Sailing Archives

Spinnaker Sailing Course

January 11, 2018/by Grant Headifen

The NauticEd Sail Trim course now includes how to hoist, fly, and douse a spinnaker. Here is an animation embedded into the course so that you can learn the names of the components associated with a spinnaker.

Sailboat speed versus sailing angle

September 27, 2017/by Grant Headifen

I nabbed this image off Pinterest via (https://hobiecat16.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/points-of-sail-vs-boat-speed/). It is a pretty good image that represents the speed of a sailboat versus the sailing angle to the wind. It is pretty easy to read – at dead downwind in a 10-knot breeze the fastest you can get this boat to go is slightly less than […]

How does heeling angle create airfoil shape?

April 6, 2017/by Grant Headifen

A student asked this question “How does heeling angle create an airfoil shape in the sails”. He was using SeaTalks nanoforum that we have on every page of our sailing courses. So my first thought was Huh? What the heck is he talking about? Then I remembered that I wrote that. So it must be right, right? […]

Sailing Vector Game

December 13, 2016/by Grant Headifen

Learn Sailboat Giveway Rules and Cure Boredom at the Same Time. Here is a fun sailing game you can play ol’ school like when stuck on an airplane with a sailing buddy. It’s kinda like the old Race Car Vector Grid game but better ’cause it’s sailing. If you can drag your kids off the iPad, […]

Who Gives Way, Adrift Powerboat or Sailboat under power?

April 29, 2016/by Grant Headifen

If you like this post, please LIKE it on facebook. Thanks – it helps our waterways be safer. This is a question in our FREE Navigation Rules Course which covers in-depth the International Rules of Collision at Sea aka ColRegs. The Powerboat is adrift. Who gives way? Using our nano forum technology, one of our […]

How to gybe a sailboat single handed

November 13, 2015/by Grant Headifen

I do this all the time, but I was out with a friend the other day and he was asking me to lead him through the details. I thought it was obvious but apparently not. Oh – and if you like this little tip and it helps – please LIKE it and LIKE us over […]

Forereaching animation: How to sail in big waves

October 19, 2015/by Grant Headifen

This post was inspired by the conversation I had with a student sailing off shore in big waves. He was wanting to know how to keep his sails full and have a more comfortable ride whilst sailing downwind. See that conversation here: Wave and Forereaching. In our storm tactics course, we talk about how forereaching is […]

Waves and Forereaching

October 7, 2015/by Grant Headifen

Here is a great question from a student with our answer below. QUESTION: Hey Grant! Any chance you can email me the barber hauler article direct? I’m at sea, on a out new-to-us 40′ Leopard Cat on a 1200nm journey and have been really struggling to get the headsail to set right while running downwind. […]

FREE Basic SailTrim Sailing Course

October 5, 2015/by Grant Headifen

If you like that we made this course for free, LIKE us over there —-> The NauticEd FREE Basic Sail Trim online sailing course is now available as a regular course – still FREE. We did this for a few reasons. (1) We wanted to incorporate the valuable information into the more advanced Sail Trim […]

Preventing the Frustrating Auto-Tack

October 3, 2015/by Grant Headifen

If you like this freebie tip, LIKE us over there —-> thx for that! First – what is an auto-tack? It’s when you are sailing along on a close haul about 30 or so degrees off the wind minding your own business when either the wind changes OR you weren’t watching the boat turning up into […]