Sailing.
Plotting a course or preparing a meal.
Getting the most out of the wind with your sails.
Peacefully relaxing on deck.
Sailing is a continuing learning experience.
Comoraderie teamwork.
Assuming command at the helm.
Looks like we got a wind change so we're gonna be reaching off a little more.
Anybody game to set the spinnaker? The skipper Jerry, his wife Donna and their crew have decided to set the spinnaker.
Everyone is given a job to do.
Ed, a sailing instructor from the harbor, will help Donna on the fore deck.
Kathy and Bruce will work in the They all proceed in a casual but deliberate manner.
Sailing is hard work and frustrating.
Exciting, demanding, romantic, wet, hot, cold.
Sailing is fun.
Ready on the fore deck? Ready on the fore deck.
Evie, ready to hoist? Ready to hoist.
Alright, take her up.
Stand by to take down the jenny.
Take her down.
Sailing.
Do it right.
Keep it safe.
Brought to you in the continued interest of safe boating by Mickelo.
Are you ready on the fore deck to take down the spinnaker? Ready.
Alright, release it.
The real understanding of sailing comes with direct participation.
But where does one really begin? There are many books written on the art of sailing and studying a book can get you started on the basic parts of a boat and the important sailing terminology.
But attending classes offered by bonafide groups is by far the most productive way of learning to sail.
We would like this film to be an important step in your learning process by bringing you the actual sights and sounds of sailing and briefly highlighting some of the basic fundamentals of boat handling and sailing safety.
Now it's time to put the 40 foot sloop Mystic back in her slip.
Alright Bruce, if you'll pick up that starboard stern line on the pole and bring it up.
And Ed, will you pick up the forward spring line and give it a down a honey? Specific docking duties are assigned to each of the crew.
...
a bow line when you're on the dock and one for Kathy.
Is that close enough for you Bruce to reach? The Mystic was brought in close enough to the piling so that Bruce could safely reach the stern line.
Enough speed is maintained that the helmsman has steering control at the wheel.
Fender boards have been secured on the side of the boat to protect it from the posts on the dock.
The stern line is run under the stern pulpit through the chalk and secured to the cleat.
Donna takes the bow spring line which is tied to the dock to the forward cleat.
When she sees that the boat is in its proper position, she stops the line from slipping and the forward motion of the boat is stopped.
That's it, just bend this off a little bit, very good.
When you're setting the lines, always take into consideration any tides, currents or strong winds.
The port and starboard stern and bow lines keep the boat from moving in to or away from the dock and the fore and aft spring lines keep the boat from moving forward or backwards.
Now the boat is safely and securely tied up.
Listen, thanks for hanging around helping us clean up.
It really makes things go a lot faster.
No problem.
I need to take a sailing holiday.
When you're a guest on someone's boat, practice the common courtesy of offering to bring food or beverages.
Help with the chores and bring or wear practical sailing clothes.
You'll find it's appreciated.
You know, the way we have this boat set up, it's easy for you and I to sail.
But it's really kind of nice to have our friends with us, isn't it? Oh yeah, especially when we're set to spinnaker.
Oh yes.
Hi, Adana.
Hi, Jerry.
Hi, Ron.
Welcome aboard.
Ron and Mary Ann own a powerboat that's tied up next to the Mystic.
Jerry, I've got a surprise for you.
Oh wait, let me guess.
Quit your job, sold your house, and now you're going to go around the world in your boat.
No, no.
Mary Ann and I are going to take sailing lessons tomorrow morning.
Well, it's about time.
I've been after you for years to try and take sailing lessons.
I don't know about you guys.
There you are, my dear.
Ed's going to give me a lesson over on the beach tomorrow morning.
Oh, super.
The little dinghy.
You know the little dinghy? Yeah.
You think I can handle that? Well, it's a good place to start.
Here's to your sailing lessons.
I'll need that.
I'll tell you what, I'll make a deal with you.
When we finish with your dinghy sailing lessons, we'll take you out and you come sailing with us.
How's that? On the big one? On the big one.
Hello, Ron.
