Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2013

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.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Day skipper theory: online

Is is really important to pass a skipper course, because you can control the boat on your own. However to do that you need to have a lot of basics and learn different situations where the boat (yacht or sailboat) can find itself. This is why every year more and more people enroll to various skipper courses.

Important question is where you can find all theoretical questions  for day skipper course before you go to exam or when you like to refresh your knowledge. It is better if those questions can be gathered on one place, online. Day skipper course last only one day but in that time you need to pass theory and practice of skipper knowledge.
Theory question consists of areas of navigation of the boat, map reading and orientation, lights on other boat and signalization, how good you know the engine and of course practical knowledge of knots and similar.



Practical course is more about handling the sailboat or motorboat in the sea. How you can manage to stop the boat and get in or out the harbor without the damaging the boat by hitting it to other boats or simply loose control of the boat. You can easily control the boat outside on the open sea where there is room for errors. If you do a wrong decision there is no yacht or sailboat which you can hit. But in a harbor or boats are closely together and you need to "squeeze" your sailboat into one particular space.