We have a teaching philosophy that is unique. Most sailing schools will do a "ground school" for hours before the students get on a boat. The idea is to explain how it all works, so the  student is prepared intellectually for the experience. Our approach is to get them on the water right away and have them just do it - steer the boat, tack, and get the feel for it.

I believe that our approach is correct, up to a point. You need some practice before the sailing theory makes any sense. And my experience as an instructor is that a beginning student will do just fine steering beam reach, tacking, even steering close-hauled without any discussion of how it all works.

The turning point is when they try to control the tiller and the main sheet at the same time. Lots of confusion, including understanding wind direction. Tacking from beam reach to beam reach and seeming to lose the wind (because the sails are trimmed too tightly).

This is the point where they really need an understanding of how it all works. And that's hard to do on the water. You  need an image to show how it works. I believe it's all pretty simple (or at least
can be explained simply), with a visual from above.

The key concept is that upwind (beam reach and higher) the sail is a wing, it works just like the wing of an airplane. Now an airplane wing has to be at a certain angle to the wind, or it doesn't work. Same with a sail. So when you're trimming the sail going upwind, you're keeping the sail at the same angle to the wind all the time.

Let's see what this looks like from above on several points of sail - close hauled, close reach,  and beam reach (click on the diagram to start the animation):

What better way to celebrate Sophie & Tudor bringing a kid into the world than roasting one...a goat that is!

Sophie & Tudor met at CSC a few years ago, got married, and are about to have their first child. It's a true CSC-style love story. Most know Sophie as our fantastic (co-)Port Captain and phenomenal windsurfer. What many may not know is that Sophie got her start at CSC in sailing and taught some of Tudor's first lessons...it's how they met! Sophie's still windsurfing like a boss in her final trimester - who would expect any less?

We hosted a party for Sophie and Tudor yesterday in celebration of the upcoming newest novice CSC member, along with the requisite delicious food. Oh and a bouncy house. Did we mention the bouncy house? (Pro tip: do not get in the bouncy house right after eating 3 desserts. Just, don't.) 

It's been a phenomenal season filled with lots of epic wind and novice sailors and windsurfers learning how to get around using this wind, thing - time for the deliciously warm months of Fall! :)

What Rock?

I'm a huge music geek; although my tastes largely run to 70s and 80s music; in various rock forms, stuff many people might consider cheesy.   And so when the question is posed, "Name some songs about sailing", several obvious ones come to mind, and I've been mentally working on such a list for a while.

Now, at CSC we've come to name this broadly "Yacht Rock"; it may have been Ben Lee who first mentioned this term to me. 

Now, if we ask the Internet what the meaning is, we might come across  A list like this.

Which suggest the original meaning was soft rock of various kinds (And also an online video series).  For my list, the song had to actually be about sailing, and so the question was put to the CSC mailing list with a rather deliberate attempt to stir things up, along with my original list.  The additional suggests were pretty mixed, and mostly songs I hadn't heard of (which means they were either very obscure, or submitted by old farts).

[Photo copyright owned by & courtesy of Jennifer Kroon] 

For those of you who may not have heard, or didn't know to begin with, we receive an annual grant from the Department of Boating and Waterways (now Parks and Recreation Department) to teach safe boating in the Bay. Our introductory open house sails, youth rides, beginning dinghy, beginning windsurfing, and keelboating courses and instruction all serve towards providing affordable access to the water for the public, all while teaching safe boating. 

Each year, we write an application for the grant and report on our past year's activities. In addition to all of our regular programming, we also partner with local programs like helping the Berkeley and Albany fire departments train their rescue swimmers by sending some of our fleet out and asking the sailors to act like a bunch of fools for training purposes :)  We also partner with local schools and youth groups to take underserved and minority youth out on the water. For many children on our Youth Rides and youth and adults on our open house introductory sails, this is their VERY first time out on the water! And we get to teach them about the importance of wearing life jackets, safely moving around the boat, getting on and off the boat safely, wearing appropriate attire to avoid hypothermia, etc. 