Mary Ann.
Hey, that boat's bigger than I thought it was.
You sure it's not too big? Not too big.
Okay, drop your jackets in the boat and move around to the other side and face me and let's talk about the boat itself.
This is a Flying Junior, which is a very basic sailing dinghy, but it has all the controls and all the functions that you're going to find on almost any other sailboat.
The biggest difference, obviously, between this boat and yours is it has masts and sails.
This is the mast, and it's supported in the boat with these wires that you see, and they have names.
The ones that support it, a thwart ships or sideways, are called shrouds.
Four and aft, we have a four stay.
That's the four stay.
And on most boats larger than this, there will also be a back stay.
You'll see that this boat has none and that function is performed by the main.
Back stay is another wire like this one that will go from the head of the mast to the transom.
We'll raise the sails and then we'll go on talking about the parts.
It'll be much easier to see.
Now the lines that raise the sails are called halyards.
There's a jib halyard and a main halyard.
This is the main halyard.
It goes to the head of the mast, back down to the head of the sail, and attaches right here.
Okay? Let's raise it.
When the sail is all the way up, the halyard clips in right here.
So now the main is all the way up, and let's talk about it for a minute.
All its corners and edges have names.
This edge is called the luff.
The forward edge is the luff.
This edge is the foot.
This edge is called the leech.
This corner is called the tack.
That corner is the head.
And this corner is the clue.
Okay, Marianne, would you hold on to the mast and Ron hold on to the stern.
This is the main sheet and it's the line that controls the main sail.
And as you can see right now, the wind is blowing on either side of the sail equally, and it's doing what we call luffing.
Now when I pull on this line or trim it, the sail will fill, and if we were in the water, the boat would begin to move.
Now watch.
The main sheet cleats here by simply pulling in and down.
Now the jib halyard on this boat comes out right here.
So Marianne, if you'll kind of guide the sail up, Ron, hold on so we don't fly away.
Let's raise the jib.
Let's look at the line that controls the jib.
This is it, and it's the jib sheet.
The lines that control sails are sheets.
Main sheet, jib sheet.
Now let's trim the jib and we'll see it fill.
Now these are cam action cleats, and the action is just like the one for the main, in and down.
Now both sails are trimmed, and we're beginning to look like a sailboat.
Okay, let's pull the boat down into the water.
Ready? Now that we're out in the water, let me show you the center board.
That's this right here, and this is what allows a sailboat to be a sailboat.
If you didn't have this, the wind would blow you sideways.
We release it by pulling this line out of this cleat, and it will fall down of its own weight.
Because we're in such shallow water, now obviously it will not go down all the way.
When we come back into the beach, we'll pull the board up.
Same way, the line will cleat itself.
Okay, let's go.
Ron, give us a little shove, if you would.
Okay.
Okay, as soon as we get out of the...
Yeah, let us just get out of the shallows here.
Okay, see you later.
Okay, drop the board.
Yeah, maybe on the sand.
Okay, now take a little trim on your jib.
I'll take a little main trim.
Okay, now we're on a broad reach.
You can feel the wind is right off our side.
Sails are way out.
Now your trim will be about right when the sail no longer luffs.
You can let it luff one time and see what that feels like, and then take some trim back.
Oh, all right.
Okay, see it gets off and luff.
Okay, now pull the trim in.
That's right, get rid of the luff, and that's about the right trim.
Remember, we'll come about, you'll let that sheet go, and take in on the other one.
The man will be ready about.
Let me know when you're ready.
I'm ready.
Okay, let's do it.
Okay, here we go.
Okay, ship side, let that sheet go.
Take in on the other one.
Okay, now this is as close to the wind as we can go.
We'll call it beat.
This is nice.
Yeah, of course it feels the best.
We won't go very far here, so we don't need to cleat.
There isn't that much wind today.
Okay, let's fall off a little bit.
We're going on a close reach.
Easy as out? Easy as out.
That's good about.
Take a little trim back.
Okay, that feels real good.
This is a close reach because the wind is still forward.
And we get down here beyond the slips.
