Grant Headifen

About Grant Headifen

My vision for NauticEd is to ensure that families and friends get out on the water not only safely but with true COMPETENCE, confidently savoring every moment of their valuable time.

Achieving this means being the pinnacle of sailing and boating education—offering comprehensive multi-media theoretical instruction coupled with hands-on, on-the-water training through our global network of American National Standards Instructors. We steadfastly avoid becoming a mere certification mill; our focus is on delivering genuine competence, ensuring our students are well-prepared for enjoyable, real-world boating experiences.

Entries by Grant Headifen

Leaving the Slip

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This is the first in a series of blogs on leaving the slip or end tie. Some combinations of wind and current can get complicated and some are easy. The first shown below is the easiest. Stay tuned to this series and we’ll show all.

Momentum Discussion

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Here is an exercise that everyone should do. It’s taken from the Maneuvering a Sailboat Under Power course which gives 20 different exercises to be able to confidently maneuver a sailboat. Exercise 1: Under power, and going down wind, move towards a marker or buoy and stop the boat with the buoy abeam of the […]

20 point plan to rig for heavy weather

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1. Reduce sail to the appropriate sail plan early. 2. Make storm sails ready. 3. Secure all deck gear 4. Fill fuel tanks from jerry jugs if necessary 5. Secure companionway slides and hatch closed and sealed from the deck. 6. There should also be a mechanism ready to secure the hatch from below. 7. […]

Further elaboration of true vs apparent wind

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There has been a request for further elaboration of the wind vectors as to why the true wind is always behind the apparent wind. Previously we used this diagram and the confusion is that the true wind vector is in front of the apparent wind vector. The following diagram explains the vectors better perhaps. The […]

Learning to hold a straight course

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One issue that appears most often with new sailors learning to sail is focusing too much attention on the electronic wind meter or the wind direction indicator (the pointy arrow thing at the top of the mast). The windmeter above which is installed on most modern sailboats shows that the wind is coming from 60 […]

Understanding true vs apparent wind

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Here is an easy description of true wind and apparent wind. Put you hand outside the window of your car traveling at 60 miles per hour on a still day and your hand will feel a 60 mile per hour wind. That’s apparent wind yet the true wind is zero. What if the car was […]

Sailing Schools and Sailing Experience.

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What do you do when you have finished with the NauticEd online sailing classes? Well, we recommend that you get with one of our practical hands on sailing schools as soon as possible to burn in your new theory knowledge with practical sailing skills. Sailing schools typically have a selection of sailboats for you to […]

A few rules and signs and lights to learn when sailing

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Once you’ve decided that you like it and you now want to learn to sail for yourself, there are just a few things to learn, actually quite a lot but don’t be intimidated – we all started sailing somewhere – sometime. The rules of right of way can be a bit daunting so that’s why […]

Sailboat Rigging and Some Nomenclature

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Learning to sail can be a bit overwhelming at the start because of the nomenclature. But don’t worry it’s just a matter of learning a few at the start then adding to them as you progress in your sailing education. The following illustration shows the parts of the sail and associated control lines. Of note […]

Learn to Sail

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Just how hard is it to learn to sail. I meet people on airplanes all the time and their comment is many times “sailing? Isn’t that hard”. Well, was it hard learning to ride a bike? Kinda. Is it easy riding a bike now? well … yes. So learning to sail is similar. There are […]