Re. Any training tips for a newbie

[TrentePieds]

@Anglais & Lizzy:

We used to say that "booze is the quickest way out of Manchester" - is that true for Rotterdam, also, Lizzy :-0)?

TrentePieds

[Divevac]

To accelerate your sailing experience, get the whole family involved in sailing lessons at Nepean or Britannia YC-separate lessons for kids (dinghies) and Adult Learn to Sail (keelboats).
Scour Kijiji for a budget laser + dolley right now and to develop sailing proficiency have each member of the family sail it nearly every day over the summer in all kinds of weather. I have one if you are interested. You will learn a tremendous amount about all aspects of sailing and gain a tremendous respect for boat handling, seamanship, weather, etc.
Get involved in racing at Nepean as soon as you can find someone to take you aboard-you will learn more in two competitive races in good winds than a whole season of cruising.
Best of luck...

[kendalk]

If you are looking at a live-aboard life, you should be able to get from A to B safely with your boat. Insurance companies do not look kindly on people who go blindly where no man should go without proper training - there's a lot of surprises hidden just below the surface of the water.

I suggest that you look into courses with (and join) the Canadian Power Squadron (Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons - Escadrilles canadiennes de plaisance) for courses in the Ottawa area - from basic boating to Seamanship to Advanced Piloting, Weather, Marine Radio, etc. Ottawa has 2 Squadrons - Britannia-Rideau Power and Sail Squadron and Ottawa Power and Sail Squadron.

Take your time - learn before you try to sink the boat (by not knowing what you are doing).

[TrentePieds]

@Cruiser19

Anglais, who is more or less next to you just across the river, has it right. READ, then go with somebody who has a boat. Doesn't really matter what kinda boat.

I suggested that Anglais come out here to Vancouver and do a "croose'n'learn" vacation in the Gulf Islands in the summer time. Several outfits here in Vancouver offer them. MUCH cheaper than owning a boat, and having a competent, professional instructor aboard, you won't have to reinvent the wheel. It's really good value for the money.

I came out of the womb rowing a skiff, but MyBeloved was close to retirement when she decided - without ever having set foot in a boat before - that we needed - not wanted, but NEEDED - to spend our retirement cruising. I was dead against it, but "happy wife, happy life", so now we are boat owners and she is learning fast.

Well, it works, in part, because I spent many years as an instructor. There is a knack to that. The last thing you want to do is to wind up in a situation of the blind leading the lame (or vise versa), which is what often happens when a woman winds up being "instructed" by a newb husband (or vise versa). Murder on relationships.

If you want to pursue this discussion, I'll point you in the right direction if you drop me a PM

TrentePieds

[Lizzy Belle]

OFF-TOPIC WARNING

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

We used to say that "booze is the quickest way out of Manchester" - is that true for Rotterdam, also, Lizzy :-0)?

As Sir Francis Chichester once said: "Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk."



The poem the quote is from:

Il faut être toujours ivre. Tout est là: c’est l’unique question.

Pour ne pas sentir l’horrible fardeau du Temps qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans trêve.

Mais de quoi? De vin, de poésie, ou de vertu, à votre guise. Mais enivrez-vous.

Et si quelquefois, sur les marches d’un palais, sur l’herbe verte d’un fossé, dans la solitude morne de votre chambre, vous vous réveillez, l’ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue,

demandez au vent, à la vague, à l’étoile, à l’oiseau, à l’horloge, à tout ce qui fuit, à tout ce qui gémit, à tout ce qui roule, à tout ce qui chante, à tout ce qui parle, demandez quelle heure il est;

et le vent, la vague, l’étoile, l’oiseau, l’horloge, vous répondront: “Il est l’heure de s’enivrer!

Pour n’être pas les esclaves martyrisés du Temps, enivrez-vous; enivrez-vous sans cesse! De vin, de poésie ou de vertu, à votre guise.

Which (roughly) translates to:

Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question.

If you would not feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and crushing you to the earth, be drunken continually.

Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken.

And if sometimes, on the stairs of a palace, or on the green side of a ditch, or in the dreary solitude of your own room, you should awaken and the drunkenness be half or wholly slipped away from you, ask of the wind, or of the wave, or of the star, or of the bird, or of the clock, of whatever flies, or sighs, or rocks, or sings, or speaks, ask what hour it is;

and the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, will answer you: "It is the hour to be drunken!

Be drunken, if you would not be martyred slaves of Time; be drunken continually! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will.”

AND BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOPIC & POSTS

[hamburking]

I agree with many of the posts above.

Its winter now...so read. Read everything you can about beginner sailing, sail theory, seamanship, and navigation.

Take lessons. Take early season lessons, and then more lessons after. Whatever is offered that you can do...small boats, big boats, racing, anything offered. Get as much time on boats as you can. Send the wife. Send your kid. You will do better each on your own than as a couple or a group.

When you have enough experience, charter a boat with AHOY rentals out of kingston: 1000 Islands Kingston Sailboat Charters Lake Ontario - Ahoy Sailing Charters or speak to the owner about a learn to sail charter with a captain...they are very accommodating.

Best wishes and good luck!

[hamburking]

You did not mention the age of "little Anna", but if she is 13-16 years old, she has a great opportunity to learn sailing aboard the St. Lawrence II, based out of kingston. They run an incredible program for youth.

https://youtu.be/1Nm-kKmZhJM
St. Lawrence II - Brigantine Inc.