We recently received the news that we'd be getting our grant again this year (woohoo!) to apply towards a new RS Venture (trainer dinghy), new novice windsurfing boards and sails, and new masts and rigging to keep our fleet well maintained and safe during the summer months. Grant funds should go directly to helping provide access to the water for beginners, and teaching safe boating.

Big thank you to all the volunteers who helped make our programs a big success in 2014! And thank you in advance to those who will help keep our programs strong in 2015. It is hard for all volunteer-run programs like ours to successfully receive funding because they do not provide the level of instruction and structure that we do, so thanks for helping keep the wheels on as well as you all do :) And remember that a big part of why we're here is to take people all the way from fledgling sailors and windsurfers up to superheros taking kids out for their first sail and getting more people out on the water.

Unaware of what was about to transpire, the young woman on the bouncing bow clung grimly to the flailing pulpit, searching the horizon for a glimmer of hope. The young man knelt on the pitching foredeck behind her, fishing desperately into his bespoke West Marine foulies pockets for the unique object he believed would end the nightmare of uncertainty. Farther back, in the luxuriously appointed cockpit, the skipper and crew -- all ruggedly handsome -- fought to keep the Pierson Commander from broaching as the famed Emeryville abrolhos wind smacked the vessel, threatening to crush it into an equivariant toric bundle like you see in Macaulay 2. The man on the bow stumbled, lost his balance, and, crying out in what may have been Old Extremely Panicked German, tipped with his secret cargo toward the dark, beckoning waters off the port gunwale, unprotected by any Loos and Company lifelines, with nary a Harken chafe protector in sight.

This was the nightmare scenario. As it turned out, on a recent Monday, Anthony Lunnis, Paco Bellam, and I picked up CSC Senior Skipper Nathan Ilten and his guest Robyn Gee at San Francisco's Pier 1.5 and headed back to Berkeley without incident or wind, silencing the motor as we slipped past the Bay Bridge on a glassy sea as he proposed and she accepted on the foredeck of Portugal Princess.

This is a gallery of photos taken on a Club Cruise to the Golden Gate Bridge and Angel Island on Saturday, March 22 2014. Two boats went on the cruise: Donald and Daisy.  We were very lucky with the wind which was SouthWest, which allowed us to sail a beam reach all the way to the bridge.  We left the Marina at 8:30 AM and passed under the Golden Gate at 11:00 AM.  Then sailed to Angel Island for lunch on a beautiful sunny day.  Returned to Berkeley at 4:00 PM.

Gallery of Photos for Cruise

As many of you know, I recently moved to Vancouver. First order of business: find someplace to sail. Vancouver has lots of sailing options, but if you are looking for dinghy sailing on the cheap, the place to go is the Jericho Sailing Center Association, a non-profit community center for all types of non-powered watersports. Jericho hosts a number of clubs, as well as providing individual boat storage and launching. They have a truly amazing facility with a restaurant and bar, and a balcony providing stellar views of the English Bay and the North Shore Mountains. I'm afraid to say that, at least in terms of view, it beats CSC's bench.

Appropriate capsize recovery techniques vary by wind speed, and there are several methods available for righting the boat  in situations where the wind is high and you are unable to keep the boat from re-capsizing. However if you can recover without setting the anchor or having a crew member swim around to the bow to line the boat up into the wind, the recovery will be quicker and easier.

To recover on the first attempt (without re-capsizing) with the least effort in the broadest range of conditions, here are two very useful tips.

First, uncleat the gnav/vang (in addition to the mainsheet & jib), as this will reduce the effect of the wind on the sail when the boat comes back up.

Second, while up on the gunwhale, before stepping onto the centerboard, consider what effect the wind direction will have on the boat once it comes up, and plan the effect the arrangement of your and your crew's weight will have on the boat's balance at that point.

