A Hoy Maties! 5 Lessons for Novice Sailors

We might have missed Talk like a Pirate Day, but that doesn’t mean that we’re landlubbers here at TeachStreet.

Though I grew up about a mile from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, I’d never sailed before last weekend. Thus I jumped at the chance when I was invited to fill an extra spot on my father’s boat for one of his sailing races.

We were racing with other boats from Sequim Bay Yacht Club. I joined the crew of the Sirius, skippered by Durkee Richards (below, left) and manned by Larry Hettick (second from left), long time family friend Jerry Cornell (at the helm) and my dad Ray Gruver (right).

The day I sailed with Sirius, there were seven other boats on the water for the Fall Saturday Series. The skipper’s set the race course (in blue below) at the 10am Skipper’s Meeting and then we buckled on our PFD’s (personal floatation devices) and made our way to the start line.

As a complete novice, I spent the first hour just trying not to get in the way. Fortunately for me, though sadly for the start of the race, the wind was not cooperating. It was barely blowing 1 knot (the equivalent of about 1.15 mph) when the starting gun went off. Thus, all eight boats merely drifted lazily in the water for another 20 minutes or so while I got to explore the Sirius (a J32 sailboat) and get my sea legs a bit.

One thing became glaringly obvious within the first 5 minutes of stepping aboard: Learning to sail means learning an entirely new vocabulary.

The crew started saying things like “Skirt the jib” (meaning “Tuck the front sail behind the wiring of the boat so it catches the wind better”), “Grab that sheet!” (meaning “Hold onto that rope”), and “We need to trim, we’re luffing” (meaning “The sail is pointed too close to the wind. We need to pull on this rope so that the sail will tighten up”).

Thus, I learned Lesson #1: Learn a few sailing terms before jumping on the boat. Start building your sailing lingo repertoire here, check out books like these, or try your hand at this sailing lingo quiz.

Fortunately, the Sirius crew was quite kind in explaining all these foreign phrases to me. So my first lesson, was quickly and appreciatively followed by Lesson #2: Find an understanding and experienced crew to learn from.

As the wind picked up and the race began in earnest, I put my newfound vocabulary to work. Larry and I were responsible for pulling in the sheets (the ropes connected to the sails) when we jibed and tacked.

Jibing and tacking are maneuvers that help you catch more wind and also help you change course. A sailboat can go straight when the wind is coming from behind, but (and here comes a record-breaking statement of the obvious…) it cannot sail directly into the wind. Therefore, you jibe and tack into order to move the boat in a zig-zag pattern, catching the wind as you go. The main difference between the two is that when jibing, you turn the the stern (back) of the boat, and when you tack, you turn the bow (the front).

When jibing (or tacking), up also swap the jib (the small sail on the front of the boat) from one side of the boat to the other. It happens quickly and involves a lot of rope pulling and flapping of sails and yelling. But, when you’ve got a ship-shape crew, which we did, it takes less than30 seconds to execute a good tack and it can earn you some much needed yardage in a race. It can also earn you a rope burn or two.

Lesson #3: Wear gloves.

This brings me to another quick safety tip: When the boat turns, the boom (the horizontal bar fastening down the main - see above for details) swings across the back of the boat with complete and reckless abandon. Though I managed to avoid getting hit, each of the other sailors on the boat had tales of hearing “Jibe ho!” and then waking up five minutes later with a large bruise reminding them of Lesson #4: Duck early, duck often!

The most exciting part of the race came as we rounded buoy #4. After executing a tight jibe, we quickly lowered the jib and hoisted the spinnaker. A spinnaker is the huge sail that flows off the bow of the boat and fills with air while going downwind. It’s almost always the only colored sail on a sailboat, and it’s made of a super light and flexible fabric comparable to that of a parachute.

Heading downwind with spinnaker hoisted

We were now in the cruising part of the race. No jibing or tacking necessary. Just smooth sailing. We finally were getting up to an acceptable speed (about 5 knots). Durkee broke out the sandwiches and I got to have a little chat with the fellas.

How the Sirius crew learned to sail:

Durkee and Larry both started sailing as teenagers, learning the ropes in much the same way I was that afternoon - by trial and error, and by stowing away on friend’s sailboat and finding experienced sailors patient enough to teach you. During his retirement, Larry and his wife built their own sailboat (impressive!). They sailed it from their home in the Bay Area across the Pacific to Hawaii (about a month-long trip) where they toured around for six months or so before sailing east back to the mainland and up the coast of Washington State to Sequim where they now make their home. Durkee and his wife are also both experienced sailors. Their most recent trip was a two month voyage up the inland passage to the Queen Charlotte Islands in none other than the Sirius herself.

Jerry and my dad both learned to sail in their late 20’s. In fact… they were sailing buddies years ago (well, decades ago, if we’re being honest) before either had kids. They’ve now teamed up again, and usually race on Jerry’s boat the Wizard. My dad took a multi-week sailing certification course a few years ago at Peninsula Community College in order to re-learn the basics, but believes that the “learning by doing” is still the best thing with sailing. Getting out on the water puts the classroom learning to practice, and helps one understand that sailing can be truly diverse depending on the time of day, the weather, the seasons, the boat and the crew.

Racing on Sequim Bay (no spinnakers)

Heading into harbor - We did two laps of the course, and in the end, came in 7th, but respectably we were only a few seconds behind boats 4, 5, and 6. After the race, Durkee let me take my turn at the helm. Larry was a few inches away to make sure that I didn’t crash into anything or tip the boat over, but we did manage to get up to the warp-like speed of 6.2 knots while I was steering. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, our fingers were a little frozen but we all had smiles plastered to our faces.

For folks who like fresh air, a little hard work, learning new things and the excuse to have a lovely glass of port at 3 o’clock in the afternoon after a nice adventure boating, let me tell you what I learned for Lesson #5: Go get out on the water, and start sailing! You’ll love it.

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If you want to learn how to sail, check out sailnet.com, “the world’s largest online sailing community“. Also, US Sailing has a ton of videos as well as online courses that you can take to upgrade your sailing, cruising or seamanship skills. They’ve also got a pretty good list of places to go sailing near you and a list of regional sailing coordinators that can help you find the right class. Most coastal cities have sailing, boating and/or yacht clubs which are great places to look for lessons.

And if you’re in Seattle, let me recommend to you the Center for Wooden Boats, which has classes for adults, kids and anyone looking to “harness the wind and learn to sail.”

If you’re a sailor, novice or expert, tell us what you love about sailing, where you learned to sail and/or give some advice for folks looking to learn more about the sport.