We had a recent storm day.  40kn in the circle, 22-25kn in the junior area.  I was reminded of an issue I see at the beginning of the season when the wind comes up, and on days where it's blowing snot: people sailing with the sails luffing.

Now, there are only two times your sails should be luffing:

1. When slow sailing and depowering/slowing down

2. During a tack

You could also argue they can luff very temporarily in a gust.  What they shouldn't be doing is luffing constantly/a lot as an attempt to keep the boat flat/from capsizing.  I see a lot of newer sailors going out in high winds and sailing around with the sails luffing, thinking that's successfully handling high winds.  We're going to talk about why it's not, and what you can do instead.

The first evening of CSC’s first-ever Women’s Fast Track was welcomed by gusts of 27 kts, bow-crushing waves, and clouds that crawled through the sky. Sixteen beginner students launched boats alongside 8 prepared instructors, and did what CSC does best: learn in gnarly conditions. I remember feeling a bit nervous watching from the shore, seeing boats tip over and right themselves, tense on my toes but cheering as tacks and gybes were made in really challenging conditions. Everyone came back with huge grins on their faces, with sea water-soaked hair, and a well-earned confidence in their abilities. The waves had been conquered. The wind hadn’t stilled anyone’s enthusiasm, and everyone showed up the next day, excited to teach and learn. 

There had been a lot of preparation for this particular fast track. Everyone wanted it to go well, especially us organizers. To get ready for it and to recruit women instructors, Aradhna, Alyssa and I hosted an informal round-table where woman-identified sailors at CSC could share their experiences, challenges, and successes around teaching. One common theme came up: junior women sailors were eager to teach, but wanted additional support for how to teach before they went out on a boat with students. During that round table, more experienced instructors shared insights that helped others feel equipped with additional tools for teaching newer sailors. I came around from the round table with a better idea of the type of support we might need to make sure that every teacher at the inaugural women’s fast track felt confident, supported and prepared. 

The first “teach along” was piloted the week before the Women’s Fast Track (W-FT). Because of the need to fill out a roster of women instructors, I recruited women juniors to fill a “student instructor” role. Then I found a subset of more experienced instructors for an “instructor trainer” role. For an additional pedagogical twist, I recruited novice students who the “instructor trainer” could teach, under the observation of the “student instructor.” This created an experiential, on-the-water learning environment for all three people on the boat: a student instructor, an instructor trainer, and a novice student. The instructor trainer could demonstrate instructional techniques to the novice student while the student instructor observed, asked questions and then practiced under additional guidance. We focused the first Teach Along on small circle maneuvers. John Bongiovanni led a land talk before eight boats launched from the docks, in sunny and clear conditions.

After the Teach Along, all participants shared that they felt more prepared – and more excited! – to teach at the W-FT. For every night of the W-FT, we had more than enough volunteer women instructors, likely due to both the support and the community building surrounding the first Teach Along pilot. After talking to many of the instructor trainers, they also commented that they enjoyed mentoring other instructors. It allowed them to think through how they teach, and they appreciated the questions from their mentees. I can also say that many of the novices that participated are still happily sailing at CSC, and will hopefully volunteer to instruct as they continue to progress in their sailing journey. 

Like most things at CSC, new programs happen due to community collaboration. While the first Teach Along was designed to specifically recruit and support newer instructors who wanted extra support before teaching at the W-FT, it was built upon lessons learned during the previous Fast Track, FT-3. Matteson, one of the co-coordinators, identified a similar issue to the one raised during the women’s instructor roundtable: newly-minted juniors that had just passed their rating test were told that they could now teach, but they needed a bit of support, confidence and coaching. He paired them with senior instructors who could give them support to try out instructing for the first time, while still providing other fast track students with a lesson supervised by a more experienced instructor. Many of the newly minted junior women instructors from FT-3 volunteered to teach at the W-FT less than a month later, putting their new junior rating and extra instructional support to immediate use.

What is Ranging?