• If the mast is pointing away from the wind/hull is towards the wind, the crew will be on the downwind side when the boat comes up. Tell the crew to just hang on to the bungees under the gunwhale when the boat comes up, and then come around to the stern to get back in afterwards; when the boat comes up, the person on the centerboard tries their hardest to at least get half way over the gunwhale so as to keep the upwind side weighted down.
• If the mast is pointed towards the wind (a situation in which a double capsize is very common), the crew will be on the upwind side when the boat comes up. Have them hang onto the hiking straps as the boat comes up so their bodies are draped over the gunwhale. If they  weigh enough--taking the wind's power into account changes the meaning of 'enough'--the person on the centerboard can dry recover, particularly if he/she scrambles quickly across to the upwind side. If the crew is lighter than the person on the centerboard, the person on the centerboard should plan to go down into the water and get back into the boat from the stern (holding on to the boat at all times). 

Under almost all capsize conditions where you're not right by a lee shore or dock, the person on the gunwhale can take as long as they want to consider the situation and to discuss it with the rest of the crew. 

1. Wear comfortable, non-restrictive gear and as many temporary pirate tattoos as possible.

2. Get a really, really long tiller.

3. Have awesome background music. 

4. Get out there.

Sailing in the Bay in a Dinghy can be challenging, to put it mildly. You're exposed to brutal wind, waves, and cold weather. Summer is often colder than spring and fall! And you look like a fashion disaster.

I often get asked about what to wear. Now a wetsuit is key, as we all know. I prefer to wear foul weather gear over my wetsuit to keep the wind chill off and keep the wetsuit from snagging on sticky-out bits on the dinghy.

But where is the style, you say? The panache? What if you're trying to dress to impress? Unfortunately, Armani doesn't make wetsuits. Which these guys took to heart:  http://youtu.be/0e_rDFy6VhI . They don't let the fact that they're sailing a 49er get between them and looking good. Brown shoes with a black suit, though? Ouch.

But what if you're not into suits? I've done a bit of field research, and here are my suggestions for your summer dinghy dress style.  I did all of my testing in one of our more challenging dinghies, the RS 500. And much of the field research was conducted solo. For maximum science and stuff.

CSC update as of 7/14, we have more than 1,000 members :)

Sunday 7/13 - we had dinghy racing, followed by an Open House and a party afterwards with the first ever performance by the CSC Band. Antony, Scott, and Kaylia serenaded their adoring crowd. Check out the video of one of their original CSC-inspired songs on Cal Sailing Club's facebook page! 

We had approximately 200 Open House attendees and one fearless Commander of a Pearson Commander, David Frasier, taking out eager new sailors--you're our hero, David!

July's Junior Sailing Fast Track from 7/7 - 7/11 came and went, and all we've got to show for it is a bunch of lousy pictures. Oh, and we have NINE brand spanking new juniors - congratulations!! 

Candidate Senior sailors need to own their own VHF radio. This guide is designed to give some basic orientation on what to look for when shopping for your first handheld VHF radio. This guide is not a generic guide but designed explicitly for use at the Cal Sailing Club, for brief recreational use on dinghies and keelboat cruises inside the bay area. You need a radio for basically two things: contacting the day leader and, in an extreme situation, contacting the Coast Guard. Senior skippers need to have a radio with them in order to sail outside of the Junior area, and will often use them when cruising with other Seniors. 

Understand waterproof rating Most models are water proof and submersible, meaning they can be dropped into water and still be functioning when recovered. JIS4 means that the radio is barely splash resistant, JIS8 means the radio is submersible, it can stand for up to 30 minutes below 5' of water. Be careful when reading the descriptions when shopping because it's not uncommon to find JIS4 rated radios claimed as being 'waterproof'.

Floating or not? You  want the radio primarily for your own safety, and you want to make sure it is securely attached to you at all times. It isn't going to help you  if you leave it on a keelboat but fall off, or you lose it while  sailing but don't realize it (a pretty likely occurrence if it isn't  secured).  For both dinghies and keelboats, assume  that you'll end up in the water, so the radio has to be securely attached to  you. CSC keelboats have a radio on board, so the portable one is for extra safety. The models that also float can be easier to recover in case they get detached from you but they can be slightly bulkier and more expensive. The extra cost  of a floating one can be easily recovered the first time the radio drops in the water (which is not so unlikely, according to stories heard at the club). 