We'll ease the sail some more, and we'll go on to a broad reach.
Okay, let's do that now.
Just ease a little bit.
That's good.
Okay, that's real good.
Now, if we had a little more room, we'd show you a run, which is the wind directly over the stern.
But let's come into the shallow part here, and we'll talk about what we did.
Okay.
You'll just let your sheet go.
I'll set it aboard.
Yeah, and take the board up.
Okay, let the sheet go, and take the board up right now.
That's good.
How'd it go? Good.
Great.
You like it? Sure.
Yeah, it's getting to be more fun.
Towards the mouth, right? Towards the mouth, yeah.
You can cheat a little bit to the left.
A natural progression for learning to sail is to read, observe, do.
Mary Ann has done her homework.
Ed has shown her what to expect from the wind and the boat, and how to control them.
And now she gets to try it.
Okay, looking good.
Okay, Mary Ann, can you just kind of give us a little push off here? Here you go.
Okay, Ron, if you'd let the board down first.
All right.
There you go.
Good.
Now, you'll trim your sheet a little bit.
Okay, good.
Now, we'll reach down here to the other end of the harbor.
And move your weight in a little bit, Ron.
That's good.
Just trying to keep the boat upright.
Okay.
And when we get down here, we'll come about, and we'll see a beak.
Then we'll ease off into a close reach, and then into a beam reach, and a broad reach, and hopefully we'll get a little bit of running in.
All right.
Okay, now the first command to come about will be ready about.
You'll tell me if you're ready.
Okay.
Next command will be hard to leave.
What you will do is release that sheet, keep it trimmed for now.
Okay.
Release that sheet, and you'll change sides and take in on the other sheet.
And the next command will be hard to leave.
So let's do it now, hard to leave.
All right.
And do it real slow.
Okay.
Good.
Okay, take some trim.
Okay.
Take some more trim.
More? Yep.
Okay.
Just hold it with your hand, you don't have to cleat it.
Right.
We'll ease off to sails, we'll go onto a close reach.
Let's do it now.
Just ease yours a little bit.
All right.
Easing the main.
Now that's too much.
Feel it off.
Oh, I see how you can feel it.
Just take the luff out.
That's good.
Oh, it's moving now.
This is a beam reach.
Feel the wind that's directly off the side of the boat.
Did I get permission to do this? Yeah, always check with me or one of the other harbor masters.
It's a good idea if you're going to sail in the harbor because it gets pretty crowded this time of the afternoon.
Let's see if we can get a little run in here if we have enough room.
Should I tighten it up? No, that means ease more because the wind will be almost directly behind us.
There you go.
Okay.
That's good.
Then we'll spin it back into the shallow part here and we'll talk through what we just did.
You'll pull the board up as we come into the shallows here and let your sheet go.
Let's do that now.
Pull the board up.
That's good.
Good.
That's good.
Catch it, Mary Ann, if you can.
That's good.
That wasn't too bad.
That was good.
How was that? Huh? Too bad.
Got more confidence now.
Yeah.
You ready for the big one? You guys are ready for the trans -pack.
I hope so.
Ron, you ready? Mary Ann, you ready? Ready.
Think you guys are ready to solo? Ready.
Okay, let the board down.
Down.
All right.
Okay.
Tighten it up.
And then you got to steer it back.
That's good.
Ready? Yeah.
Ready? Yeah.
Ready when you are.
Okay.
Slowly.
Do it slowly.
If it gets too fast for you, you're not off on it.
Okay.
All right.
All right, then.
Now if you get...
Oh, now that's good.
Board is up.
Good.
Board's up.
How do we do? Looks good.
All good.
Real good.
You ready? Yeah.
We're ready for the big one then.
Hi, how are you? Okay.
Hello there.
How are you doing? Well, we're doing pretty good, too.
We lost our win.
Well, we're going to be ready for that big sail tomorrow.
All right.
We're looking forward to it.
Okay.
Boy, they're really learning fast, aren't they? That's the way to do it.
You got to start out in a small book and learn the basics and keep on going.
