Sailing Education Archives

What about COB – Captain overboard?

June 9, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Last week we made a pretty good point about using the engine as your first method of pick up when you have a man overboard while under sail. And it was quite well received by followers – thanks. Many sailing schools teach the figure 8 recovery method whilst under sail and this is correct we […]

Preventing an autotack in a sailboat

June 5, 2009/by Grant Headifen

In continuing our learn to sail series of blogs we discuss the annoying problem of autotacking. Scenario – A gust of wind comes ripping through and causes the sailboat to round up and autotack or you’ve given the helm to a novice, they’re not paying attention and sail too close to the wind and they […]

Man Over Board discussion

June 4, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Last evening we were sailing our Beneteau 373 under a pleasant Texas sky with 10 knots of wind. A very experienced sailor was on board with us albeit he had not sailed for about 15 years. His past experience was impressive with 10’s of thousands of miles in his logbook – mostly racing. One cringing […]

Shhhh be vewy vewy quiet – don’t tell the power boaters

May 24, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Sailboats are much more maneuverable than power boats – but don’t spread the word because all the powerboaters will run to their congressmen to get the Navigation Rules changed.

Mooring Accident

April 23, 2009/by Grant Headifen

While it is generally accepted that mooring is safer than anchoring, there are still some considerations. The following photo from Waiake beach in Auckland, New Zealand is proof of this. Whilst visiting New Zealand for the purpose of spreading the NauticEd word, we came across this early in the morning after an overnight mild storm. […]

Gybing trick

March 17, 2009/by Grant Headifen

When you’re getting ready to gybe, take the jib lazy sheet and wrap it around its winch and pull quite tight. This will pull the jib towards the windward side of the boat just a little. Now when you gybe, you don’t have to be so busy about pulling the jib sheet across quickly because […]

Weather Helm Versus Lee Helm

March 15, 2009/by Grant Headifen

What are they and what’s the difference? These two terms were established when vessels were fitted with tillers rather than wheels and so the term weather helm refers to having to pull the tiller (helm) “to weather” in order to sail in a straight line. Lee helm is when you need to push the tiller […]

Learning to sail in gusty conditions

March 10, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Yesterday I was out teaching on our new Beneteau 373. The conditions were extremely gusty. Lake Travis in Austin Texas is a great lake for sailing all year round and in the summer the water is so incredibly warm that you can swim while anchored in a cove still at 2am. There are lots of […]

New Course on Celestial Navigation

March 7, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Well it is finally here – one of our most requested courses yet – focused entirely on Celestial Navigation. The Introductory course gives a good introduction to spherical geometry and also to the theory of a noon solar sight. It takes the student through an actual sighting and uses real tables to calculate the Latitude […]

Anchoring a sailboat

March 6, 2009/by Grant Headifen

Learning to anchor a boat is an integral part of your learn to sail lessons. There are lots of considerations. Here we’ll cover one of those considerations – swing! Care must be given to swing. As the wind changes during the night your boat will move with the wind and can put you into a […]