How to Sail

Welcome to learning to sail. When people take up sailing, they often have three misconceptions. They think it’s gonna be expensive. It isn’t. People think it’s elitist. Certainly not elitist. Or people think it’s gonna be difficult. Well, I assure you it’s not. Let me show you how easy it actually is. Let’s go sailing. 

Let’s start with people get a little stressed about the names of everything on the boat and the language that goes with the sea. Well, good news there is, learn the practical skills first, the names, and everything that will follow later. 

So why should you consider sailing?  

• Firstly, and most importantly, sailing is fun. Whether you’re skimming along in your dinghy or sailing and cruising along on your yacht.  
• Next, challenging. Sailing is a full on practical activity, challenging you both physically and mentally.  
• Life skill. Sailing will give you a life skill to feed your spirit of adventure using the wind as your fuel. 
• Freedom to travel. Relaxation or excitement, the choice is yours.  
• Outdoor. Fresh air, escape the pressures of life. Feel physically and mentally refreshed at the end of a day sailing. Out here you’ll see dolphins, wildlife, and you’ll learn about the weather.  
• Families. Sailing is a superb activity for all the family. Everybody gets so much out of it.  
• Finally, sailing is fun. Have I mentioned that? Let’s get started. Let’s go sailing.  
• I’m now going to show you how we get the boat sailing. Before we head off out, let’s have a look at our model boats here just to put in our mind and to help us when we’re out there. If we turn our boat, and we point it into the wind, and these arrows here indicate where the wind is coming from, don’t forget on the boat we’ve got flags, we’ve got wind indicators, lots of things around the boat to tell us this. So our wind is coming from there.  

No Go Zone

We point the boat directly into the wind, which is good for one thing and one thing only, pulling up the mainsail because head to wind, the sail, the mainsail will come up and our main sail is at the back of the boat. We then pull up our jib at the front and we’ve got our two sails, which are then going to power the boat forward. Head to wind is what we call that, pointing into the wind.  

We now turn the boat away from the wind for about 45 degrees. And that angle provided we pull the sails in nice and tight, then our sails will start to fill. Floppy sails start to become happy sails. And they’re now grinning. They’re nice and tight. Wind is spilling off the back of them and the boat will now be driven forward by keeping on a steady course.  

Upwind and Downwind

If we wanted to head off in another direction, if we wanted to head across the wind, all we now need to do is turn the boat across the wind. So the wind is now coming in at the side. And we adjust the sail simply by letting them out. Let them out to that position there, about a halfway position. If we turn the boat and we wanted to head off away from the wind, what we call downwind, we turn the boat away from the wind. And once again, just let the sails out even further to what we call the downwind position, which is a broad reach.  

Reaching

We’re looking at those three positions on the wind again with a wind coming from any direction. But in this case, it sits here. If we’re sailing away from the wind, that’s my broad reach. Sails right out. If I’m sailing towards the wind, then I have my sails pulled in tight. That’s the mainsail in tight, the jib in tight. And if I’m sailing across the wind, that halfway position, there we go. That’s the beam reach there.  

Wind Awareness

Let’s take her out to sea. Let’s see what it’s like in real life. One of the first things we need to learn when we’re going sailing is a thing called wind awareness. Wind awareness: it’s where the wind is coming from and by how much because it’s the wind that’s going to power the boat.  

Now the wind, states the obvious, is invisible, so we’re going to use an invisible thing to power this boat. Around the boat, however, we’ve got various bits of equipment to show us where the wind is coming from. In front of me here, I’ve got wind instruments, which tells me where the wind is coming from and by how much. At the top of my mast, I’ve got the wind arrow pointing into that wind showing me where the wind is coming from. There are flags around the boat, and they’re showing us where the wind is coming from as well. And don’t forget the waves as well. It’s the wind that makes the waves. They tell you where the wind is coming from to.  

Putting the sails up. Give yourself plenty of room, and we’re going to use the engine to hold us in position. We’re going to point the boat into the wind. We want flappy sails. Then we’re going to pull on the blue rope to get the mainsail up. With the mainsail up, we’re now going to turn about 45 degrees away from the wind and unroll the jib. 

A The best training, well, that’s run by Lake St. Clair Sailing School like here at Learn to Sail on Lake St. Clair in Metro Detroit Area. Here you will get a structured course aimed and geared at the rate you want to progress. Sunshine is always lovely when you’re training.

I do hope that you’ve enjoyed our learning to sail introduction article, and that it inspires you to take the next step. Finally, time to live that dream. Now, bring me that horizon. Let’s go sailing.