Well, it looks like we're going to have a good day for your first sail.
Yeah, but what about the rain last night? Oh, well, it washed the boat off.
We're going to have to scrub it down this morning.
All right, I got a question right away.
What's that? Where's the safety gear? All right.
It's right here.
Right here in the cockpit in this port locker that your foot's on.
All right.
There's all of the life jackets.
Fire extinguisher in there and there's also an inflatable life raft.
Down below, there's several more fire extinguishers in very obvious places.
There's also a cabinet marked safety equipment.
In it, first aid kit and a flare gun.
Out here, you have life rings.
We have horseshoe rings.
We have a heaving line, die marker, a whistle, and on ours, we have a strobe light attached to them.
Knowing how to use safety equipment is essential, but knowing where it is on someone else's boat is also important.
All right.
Other obvious things right here in the cockpit.
This is our helm.
This is our wheel.
Jerry is covering everything very thoroughly with Ron and Mary Ann, including the dangers of loose jewelry or clothing that could get caught in lines or winches and the necessity of good boat shoes and the proper jackets and pants to wear to protect themselves from the elements.
The proper use of winches is next on Jerry's checklist.
This is our main cockpit winch.
This is the one we trim all the pencils with.
The jenny's, the stacyls, everything.
Let me show you how it works.
Hold on to that, Mary Ann.
We always try to get at least three wraps on it.
Now, hold on to that.
When I tell you to ease, I want you to ease it out.
Just ease.
We can keep easing.
You see what happens? All right, that's an override.
That you don't want.
Just pull it out, and that's because you let the sheet come in down low.
You always want it at right angles.
All right.
Now, how we trim it, put our handle in like that.
That's a locking handle.
It'll come out.
And I should hold it up now? That's right.
Okay.
See how it runs? Yeah.
Now, when you finish trimming, just take it out.
This, of course, is a mast.
Now, we have three different kinds of winches.
One, two, three.
And they all basically perform the same function.
It's our main halyard winch.
Traditionally, the main halyard winch is on the starboard side, and the jib or the jenny halyard winch is on the port side.
And the position or location of any of the other winches is totally up to the discretion of the owner.
Now, let's see if I got this straight.
The halyard raises and lowers the sail, and...
Sheet.
Sheets trim the sail.
All right, looks like we got a beautiful day for a sail to the island.
I'm gonna take you out there and see if you can apply some of the principles you learned yesterday.
And you'll just find out that everything is basically the same.
It's just the gear's just a little bit bigger.
All right, Mary Ann and Ron, you want to come forward and help me put up the main? Okay.
All right, Donna, honey, the wind is right on our nose, so we'll put the main up inside the harbor, okay? Now, this is our main halyard, but unlike you had on your dinghy, we use a winch on it.
This is the main winch.
Now, Mary Ann, if you'll just take out these sail stops and go back out and trim the main when I tell you, okay? Ron, you want to put your winch handle in there and we'll get ready to put it up.
Mary Ann, you want to take out those sail stops? That's it.
Okay, one more.
Not yet.
All right, now I'll guide it so we get a good strap.
Go ahead, start taking it up.
That's it.
See, this way keeps it from binding.
That's it.
Bring it up.
Bring it up.
Good, okay.
See, it's important to get the wire back in as close to the mast as possible so we got a good pull out.
All right, go ahead, a little more.
A little more? A little more.
Right up here.
Right, get the mark all the way down.
That's it.
Come on.
See it? All right, very good.
Okay, don't forget to take out your winch handle.
All right, sit.
The store's back over there.
Donna, if you'll just head up into the wind, honey, we'll put up the headsail.
All right, Ron, as you'll see, this is a jib halyard.
Usually they're on a winch like this, but because we sail shorthanded quite often, this has a brake on it.
We can let it go.
I can ease the sail down and go forward, all right? Now, it's just like the main.
That's it.
Okay, stop bringing it up and I'll guide it.
Very good.
That's it.
All right, Mary Ann, you stand by to trim on that sheet.
Ready to fall off.
All right, let's trim a little.
Trim it in.
