Learning to Sail: Rookie

[sustainsail]

Has anyone learned to sail on thier own without classes-is this doable. Theres a large lake around here-not too strong winds seems like itd be a perfect place to learn. I've watched tutorials etc-any books you'd suggest.

[scook1]

Sure did. But, I learned a lot of things wrong. The classes were incredibly helpful, and gave me confidence. It is totally doable, even a great way to start. If you ever get the opportunity to take some classes, I highly recommend them.
Spencer

[starchaser 2011]

Sailing fundamental by Gary Jobson. Got me started. Good book. Good luck!!

[sustainsail]

Thnx for the advice-classes or not theres probably alot of common sense involved too. I saw this vid on youtube of a 40'er or so with the mainsail up doing a pretty good clip already; as they were putting up the jib a gust hit them and layed the boat all the way over on its side-scary-surprised it was able to recover. They probably would have been ok with just the mainsail up on such a windy day.

[rebel heart]

A nice blend of experience and theory is what you want and on the plus side you can substitute more experience for less theory. But, you'll learn a lot faster and have less issues if you get some theory in there as well. This is still my most preferred sailing book:

Amazon.com: The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, 3rd Edition Revised (9780684854205): John Rousmaniere, Mark Smith: Books

Read up on something, then try to practice it on the water. When you have a problem on the water, go home and read up on what was happening, and learn how to address it. Just keep going through that cycle because it's essentially what you'll be doing as long as you're sailing (predicated that you want to continue to improve).

There are a lot of smart mariners out there who've taken the time to write down some un-alterable rules of seamanship and sailing. It will save you a ton of time to learn them. Things you might have been able to get away with in 15 knots will becomes problems at 30 knots and tear your rig off at 45 knots.

I'd *really* recommend using small boats. Learning on how to sail a dinghy will teach you boat handling skills that are abstracted away from you on larger boats.

I actually made a blog post and video about this very topic last summer.

Rebel Heart - Sailing, cruising, liveaboard blog and website - Eric's Blog - why you should learn to sail on a*dinghy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=easLs...layer_embedded

[SaucySailoress]

Books are great, so is the internet, but nothing beats real people handing on real knowledge to other real people. Is there no-one else you can sail along side of for starters?

What sort of boat are you sailing? If it's a dinghy or beachcat be sure to have a good handle on the capsize drill before you do anything alone...

Good luck, whatever you decide. Oh, and never wrap the sheets around your hands, and always keep your hands away from the cleats... and watch out for the boom....

[SuddenVibe]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

A nice blend of experience and theory is what you want and on the plus side you can substitute more experience for less theory. But, you'll learn a lot faster and have less issues if you get some theory in there as well. This is still my most preferred sailing book:

Amazon.com: The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, 3rd Edition Revised (9780684854205): John Rousmaniere, Mark Smith: Books

Read up on something, then try to practice it on the water. When you have a problem on the water, go home and read up on what was happening, and learn how to address it. Just keep going through that cycle because it's essentially what you'll be doing as long as you're sailing (predicated that you want to continue to improve).

There are a lot of smart mariners out there who've taken the time to write down some un-alterable rules of seamanship and sailing. It will save you a ton of time to learn them. Things you might have been able to get away with in 15 knots will becomes problems at 30 knots and tear your rig off at 45 knots.

I'd *really* recommend using small boats. Learning on how to sail a dinghy will teach you boat handling skills that are abstracted away from you on larger boats.

I actually made a blog post and video about this very topic last summer.

Rebel Heart - Sailing, cruising, liveaboard blog and website - Eric's Blog - why you should learn to sail on a*dinghy

Annapolis book of seamanship videos are available for instant streaming on Netflix with a $7.99/mo subscription. About 10-15 decent sailing instruction videos, loads of fishing tutorials, abundance of sea life documentaries and a handful of travel destination videos... Watch on pc, iPhone, smartphone, ipad or streaming enabled wii, DVD player etc.

Note: video availability varies day by day, videos were available at time of post. Netflix constantly offers 2-4 week free trials for new accounts.

S/V Joyen's Dream