for yacht or sailboat with other friends. That person usually has all the knowledge to control the boat.

However there are times when students would like to go on sailing and do not have to sail. One of good example is party weeks that are organized for students. Company that is organizing that kind of trip is hiring skippers to take control over sailboat and look after participants.

You can get lucky and get a group of people that are not that wild. There were cases when people were parting on a sailboat during a day and have damaged so badly that helicopter was needed to transport them to hospital in time. Otherwise there are only some scratches and broken bones when people were drunk and were running on a unstable and not flat surface such is a sailboat.

Overall I think you should be careful and look over beside the sailboat or yacht also to your crew - students. In my opinion being a skipper to students is the most intense and exhausting part of being a skipper.