Monday, September 13, 2010

Learn How to Sail (In a Boay You'll Never Own!)

Salmo 15 Dory-Skiff. From Salmo Boats
 I have a few learn to sail videos and for the most part they are useless. Okay, not really useless but unuseful to me. I'm not going down to the dock today to unleash my production 27' cabin cruiser. There will be no clipping the sail to the mast, no talk of standing rigging at all. The motor if I use it will be myself and I'll be on a small pond hoping to find some light airs. So how comes they don't make a "How to Sail" movie for me?
I might be wrong but there is a large contingent of both first time sailors and seasoned salts who go out alone, in a very small and possibly homemade boat for pleasure and work. Sure they'll write wonderful books about it, such as The Craft of Sail, but I've not seen a video along those lines.
I've mentioned the Payson/Bolger books, how about a video? Not only see a Teal being built but also it on the water sailing? It can be very intimidating to a new comer to the hobby being bombarded with more information then they need about sailing. Sailing can be a very simple act and I think as a novice it needs to be a simple act. Get out, find the wind, go where you want to go. Feel the boat and the wind and learn to go by your gut. I don't have a digital wind readout on the Sea Hawk. Nor do I have a bilge pump, electrical system, or a way to hoist a spinnaker. My winds will be inconsistent and my navigation is all done by sight and memory.
One of the greatest things when first getting y our boat is the ability to explore. Once you cast off from the dock the world is your oyster. How about including that in a sailing video? Show how to make a landmark without a GPS in a notebook and then use these notes to get home again.
 I think in this age of going fast and high technology it's high time we get a simple sailing video. Because there is a market out there, we're it!

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