Ranging is a technique useful in all types of boating to determine whether you are sailing a straight course over ground or are being pushed one way or another (by leeway or current). It is also useful to tell you whether your current course will allow you to clear an object (get through the gap in the Berkeley Pier, say).

The basics are described in Part 1, which describes how to use it crossing a channel with current to maintain a straight course across. Part 2 shows ranging to determine whether you can clear an object, Part 3 shows how to use it to determine your position in certain cases. anmd Part 4 uses a variant to tell you whether you are on a collision course with another boat.

This time I will be controversial and show you why a technique sometimes taught at the Club to determine collision courses using a sort of ranging does not work.

What We Learned Last Time

You and another boat are on a steady course. If the bearing to the other boat does not change as it gets closer, you are on a collision cours. Otherwise not. This is how radar works.

Not only that, the Navigataion Rules require that you use this method. I’ll reference Rule 7 – Risk of Collision (Inland)

This is the first in a series of blogs about ranging, a powerful yet simple technique that you can use in all kinds of sailing situations. This was prompted by sailing with another Senior in the Senior Area, and his asking “so where exactly is the west boundary of the Senior area”. Here’s the map.

But how do you know where you are relative to that when you’re on the water?

I’ll answer that question, but first I’ll discuss what ranging is and give a simple example of its use.

What is Ranging?

Ranging is a technique useful in all types of boating to determine whether you are sailing a straight course over ground or are being pushed one way or another (by leeway, current, or whatever). It is also useful to tell you whether your current course will allow you to clear an object (get through the gap in the Berkeley Pier, say). I've used it a lot in kayaking. You can also use it in a more complicated way to see if you are on a given line (like the Senior Area west boundary). And, contrary to popular belief, you cannot use it accurately to determine whether you’re on a collision corse with another vessel. More on that later.

The easiest example of using ranging is crossing a channel with current pushing you sideways, say going to Angel Island from Berkeley. You want to to across the current to a target location.

What is Ranging?

Ranging is a simple technique useful in all types of boating to determine whether you are sailing a straight course over ground or are being pushed one way or another (by leeway or current). It is also useful to tell you whether your current course will allow you to clear an object (get through the gap in the Berkeley Pier, say).  And more.

The basics are described in Part 1, which describes how to use it crossing a channel with current to maintain a straight course across.

The idea is that you pick a close object and one directly behind it farther away. As you go toward the close object, how the two objects line up tell you whether you are on a line passing through them, and if not, whether you are to the left or to the right of that line.

Another Use

Part 1 illustrates the principle, but it has much wider application than crossing a channel with current. For example, it can show you your course relative to an object.

Will You Clear the Gap in the Berkeley Pier?

Say you want to take your boat through the gap in the Berkeley Pier. You can use ranging to tell whether you'll make it on this tack. With a normal West or South West wind, you'll want to clear the east part of the gap (the west end of the first section of the pier). So pick that as your target and pick something in the distance directly behind it as the second object (in Richmond or in Oakland, depending on which way you are heading). The range will tell you whether you will clear the east part of the gap.

What is Ranging?

Ranging is a technique useful in all types of boating to determine whether you are sailing a straight course over ground or are being pushed one way or another (by leeway or current). It is also useful to tell you whether your current course will allow you to clear an object (get through the gap in the Berkeley Pier, say).

The basics are described in Part 1, which describes how to use it crossing a channel with current to maintain a straight course across. Part 2 shows ranging to determine whether you can clear an object, and Part 3 shows how to use it to determine your position in certain cases.

This time we’re going to use a variant of it to answer the question "am I on a collision course with another boat?"

Oddly, we’re going to start with how you use radar to do this. I say “oddly” because none of our boats have it, but the principles you use for radar apply here also.

Using Radar to Answer the Question

Marine radar can be used to determine whether you're on a collision course. Radar will tell you two things about another boat (a target) – its distance from you and its bearing  (simplifying a little, this is the compass bearing from you to the target). A radar set looks like this, roughly:

What is Ranging?

