Marin County Sailing Center

January 26 to January 30, 2020.  Jensen Beach, FL.

Our good friend, Mrs. Rockwell, suggested I take some sailing lessons while we were in the area of Stuart, FL.  My Dad and I said, "sure, that would be fun!"

My first lesson was a private one.  We thought it would be fun to take our tender and boat over there.  It was!  There was good wind that day, or so I thought...

When we got to the sailing center we docked the tender at their dock where other tenders were.  We walked into the office.  The woman who runs the scheduling - her name is Beth - was very nice.  She introduced me to my sailing instructor, Kate.  She was very nice as well.

Kate showed me where all the equipment was that I would need to rig the sailboat.  It was an Optimist, or Opti for short.  Kate then showed me how to rig everything up:  rudder, centerboard, sail, mast, boom, and tiller.

I knew most of this stuff from Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Lake St. Clair, MI, but I sure learned a few new things that otherwise could cause troublesome situations.  Such as, I should point the Opti into the wind when being rigged, so the sail is behind the boat and not luffing crazily all over the place and risking hitting my head.

But that wasn't really a problem today...

We pulled the Opti out on something called a trolly.  Optis are very light so it wasn't that hard.  We pulled the boat into the water, and I was instructed to hold it in position until Kate was out on her tender.  When she was ready, I got in the Opti and started zig zagging to try to get out into the bigger water.

But a sailboat requires wind.  I though there was wind earlier but it had died down.  It was dead calm.  She had set up buoys for me to go around in a figure eight pattern.  I wasn't moving so I had to push and pull the rudder to create current to move me forward.  But that didn't last long.  Kate kept encouraging me, but I could see she was disappointed and I think she could see I was too.

By the time it was the end of the lesson, I had been out there for about an hour.  I paddled the Opti
back on to the trolly and we de-rigged it and put all its equipment in the right places.

Afterward, my Dad and I went up to the office and said "thank you for the lesson... it's just the way sailing is."

Beth is an incredibly nice woman and said, "oh no, we're not going to charge you for that."

______


My next sailing outing wasn't a private lesson.  It was with a weekend sailing group on Sunday.  I did the same process as everybody else, pointed my boat into the wind, rigged it, then launched it.

Everybody else got off the beach just fine, but the wind was blowing straight at the beach so we had to zig zag to get out into the deeper water.  I had a hard time because I was pointing too far into the wind so my sails were luffing.  I wasn't going anywhere.  I knew I shouldn't be doing that.  It's just I had a tendency to over correct, and turn the rudder too much.  Therefore, when I tacked I would turn too far into the wind and my sails would luff.  With no speed to get out I got stuck a few times.  I felt like giving up, but finally I got into the deeper water.

The more experienced sailors were in water that was farther out.  Some were in different boats than an Opti.  I was in a small group of four Opti sailors who were learning to sail too.  I got more experienced with tacks and not overcorrecting with my rudder and overall it was a hard but successful day.

______


My next sailing lesson was a private one on a very windy day.  I rigged my Opti and pointed it into the wind, same as usual, and dragged it with the trolly into the water and waited for my instructor, Hunter, to get out on his tender.  Once he was ready I went out.

This time we went almost across the bay.  It was pretty rough.  Some of the waves were 2 footers. That's pretty big for an Opti.

I guess you could say I was afraid of capsizing.  It was my worst fear in sailing.  When we were most of the way across the bay, Hunter told me to tack whenever I was ready.  I didn't tack.  So he pulled beside me and said "why don't you want to tack?" I said, "I don't know."  "Well you have to tack its part of sailing."  I didn't reply.  Then he said "so what are you afraid of about tacking."  Finally I said "capsizing."  "Well how about we capsize right now."  "No."  "Capsizing is a big part of sailing.  You can't be afraid of it if you want to sail."  I didn't reply.  "Alright," he said, "Salter, you're going to capsize right now and learn what it's all about."  "No," I said "I don't want to."  "Well then, how are you going to tack?"  I didn't reply.  He said "so, I'm going to turn you around and then we're going to go back."  "Ok," I said.

On the way back I picked up a lot of speed and he convinced me to do a tack.  Once I felt comfortable doing it, I was doing them all the time and it was really fun.  It's not that I was afraid of tacking.  It's just I was afraid of tacking in high winds.  By the end of the lesson I had a great time.

Hunter went back in to pick up my Dad.  They came back out on the boat.  Dad was videoing me.  By then, my hands were really hurting from the salt on the main sheet line (the line you use to pull in the sail or let it out).  Then they pulled up next to me and my Dad said "hey Salter, I know you don't  want to but you have to capsize - its part of sailing.  You can't sail unless you learn what to do when capsized."  I didn't reply.  Then Hunter said "ok, Salter, we are going to capsize right now."
"NO!"  "Yep" he said. " All you need to do is stand on the centerboard to get the boat back up."  "Can I at least do it when we're closer to shore?," I asked.  My dad said "yes, but you must promise to do it."  I agreed.

I sailed back in closer to the beach until I was about 50' away.  And then they pulled up next to me and prepared to capsize me.  I said "wait I want to get closer to shore."  "Nope" they said, "you have to capsize now or it will be too shallow."  "No" I said.  Then there was a moment of silence.  Finally Hunter said "Salter", and then he capsized the boat.  It happened very quickly but the worst part was the salt water.  It had a terrible terrible taste.

Then Hunter showed me how to stand on the centerboard and pull the boat back up.  We bailed the Opti, pulled it up on the trolly, pointed it into the wind, de-rigged it, and put all the equipment where it goes and I was done.

We went to the seating area, changed my clothes, and I washed the salt water taste out of my mouth.  I felt it was a very successful day.

Later I found out that I was in very high winds:  22kts SUSTAINED!

________


My overall review of this sailing club experience was better than good.  All the displeasures is just what's part of sailing or whats just part of learning to sail.

You can learn more about the sailing club here:

https://www.usscmc.org