Okay, we're a sailboat.
Ready to come about? Ready.
Ready.
Helm to lead.
Release.
All right, now, we're going to get the sailboat ready.
That's it, Mary Ann.
You can tell, girl.
All right, now, put your winch handle in.
That's it.
Okay.
That was very good.
We crank it.
When it gets too hard, go the other way.
It's a two -speed winch.
All right, that's fine.
Settle down.
That's good.
Hold that.
All right.
This is sailing.
How's it feel? Oh, it feels great, man.
I really feel good.
Isn't this a beautiful day? My gosh, you can ask for it any nicer.
You think it beats power boating? I think it does.
I really do.
What about you, there? I think it's great.
You want to sail the boat? No, this is a lot of fun.
It really is.
You don't have all that noise.
It's really great.
You don't need any fuel, do you? That's right.
All right, ready about? Ready.
Ready.
Ready.
Helmsley.
Release.
That's it.
Trim.
Okay, very good.
Keep trimming.
That's it.
Keep going, honey.
That's good.
Okay, now when you steer, you just make it easy, easy moves, you'll feel them.
And they'll have to come back.
Once you see the boat correct, you come back and you feel the pressure on it, see? See, actually, we got two forces going, or three, really.
The head's trying to drive the boat off this way.
The main is trying to drive it back up into the wind.
And the third force is here on your tiller, which is now a wheel.
It's a rudder, that's it.
All right.
Okay? That's it.
Just take easy, easy moves.
Let it settle down.
Let it go.
That's it.
Plenty of scope out now.
The term scope relates to the amount of anchor line let out relative to the depth of the water.
A scope of seven to one is considered safe in most weather and sea conditions.
If you're in ten feet of water, let out seventy feet of line.
Make sure you check the nature of the bottom, the rise and fall of tides, if any, your relationship to other boats, and that you are protected from wind and waves.
Well, how did you enjoy your first day of sailing? I really enjoyed it.
You're catching on really nicely.
I'm very serious.
You think so? You can't learn everything in one day.
I was listening to the radio a little while ago, and there's a possibility of some weather change coming through tomorrow, another front coming through.
So, you know, don't get excited.
A sailboat reacts just a little bit differently than a powerboat does.
We might have to put up a small head sail and we'll possibly have to reef the main.
We reef down the main, which means basically we shorten the main so that there's less sail area exposed to the wind.
And the boat will then ride on an even keel.
So we'll just go through it one step at a time and there's no problems.
Okay, guys, we're out of the lee of the island now.
Like we talked last night, the wind is really starting to pick up, so I think what we'll do is we'll put a reef in the main and it'll level us off a little and we'll go just as fast.
So Donna, honey, why don't you take the helm? Okay.
All right, you can hold that course right there.
All right, Mary Ann, I want you to take care of the main sheet.
When I tell you to ease, ease it out.
When I say to take it in, you take it in.
Ron, you and I are going to go forward.
We're going to start the reef on the main.
Now you're going to be working the winch on the boom, which has the reefing gear.
Now I'll be easing out the main as you take it in.
Okay, what about the safety items? It's a good idea.
Fine, if you feel more comfortable, just snap it on up by the mast.
You'll be able to work a lot easier.
Okay, everybody got it? All right, let's do it.
All right.
All right, Mary Ann, ease me some main sheet.
One more ease.
The real thrills of sailing come with direct participation, whether you're pulling on a halyard, cranking a winch, preparing a meal, charting a course, or assuming command at the helm.
If you want to be part of a crew and accept responsibility in order to do it right and keep it safe, you must strive to understand the basic knowledge of what it means to be a sailboat sail, the essentials of communication, the correct use of terminology, the giving and execution of commands, the techniques of good seamanship, and maintain an ever present awareness of safety at sea.
There's lighthouse.
Boy, that's going to be a boomy job.
Yeah, but it's an important one.
Delano, you're looking good.
Have a safe trip.
Thank you.
We're working at it.
Sailing, do it right, keep it safe, has been brought to you in the continued interest of safe boating by Miccolo.
Thank you.