Ranging is a technique useful in all types of boating to determine whether you are sailing a straight course over ground or are being pushed one way or another (by leeway or current). It is also useful to tell you whether your current course will allow you to clear an object (get through the gap in the Berkeley Pier, say).

The basics are described in Part 1, which describes how to use it crossing a channel with current to maintain a straight course across. Part 2 shows ranging to determine whether you can clear an object.

Another Use

You can also use it in certain cases to determine your position. I’ll give three examples which are useful to Club members, relating to Junior and Senior Dinghy area boundaries. This series of blogs was inspiried by a question from a fellow Senior about how to determine whether we were in the Senior Dingy area.

This post is a bit long, but it’s just several useful (I hope) examples of how to use this in practice.

Am I in the Junior Area?

This is the Junior area (from the Club ORs)

My friend took Fast Track at Cal Sailing a decade or more ago and still raves about it and Cal Sailing. So when I decided I wanted to learn to sail, I joined Cal Sailing in August of 2022. But when I decided I REALLY wanted to learn to sail, I joined Fast Track in June of 2023. It's the best thing I've done for myself since I moved back to California two years ago. 

To be honest, I was really daunted by the class. I had taken a few classes at Cal Sailing, a similar class at Cal Adventures more than 20 years ago, sailed maybe 10 times on a keelboat in the last year, and a sprinkling of other sails, but I always seemed to go back to step one. Port or starboard? How do I shift my weight and hold the tiller at the same time? What is a vang? Pull in the what?? sigh.  

In April 2023 I decided I would try to make it happen. I already missed the first (May) Fast Track but I hoped I could join the June one. I volunteered as a lessons coordinator and started to meet more people at the club. I signed up to volunteer at the May Fast Track (as a cook/cleaner) and liked the vibe. I read and reread the dinghy manual. I passed the online test. I watched the rigging video, coerced John B into giving a rigging lesson during a Thursday lesson, and watched the video again. I was getting close, but I still hadn't sailed much. 

About two to three weeks before the June Fast Track I got the email: you are in if you can get the prereqs done. I signed up for the rigging test and got a few private lessons. The week before the class I was still hesitant, but I met the two Fast Track coordinators for June - Tim and Lucian - and they were so encouraging, I decided I didn't want to let another year go by and a chance to sail with nice people leading the way without taking this opportunity. I cleared my work schedule and jumped in. 

I was super scared on Day 1, but I had two of the friendliest people at Cal Sailing teach me my first day (Dorian and Mike - thanks!). I felt like I was drinking from a firehose, but I loved it. We docked, and I remembered how to get the boats in safely from the dock and all the derigging and which made me feel more competent. Then I turned the corner to a total FEAST! What???!!! Not only do you get 3 hours of free sailing lessons, but you also get fabulous dinners for FREE. What is this place? And how did I get so lucky to stumble into it?? I kept going. 

Some skills are better-learned with a combination of dry-land and on-water practice. Here is a hands-on problem set for crew overboard, docking, and departure -- with instructions and answer keys! Print them out, doodle over them, plan your course and respond to tricky scenarios all from the comfort of your home. Once you head out onto the water, you'll probably find yourself with a clearer picture of what's going on -- and can better respond to more variables such as shifting winds and choppy waves.

Download the documents here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1co7MPIIlsv-YKrYTyxHhC9tsruS3wv15?usp=sharing

Comments and edits are always welcomed.

Video by Jack Chen. Instruction and Narration by Saul Schumsky.

This video is meant to provide some guidance for sailors at Cal Sailing Club on how to properly reef the mainsail. Reefing correctly will help minimize wear on the sail, as well as give the sailors a better experience on the water during those summer months on the San Francisco Bay. The demonstration is done on the JY-15 dinghy but is also applicable to the RS Quest as well as the club Keelboats.

Click here to view video

“PAN PAN, PAN PAN, PAN PAN pan. There is a dismasted sailing dinghy in the vicinity of the St. Francis Yacht Club. Three sailors aboard all wearing PFDs.”

