Quote:
Originally Posted by michell
hey john - i am a new commer and i have no sailling experience too.Why dont teach me the experiences you have.I have an intest in sailing from florida to a little island or something.
Give a few tips or some place from wher i can reffer them from.
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MIchell
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Michell,
Flotilla sailing was great for me. I got a chance to sail my own boat for two weeks. I had the
safety of a group of other boats if something went wrong. The
skipper from the "lead boat" even came aboard at our request and gave us some
sailing lessons. The area we sailed was great for beginners, no tides and predictable winds. Our first place was the South
Ionian sea in
Greece. The only experience I had before the trip was once on a
Hobie Cat when I was 13. I basically had zero experience when I started in Greece. I was very nervous the first day, I motored most of the way afraid to put up any sail. The crew went over how to
work the
sails, boat and
safety information in about a half hours time. It was a lot of inforomation in a small amount of time. Towards the end of the first day I let out the
Genoa (roller furling), and shut off the
engine. It felt great! The next day I decided to use both sails. I had the toughest time trying to figure out how to get the main sail up. I couldn't remember which line I was supposed to pull on, just that the
skipper told us not to pull on the black line. After about a half hour of scratching my
head and pulling on every line I noticed the hole at the top of the main sail. Eureka! I have to tie a line to the hole to pull it up. After that I had two weeks to just play with everything on the boat.
After that trip I then took the
ASA 101 class from a local yacht club. And then I did another flotilla trip in
Croatia.
First of all I would highly recommend you take the course. It taught me a lot of basics and correct terminology about boats, sailing and rules of the road. Second, if at all possible I would recommend you do some flotilla sailing. I felt very safe with the other boats in the flotilla and the lead boat. The other thing I forgot to tell you about flotilla sailing is the parking. For me parking a boat was the hardest part. At the end of each day the crew from the lead boat was on the quay to help me park the boat and tie it up correctly. As the days went on I got more and more comfortable with parking. In
Croatia the skipper spent several hours with me doing practice runs at the quay. I found this experience to be invaluable.
Feel free to ask me any questions. If you pm me I will give you the name of the flotilla company I sailed with both times. I would highly recommend them. Not sure if it is apropriate to post the name here.
John