Grant Headifen

About Grant Headifen

My vision for NauticEd is to provide the highest quality sailing and boating education available - and deliver competence wherever sailors live and go.

Entries by Grant Headifen

Cirrus clouds

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Perfect example of cirrus clouds this morning in Austin Texas. Cirrus clouds typically mean that weather is changing in about 2 – 3 days. Many times it can mean the approach of a warm front – but not necessarily.

Moving the car forward under tension

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Moving the jib sheet car forward when the jib sheet is under tension presents a bit of a problem and many times you’ll just wait until you tack to the other side to move it. Or more dangerously, you can release the tension a little then put your foot on the jibsheet forward of the […]

Reef un reef reef unreef

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When you’re racing you need to get the most out of your rig and that’s exactly what we had to do in the Austin Yacht Club Red Eye January 1st Race event. While one weather channel was predicting 6-8 knots another was saying 15-20. In the last sailing blog I’d mentioned that we were going […]

Happy New Year – learn to sail in light winds

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What better way for NauticEd online sailing classes to start off the year by going sailing. The NauticEd crew will be racing their Beneteau 373 on lake Travis in the Red eye regatta today. Winds are predicted to be light at 6-10mph. So it’s going to be a light wind sailing day. Light wind sailing […]

FREE Rules of Right of Way Course for Sailboats

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Since we have just launched this new FREE rules of right of way for sailing vessels course, this is the first blog. The free online sailing course has many visuals of right of way situations as depicted here. There is a lot of thought out there that sailboats have right of way when in actual […]

West Marine Links to NauticEd

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West Marine, the USA’s largest (by far) chandlery sailing and boating supply company, has become the latest sponsor for NauticEd by providing a link through to NauticEd. This is a leaping bound for NauticEd in gaining this kind of exposure. West Marine made the link on their sailing category page in an effort to promote […]

USCG Captain’s Course

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I recently finished my Coast Guard Captain’s license and then further completed my Master Mariner license with a sailing endorsement. I took the course through the Mariners School (www.marinersschool.com). The experience was good. The requirements to get your USCG Captain’s license are extensive so here’s a quick list. About 3 full weekends in class Very […]

Docking a boat

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Docking, maneuvering, handling, parking a boat while under power is an easy skill to learn. Many people are intimidated when entering the marina and with good cause – that is where 99% of damage to boats occur. But with some practiced skills, the intimidation changes from fear to excitement to see how close to perfect […]

Beating Seasickness

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One of the best forms of cure for seasickness when sailing a sailboat is for the skipper to give up the helm to the ailing crew member. Strange and unnatural as it may seem this will usually work within 3-4 minutes. Why? Well you’ve always heard that a seasick person should concentrate on the horizon […]