The sound of Ryan’s voice issuing the mariners warning, one level below a MAYDAY, was a comfort. I was being watched over.   As I struggled to get the sails back in the boat, I could see the other boats nearby.

We had left Berkeley the day before, 4 Ventures, two club keel boats and a couple of private boats tagging along. All bound for the kayak beach at Angel Island. We had a lovely and uneventful upwind sail to the beach. We anchored the keelboats and ferried the sailors, gear and supplies to the beach. After humping everything up the hill to the campsite we had a feast, sausage, peppers & onions, salad, cheeses, charcuterie, beer, wine and on and on. Some of us went to bed early, while others hiked to the top of the island. Ah, youth.

We woke the next morning to heavy fog both in the air and some heads. Tiburon, which we could see the night before, had disappeared. We made radio contact with Carolyn on one of the keelboats, and started making a leisurely breakfast while we waited for the fog to lift. By 11 AM we had broken camp, gotten everything loaded up and got off the beach. As we sailed out of Racoon Strait, the Golden Gate Bridge came into view and with it the fog. Carolyn had found a tear in Daisy’s main sail and made the decision to head for home. The rest of us continued on towards the gate. We got a little far apart, so the lead boats tucked into Horseshoe Cove and waited for the rest of us to catch up. There was a short discussion over the radio, and the decision was made to go under the bridge and then head for home. Because of the remaining fog we would maintain a close formation, do a radio check for vessel traffic and stay close to the North tower where there is less large ship traffic.

We're talking Saturdays, especially in the summer, where the dock is full and you're right next to boats on either side. Pretty normal, and we teach it. Back out, using a backed main or not, tiller centered until you clear the other boats, then steer the stern toward the sea wall (want to go to Emeryville? tiller to Emeryville). Power up the main and go.

I did a "Between the Docks" workshop recently, where we covered all of the bad things that can happen on launching or docking, how to prevent them, and how to handle them when they happen (and they will, to the best of us).

What you want to avoid is heading out in the wrong direction, toward the sea wall instead of Emeryville. It happens at times, but how does this happen? Clearly, you get turned the wrong way backing out of the dock. But other than complete misuse of the tiller, what contributes to this?

As always, I learn a lot when I teach, and I picked up some critical points in this workshop, watching the students go through their launching/docking/heading for the sea wall drills. The points all fall into the "obvious when you think about them or have them pointed out, but not obvious earlier". So I hope these fall into that category for you.

Here are some things to consider.

This is about how to plan a particular cruse, circumnavigating Alameda Island. I'm doing it for two reasons. One is to document the specifics for other cruising skippers who might want to do it. The other is to give members an idea of what's involved in planning a cruise.

Circumnavigating Alameda Island is a wonderful experience. I've done it in a kayak and later in a sailboat on a CSC cruise. Part of the wonder is the diversity of it. You have Jack London Square, the Port of Oakland, the closed Naval Air Station, the aircraft carrier Hornet, an incredible beach facing San Francisco, a marsh with a lot of birds at the south end, and some post-industrial stuff along the estuary. The estuary is much improved since the time I kayaked it. The run-down houseboats are gone, and some of the bleck on land has been replaced with parks.

There is also the Coast Guard Island in the middle of the estuary, and if you're lucky the 418 foot ocean patrolling cutters are in. They go out for 90 days in the Pacific.

And then the drawbridges, 5 or 6 depending on how you count. The website is here. 5 of them are very active, and one is a bicycle/pedestrian bridge, right next to a car bridge that goes from Alameda to Bay Farm Island, and it's is the longest drawbridge in Alameda County. It's an incredible experience seeing them open just for you, a little sailboat.

The question in planning this is which direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise. There are a couple of factors to consider. One is that all of the drawbridges are staffed into the evening except for the Bay Farm Island bridge, which has limited hours (usually until 5:30 PM). Also, the bridges will not open during peak commuter hours.