Whether you decide to get a floating or non-floating model, make sure that the radio is securely tethered to your gear so that in a capsize it won't be ripped off of you. In general, do not rely  just on the clip that attaches the radio to your life vest. In case you go for non-floating, you may want to get a waterproof case for it with enough buoyancy. You have to be careful, though, and take the radio out of the case when you're not using it otherwise the water (vapor) in the case can corrode the radio. The case needs to be securely attached to your life vest.

Power, screen, control and other features to look for 5 watt should be the minimum transmitting power. Rechargeable NiCad or Li-ion batteries are usually provided by the manufacturer, it's nice to have the possibility to put in regular AA batteries, too. Dual scan means that the radio will scan Channel 16 along with another Channel (69 for CSC). This is important because technically any boat under way is required to monitor Channel 16. Any boat carrying a VHF, whether  required to or not, is required to monitor Channel 16. So when you're  out the bay listening to our Channel 69, you have to also monitor Channel  16. The Dual Scan feature does this. Many VHFs have a triple scan feature, which monitors both Channel 16 and Channel 9 (the standard hailing channel). Squelch  is widely used in two-way radios to suppress the annoying sound of channel noise when the radio is not receiving a transmission. Most handheld radios have a separate squelch control to set the threshold to the actual noise that's on the channel, which can vary. Control knobs to adjust volume are generally more usable than push buttons: think you may be wearing gloves or have your fingers slightly incapacitated when you really need to use the radio. If you carry the radio in a case, push buttons to control the radio volume can be better. Make sure that the screen is very visible also in daylight. Backlit displays are useful in low light. Some radios have water-activated lights that should make the radio much easier to locate in the event it goes in the water in low light conditions.  A lock mode prevents the buttons to be operated when not needed.

As you may have heard, during the month of April we conducted a racing study group with the intention of improving racing skills, rules and tactics for club members.   The group was oversold with 22 members and 4 volunteer instructors.  We were fortunate to recruit some of our best racing resources to lead both classroom and on-the-water practice sessions, including Cory Schillaci, Paul Kamen, Seamus Vanecko, and Mark Playsted.  In this post I want to share a couple of pictures, Cory's rules quiz handout for you to test your own knowledge of the rules, and the entire tactics classroom session video by Paul Kamen.  I did not take pictures from the on-the-water sessions because we were all on the water, but suffice to say it was exciting with up to 11 boats on the water plus this skiff - and with at least one NASCAR style pile up.  Fortunately there was no damage or injuries.

Standing room only - we more than filled the Marina conference room

Anthony Lunnis and I organized the May Fast Track for our senior project. We spent two months putting it together by asking volunteers to teach, cook, and/or test, as well as blasting the Cal Sailing listserv. We suggested to every potential Junior that they should join in to get their rating. And sure enough, our excel lists soon filled up with potential participants and volunteers.

Fast Track went off without a hitch…until the last day…when the fire department showed up.  They had responded to a call about lots of capsized dinghies in the south sailing basin.  Yves is bent over the window of a fire truck in front of the Yard.  “Well, Joel here, the Fast Track coordinator, contacted Berkeley Fire Department to let them know we would be doing drills, including capsizing, and not to worry.”  I speak up, “I even spoke with a supervisor.”  The Fireman nods, “Oh, well there is no supervisor on duty tonight, that’s why. This is our first call all week. No worries.”

I scamper away and down to the dock just in time to hear Jennifer shout, “Be careful, don’t kill another puppy!” as Nathaniel steers a Bahia toward the dock, going a little hot and then S-turning to blow off speed and gliding to a soft landing.  “Killing puppies?” I ask.  Jennifer responds, “People have been coming in too fast for docking” as if it makes perfect sense to equate hitting the dock with killing cute baby animals. Maybe they’re supposed to picture a puppy between the boat and the dock? Those poor, poor puppies! “We will be working on slow sailing and docking at the next advanced class,” she warns.  For the sake of the puppies, of course.

