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Category: Sailing Lessons

Points of Sail, Lifts, Headers, and Lay Lines

We have some beginners in the club and some sailors wanting to learn to race. Here are some introductory slides on the points of sail. Then we transition to how you can sail upwind for fun and in racing, by understanding your lay-lines and playing the lifts and headers. Slides

Rigging a Sailboat

Many years ago at Yellow Creek, the park would rent out a sailboat to anyone who could properly rig one!  They figured that though lots of people “say” they know how to sail, if someone can rig the boat, they must know what they’re doing!

Rigging usually involves:

  1. uncovering the boat
  2. gathering items (PFD, rudder, sails)
  3. bending on and raising the jib sail
  4. bending on the mail sail
  5. attaching a rudder
  6. attaching a painter
  7. raising the sails

But each boat is a little different. Each club and boat owner may have a different habit as to how they set it up or put it away.

This year, IUP has new Club FJ sailboats. We’ll be rigging them for the first time, starting from the basics (putting the boats together after storage) .

Here’s a great setup video, where two teens put together an FJ 

Every time you sail, there’s a process to launch the boat. Below is a very good tutorial from the Columbia U sailing club. There are slight variations among FJs of different years, but this is basically how our boats will be set up.

Here is a simple step by step PDF.

For a very detailed guide, download this draft FJ Rigging Procedures PDF for FJs at Yellow Creek (FOYC/IUP).

It’s also a great time to learn the names of the parts of the boat; jump to slide 16 in our learn to sail slide stack.

 

Sailors Know Knots

IUP students can learn to sail with their peers and the guidance of certified US Sailing instructors. You don’t need experience or to have been sailing before. One fun and useful skill to pick up — even before it is warm enough to get on a boat — is how to tie some common sailing knots.

The classics that every sailors should know are:

  1. Figure eight stopper
  2. Square knot
  3. Bowline
  4. Cleat hitch

There are many online resource but these videos make it simple to practice.

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