Also, any of you other lurkers...if you have kids or grandkids 13-16 years old...send them for a sailing adventure they will cherish for a lifetime. Prices are reasonable and in Canadian dollars. Its an overnight program with courses from a few days to over a week. If you are from out of town, they will help arrange transportation to the ship and meet your kid at the train/bus station or airport.

[boatman61]

[QUOTE=TrentePieds;2056868

I came out of the womb rowing a skiff,

TrentePieds[/QUOTE]

Phew... your Mom must have passed away for you to get away with that...
The image is mind blowing..

[TrentePieds]

Bravo, Hamburgking :-)!

We need more programmes like that and more kids in 'em.

MyBeloved's little granddaughter is too young yet, but I hope to have enuff oomph left in five or six years to get her started in a Sabot and transisting her to TrentePieds by way of a 420 :-)

TrentePieds

[TrentePieds]

@boatman:

It was an easy passage really - I had learned to scull by that time. I do recall Mom admitting that it tickled a bit tho.

TrentePieds

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

We need more programmes like that and more kids in 'em.

Here in the Netherlands, there are sailing schools with programs like that all over the place. Granted, we have lots of water too

But I'd have thought sailing schools with programs like that for kids / young adults would be common in the the US / Canada as well? As in, most sailing schools will have programs for them?

[Aaarrgh]

[QUOTE=akprb;2056752]Race............as far as the actual sailing part goes you'll learn and observe more in one season racing than almost anything else.

Double Mega Dittos, Mr. akprb

That's how I'm learning. I took ASA 101, 103, 105, and scheduled for 106 this summer, but the best hands-on training has been racing.

However, I must disclose that my tub was built for racing, and, regretfully, I feel a bit antagonistic when I circle around to pass by competitors. Honestly, it's exciting and fun to just lay that baby over and "FLY" !!

Now, living on her would be impossible, and I would have to find a NEW wife to even consider living on a tub twice her size (the boat's size).

Regardless, I suggest you take ALL opportunities to push your boat to capture and manipulate the wind to its fullest, but never compromise SAFETY! Have your capable 1st "mate" on board, and as often as possible, sail her (again, the boat, at least for now) as though you were the only one aboard. Over time, as in marksmanship training, your muscle memory, and your ability to anticipate changes in conditions, and the adjustments needed, will become second nature.

"If there's one thing in my life that's missing, it's the time that I spend alone, sailing on that blue and bright clear water..." - Little River Band

[lesterbutch]

There are as many suggestions for your query as there are people who read this blog! I can only tell you the best piece of advise I got when I decided to switch from power to sail. I was a marina owner and master mariner on power vessels but had -Zero- experience with sail! A close associate who had circumnavigated in his ketch told me to buy my ultimate sailboat and go sail it. He pointed out Tania Aebi, and said, " She started sailing by going around the world". "I guess you can go around long island sound". Go for it!

[TrentePieds]

We do indeed have many wonderful programmes run by the sailing clubs with junior divisions dot the shore.

However, it it not the children of the "middle class" that concern me - the children whose parents can afford the membership dues and the tuition fees. It is the children that get off to a really wobbly start because their parents can't afford to keep them in those sorts of activities.

I see the fleet of 420s heading out into Queen Charlotte Strait from the West Vancouver Yacht Club, second only to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in POSH, and I say to MyBeloved: "Those kids aren't gonna be doing drugs!"

I see the kids in the little inland burgh where we live (with a lovely and large lake 10 klicks away), and I say to MyBeloved: "I wish we could mount a programme of sailing instruction for those kids. I can't do it alone - anymore - tho' I launched the Simon Fraser University Sailing Club back in 1967 and built two Enterprise dinghies in my basement for the club. Now I find that our local branch of The Royal Canadian Legion is so busy moping about past glory-days (Walcheren, November 1944), and keeping the bar afloat, that it has no piss and vinegar left to look to the future and no interest in making women out of girls and men out of boys.

The sailing experiences that build character, self-sufficiency and forehandedness are not commonly available to youngsters of "the working class", which is why I involve myself in such things as the Navy League. However, the ethos on which the Navy League was built is as passé as is scouting a la Baden-Powell. The Empah is no more, and youngsters, by and large, find those sorts of things embarrassing. But they sure are adept at using their thumbs on their i-phones!

Wat te doen?

TrentePieds

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by cruiser19

This is an open question addressed to anyone.
We are a family of three who have figured that we want to try living on a boat in the future. We are Canadians and we live in Ottawa.
We are aware that it will take a long time, a lot of money and a lot of toil and sweat before we do that.
Can anyone give us training tips concerning sailing, preparing for living on a boat, etc etc etc?

Please and thanks.

PS I am sorry if I am not very specific in my query but it is a novel idea and so far my wife was against it and I did not contemplate it coming to fruition without her support. Now that we are of the same mindset, I can come before this forum with these questions...

Thankee.

Georges, Anca and little Anna

Welcome to CF

Just get the boat you can afford and start spending time on it. Weekends etc. be conservative and cautious, especially so as you dont do anything to scare the missus so she builds up confidence in your decision making. And as you add to the boat, or renovate, ensure you prioritise safety gear and ensure the boat you choose is safe, over things like ascetics and luxaries.