Soon, the sun has set behind Mt. Tam and Hs. Lordships restaurant, making the water radiate a deep blue.  The air feels a bit cooler and the last dinghy is on the hoist and swinging around to face its trailer. As it is pushed into the yard I tell the shivering, exhausted, future Junior sailors, “go change out of your wetsuits.  We will take care of the sail covers.”

“Are you sure?” they ask, hesitant, as if this still part of their junior test.

Stepping on and off a dinghy with style can be an art. One of the best pieces of advice I received early on in my CSC career (after making it onto the dock still dry by sheer luck) was to commit to stepping off and never looking back! We all fear the dreaded plunge into the murky waters of our beloved dock...to inevitably be witnessed by the many bench sailors and commentators who collect like barnacles around the club house. The key, as beautifully demonstrated here by our soon-to-be Junior sailor Phillipe (and gif-elated by our very talented Jennifer Kroon), is to stay low/keep some bend in the knees, keep hold of the boat to steady yourself as you move forward, and let go as soon as you're ready to step off.  Anything else leads to wobbly do-the-splits-ville...and doom. Okay, not really. You're not a full-fledged sailor in my opinion until you've fallen into the water at the dock at least once to wash yourself clean of any dignity you may have been clinging to.

Click the image below for the brief video.

Any other tips for looking like a boss at the dock?

We now have some actual sailing photos in the gallery - the Richmond Bridge Cruise from last weekend.

So how to you get a gallery established and upload photos? Easy, send an email to smugmug@cal-sailing.org (right now, that's me). I'll create the gallery (and a new folder, if necessary - we're figuring out how to organize these over time). I'll send you a link you can use to upload the photos. You can pass the link on to others, if there were multiple photographers for an event. the upload process is pretty easy.

What is less easy is attaching Captions and Comments to the images. There are two ways to do this:

1. Before you upload the images. You have to use an image editor to insert the Captions and Comments in the image metadata. Specifically you edit the IPTC Core metadata, setting the Headline to what you want the Caption to be, the Description to what you want the Comments to be, and any Keywords you want. I use Photoshop Bridge to do this, but there are other editors, some of them free.

2. If the above made no sense to you, just send me the captions and descriptions you want (by image number in the gallery after you've uploaded them), and I'll insert them for you. After the images are uploaded, only a site admin can do this.

 The Berkeley Bay Festival Open House on Saturday, April 12 was a huge success with 303 adults and 78 children going out for sails on CSC dinghies and keelboats--that's a whopping 381 people in attendance! We had a big cook-out afterwards with nearly 100 people hanging out and dancing at CSC. We had two phenomenal bands who kept us groovin' throughout the day, and gorgeous weather. Big thank you to everyone who came out and volunteered to provide free sailing to members of the community, teach safe boating, cook massive amounts of food for the volunteers, and show your support (and best dance moves) for CSC!  Tide and wind was tough for this one and you all were troopers. See you on Sunday, May 18 for the next OPEN HOUSE! 

Tons more great photos from Lon here: https://plus.google.com/103254638147711764669/posts/LrWgSgWEMhL 

Busy day!

We've changed our Photo Gallery from Flickr to SmugMug (you can also get to it as usual by clicking on Gallery on the Main Menu). This change allows us to organizes the photos better - there's a hierarchy of folders with the photos ultimately in Galleries. Right now there's just one Folder - Training Events, and one Gallery - First Aid and CPR - April 19, 2013. But we will be adding to that. It will also be easier for members to upload their photos for events. 

When you bring up SmugMug, you'll see the 12 most recently uploaded images. Scroll down, and you'll see the folders.

You can download full-sized images from SmugMug by clicking on the image to make it full screen, then right-clicking on the image and selecting "Save to File". 

We will be moving the photos from the old Flickr site to SmugMug over time, as we don't want to lose them.

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