There often isn't enough communication around how to use the hoist properly.  In this post we're going to talk about safety, efficiency, and some tips on dropping and pulling a boat single-handed.

Personal and Boat Safety

The two big rules of using the hoist are:

• Never ever EVER be under the boat while it's in the air.
• Don't hit the shrouds or spreaders on the hoist arm.

The first issue most comonly happens when the centerboard falls down and someone reaches under the boat to push it back up.  Or if there's a long line of boats waiting to come out of the water and as soon as one boat starts to go up into the air the next person walks their boat down towards the sea wall.  Then when the boat in the air swings out, it's over the other boat.

Both of these are huge no-no's.  The sling/hoist does break.  This happened recently with a Venture in the air that ended up falling 5 feet back into the water.  The boat and everyone around was ok, but If there had been another boat underneath, waiting their turn, it'd be two broken boats instead of zero.  If there had been someone on that boat waiting to attach the sling, as there often is, it would have been way, way worse.  Always beware of where the boat is, and never get underneath it, and please say something if you see someone about to.

For the shrouds and spreaders, this is the most likely way to damage the boat while on the hoist.  Always keep an eye on the mast and shrouds to make sure the boat isn't going to spin into the hoist arm.  This is why someone should have control of the boat at all times.  The person on the sea wall doesn't let go of the stern until the person on the dock is pulling on the bow line so the boat can't spin.  Same with coming out of the water.  The person on the dock doesn't let go of the line until the person on land has their hand on the stern.

Winter is a time of interesting and fun winds.  We're pretty spoiled most of the year with wind pretty consistently out of the West/South-West.  In the Winter an East wind is fairly common.  When the wind is out of the East you cannot dock on the normal side of the dock with your main up, as it is now a downwind docking and you'll just run into it full speed (yes, skippers do this surprisingly often). 

Introduction to the Blog Series

Docking our keelboats under sail is one of the most difficult skills required for the Senior Rating. You have to be able to do it in all wind directions and in several boat types that handle very differently. It takes a huge time investment and a lot of commitment and practice to make the grade.

Everything you've learned on dinghies applies to keelboats, and on dinghies you establish a solid basis of sailing skills. This is why we require a Junior rating to take keelboat lessons, and why it's important to get your Senior Dinghy test passed before getting serious on keelboats.

But the transition from a dinghy to a Pearson Commander is not easy, as the latter has a large mass and a full keel, so it handles very differently from a dinghy. It does everything slowly, including stopping, but also powering up. If you get below the critical speed for steering it, it can take 8 or 9 seconds for the keel to power up, and in that period you're being pushed sideways. You could end up pressed against a downwind piling or boat.

Our keelboat slips are faced approximately west, so normally into the wind, just like our dinghy dock in the South Sailing Basin. So in a "normal" west or south-west wind, you dock pretty much the same way. Slow sail on a close reach into the dock/slip. But the boats are very different, so the procedure becomes more challenging on a keelboat, not to mention the damage you can do if you screw up.

This is the first in a series of blogs on keelboat docking to help you understand the differences between dinghy and keelboat and the additional factors that become important with the latter. I will assume a "normal" west or south-west wind, as this is what you'll be dealing with 80% of the time, at least. And initially, I'll be assuming relatively constant wind, although later in the series I'll talk about wind shifts and how to deal with them. I'm also assuming that you're planning to go into one of CSC's docks with a reasonable amount of time to prepare and plan. As you get more advanced, you will be required to do very quick impromptu dockings, but that comes much later.

There are a couple ways to come into the dock. The method new skippers gravitate towards at first, because it's easier, is to come in with plenty of speed and do a final turn up into the wind at the end to avoid banging into the dock. Or they don't even do the turn and just bang into the dock... I guess this would be a 3rd way, but highly undesirable.

The preferred method more properly utilizes slow sailing. Docking and COB are the main reasons we teach slow sailing. When you have a firm grasp on slow sailing, you will be able to come to a stop 1" from the dock as your crew casually steps off the bow.

