LEARNING TO CRUISE

[Flyingriki]

So, what advice do experienced folks have on learning to cruise? Keep taking classes and expensive on board lessons or get out and just start planning and making short hops.
I think I have a good boat, it got to Florida from San Francisco with improvements all along the way. Need to learn planning, weather and charting. But I feel I need to get out and go!

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Flyingriki

But I feel I need to get out and go!

You got it!

[Fiveslide]

I read a few books. They basically taught me most of the vocabulary I needed. When I got on my own boat, it felt like I didn't know a thing. I learned way more by just leaving the dock. Go, you'll get it.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Flyingriki

So, what advice do experienced folks have on learning to cruise? Keep taking classes and expensive on board lessons or get out and just start planning and making short hops.
I think I have a good boat, it got to Florida from San Francisco with improvements all along the way. Need to learn planning, weather and charting. But I feel I need to get out and go!

This!

[SV THIRD DAY]

You can plan, train, read and study but when I learned the absolute most about cruising is when we were finally out doing it! I often tell some of my cruiser clients in planning that the best way to learn how to cruise is to just go cruising!

[shadow]

Yep, I fully agree, the best way is to just do it.. Read what you can and perhaps a few courses to get the absolute foundational basics down.. But, doing it is the only way to go and priceless.. Like Captain Ron said, "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen out there!" No truer words ever spoken!!

The vast majority of my experience comes from just being out there either on my own yacht or friends, etc.. Like any other type of skill, you just have to put the hours in..

Good luck and you'll love it!! Trust us!!

[barnakiel]

There is nothing to learn. You just do it.

barnakiel

[Flyingriki]

Thanks folks! It is as I suspected. Going to get started shortly. New bottom paint and a couple repairs then the Keys and Bahamas and Cuba here I come!

[zeehag]

cruising is day sails with different entry ports... not a big deal. just sail and go elsewhere than your starting point. easy peasy. so .. practice sailing and anchoring and get the flock outta your home slip. take your lines with you.
ps it is warmer in southern waters than in home port. change home port to wherever the wind blows....
happy sails and have fun

[james247]

Originally Posted by Flyingriki

So, what advice do experienced folks have on learning to cruise? Keep taking classes and expensive on board lessons or get out and just start planning and making short hops.
I think I have a good boat, it got to Florida from San Francisco with improvements all along the way. Need to learn planning, weather and charting. But I feel I need to get out and go!

You learn by making mistakes - so risk making a few. Calculate the risks. Never have rigid plans.
A navigation course never hurt anyone. But it's all there to read and watch. Videos
In good weather push the envelope. The spinnaker is a tool so use it.
Plan each manoeuvre in detail in your head before you commit. Have a backup plan. Tell those who are your crew what is about to happen and what each person needs to do. Keep doing this even when everyone knows their role. Good communication is good leadership and this might keep you married

[Mike OReilly]

Go… but do it in steps that make sense to you. For some, that means stepping onto a boat for the first time and then heading off around the world. For others, this first means exploring the local area on the weekends, and slowly expanding the range over time.

We started with week-long journeys, and moved up to all-summers. We now live and cruise on our boat for about seven months of each year (due to Canadian winters). We go slow, and it works great for us.

So get out and go, but do it in a way that makes sense for you and your crew. In the motorcycle world we are reminded to ‘ride your own ride’. So I say, ‘cruise your own cruise.’

[zeehag]

your most important tool is weather recognition. not predictions of others but recognising that which occurs with each change in conditions.

you will learn that cruising is different for each cruiser

[chuckr]

I can only tell what worked for us - yea the books but really reading and doing are totally different - we took ASA101-105 - not all at once but did them - THEN we got a boat and were lucky as we were in Miami and sailed Biscayne Bay 3 out of 4 weekends - it helped - then we set off up the coast of the USA and the Bahamas and wow what a learning experience - then off to a bit more and more and now 10 years underway and who knows how many thousands of miles and hundreds of ports of call we are still learning and boy do we still make mistakes
BUT we did one thing a lot of folks don't do - WE CUT THE DOCK LINES and left


as above - in our humble opinion the most important thing to learn is the weather -


good luck

[Flagman101]

Learning to sail is achieved by sailing.
For my part I learned as crew for racers.
Just about every sailing club organize friendly ( or not so ) races. Almost all skippers are on need of crew.
Find a boat like that and you will learn how to sail. You get to gybe, tack, hoist, take down, gybe again, hoist and take down again. Upwind downwind. You do it all.
All this while taking class on how to analyse weather. Surface analysis files are more important then the new gadget that could be useful in a bad situation.

Beam winds

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Flagman101

Learning to sail is achieved by sailing.
For my part I learned as crew for racers.
Just about every sailing club organize friendly ( or not so ) races. Almost all skippers are on need of crew.
Find a boat like that and you will learn how to sail. You get to gybe, tack, hoist, take down, gybe again, hoist and take down again. Upwind downwind. You do it all.
All this while taking class on how to analyse weather. Surface analysis files are more important then the new gadget that could be useful in a bad situation.

Beam winds

Nice Post, Flagman. 'Tis how I learned. A big for the MSL charts.

Ann