Here are the steps for docking like a pro:
(Credit where credit is due, I've had this best explained to me by Robert O. Come work the keelboat dock during open house sometime and watch Robert dock a keelboat singlehanded to get an idea of the ideal you're shooting for.)

- When you're coming in to the docks watch the wind socks to get an idea of the wind direction at the dock, which may be different than it was when you were out sailing.  

- Pick an exact spot on the dock. This is where you're going to try to end up. You don't have to tell anyone else the exact spot. If you don't hit it exactly, and are a foot off, no one else will be the wiser, it will still just look like a really good docking to them.

I did a blog a while ago on Small Circles and how to teach it.

I think doing Small Circles is an important skill and rightly a required Junior maneuver, not so much for the circles, but for other things. However, as Nathan has pointed out in the blog comments, doing circles quickly is important in racing, if you're bad.

In Small Circles, there's a lot going on in a short amount of time, so it's a stress test of your sailing skills, your boat control, your weight balance, and your crew communication. Sailing a circle flawlessly (of whatever radius, but constant) is a challenge. One very good Club racer told me that one of the best racing exercise is doing lots of circles in a row, maybe 100.

But really tight circles is a different beast. It has all of the challenges above, but it requires some rudderless techniques to make the turns really fast and tight. My blog of a couple of years ago missed an important thing.

In the blog, I talked about how you do fast upwind and downwind turns, which to me is the real value of learning this. You might have to do either near the dock, combined with a tack or a gybe. But I glossed over the gybe itself, which is an important part of it.

Introduction

Many dinghies, including the RS 500, RS Venture, and Laser Bahia, can be equipped with a gennaker, also known as a kite or asymmetrical spinnaker. This large sail can be used effectively on points of sail between a run and a beam reach, and may greatly increase boat speed. It can add a lot of excitement and get you up and planing when the wind might otherwise be insufficient.

The purpose of this short guide is to touch on the finer points of flying the gennaker on a dingy similar to those mentioned above. I assume that the reader is familiar with the basics of dinghy sailing.

Rigging

To rig the gennaker, you should:

1. Attach the tack of the gennaker to the bowsprit;
2. Attach the gennaker halyard to the head of the sail;
3. Run the dowsing line through the retrieval points on the sail;
4. Attach the gennaker sheets to the clew of the sail;
5. Run the sheets through the gennaker blocks and tie them off.

The trick is to do this all without anything getting tangled up. It can be helpful before starting to first make sure the gennaker is untwisted. You can do this by making sure two of its edges are untwisted; this will automatically untwist the third.

I admire David Fraser's willingness to share his "less than optimal" sailing experiences in these blogs so that others can learn from his mistakes. They say there are those who don't make mistakes (I don't believe that), those who learn from others' mistakes, those who learn from their own mistakes, and those who never learn. Aiming at the second category, I want to imitate David's example by offering a recent experience of my own.

The other day I got to the Club a little early, and thought I'd play with jib-only sailing on a Quest before lessons started.

I left the (Cal Adventures) dock under jib only, having done nothing with the mainsail. I was planning to go out and dock under jib alone a few times before students showed up. That was the plan, at least.

The wind was pretty much westerly, so I was leaving on a beam reach. I knew that jib trim was really important, and that I shouldn't start out pointing too high. But for whatever reason, I couldn't point high at all. No matter what I tried, I was going slowly downwind, toward the rocks. Maybe I wasn't handling it correctly, maybe the Quest can't point high on jib alone, who knows? Sometimes it's you, sometimes it's the boat, sometimes... who knows what it is? What mattered then was that I couldn't do it.

I decided to heave to and get the main up, admitting failure (better than landing on the rocks). The mainsail doesn't always go up easily on the Quests (especially on this one), and it looked like getting the boltrope into the mast track might take some doing. When you're properly hove to, you have some sideways way on--that is, you're slideslipping--and I was going slowly, slowly toward the rocks. I had no idea how long it might take to get the main up.