Learning to Sail

Goody said:
Thanks, I'll look up ISTR but RYA only teach Dinghy sailing to the best of my knowledge
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ISTR forum speak for ‘I seem to recall’

RYA teach (or certify) everything from children’s first dinghies up to (and much more relevantly) all yachting courses and qualifications to yachtmaster ocean.

You would be looking at Day Skipper on their training schedule for what you want to do.
 
Goody said:
Thanks I'll try and get hold of them; never thought about learning via books:encouragement:
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Buy Tom Cunliffe’s ‘complete day skipper’. Despite sharing a name with the RYA course he assumes you are doing it for yourself, first time, on your own boat. It starts with how to step aboard and goes on from there. Very worthwhile.
 
bitbaltic said:
Buy Tom Cunliffe’s ‘complete day skipper’. Despite sharing a name with the RYA course he assumes you are doing it for yourself, first time, on your own boat. It starts with how to step aboard and goes on from there. Very worthwhile.
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yes another good one we used to learn with. read, absorb and apply. For me it has been as much fun reading and learning the theory as getting out there and doing it. When the two come together it is a splendid feeling
 
My wife and I are basically self-taught, having read lots of books about sailing. Way back in the 70s, we'd frightened ourselves silly in a Broads-type motor cruiser which we took to sea, so we sold it and bought a Centaur (having never sailed before). We had the Centaur delivered to the Blackwater, then decided we'd basically learn as we went along ("can't be difficult, can it?", we thought). One of our fondest memories was a day we took the boat out with my wife's grandmother on board. As we drifted down the Blackwater, dear old Nan sat smiling in the cockpit, totally oblivious to our struggles to sort the sails out. Finally, the hank-on jib was successfully hoisted. My wife and I looked at it in wonderment for a while, before we realised it was upside-down.
 
pvb said:
My wife and I are basically self-taught, having read lots of books about sailing. Way back in the 70s, we'd frightened ourselves silly in a Broads-type motor cruiser which we took to sea, so we sold it and bought a Centaur (having never sailed before). We had the Centaur delivered to the Blackwater, then decided we'd basically learn as we went along ("can't be difficult, can it?", we thought). One of our fondest memories was a day we took the boat out with my wife's grandmother on board. As we drifted down the Blackwater, dear old Nan sat smiling in the cockpit, totally oblivious to our struggles to sort the sails out. Finally, the hank-on jib was successfully hoisted. My wife and I looked at it in wonderment for a while, before we realised it was upside-down.
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A prime skill to be acquired is to learn how to do your cock-ups out of sight of anyone who knows you, or preferably anyone at all.

The best book I had was by the late Des Sleightholme. I think it is just called "Sailing" (or maybe "Cruising") but it covers absolutely everything you actually need to know.
 
johnalison said:
A prime skill to be acquired is to learn how to do your cock-ups out of sight of anyone who knows you, or preferably anyone at all.
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:D

johnalison said:
The best book I had was by the late Des Sleightholme. I think it is just called "Sailing" (or maybe "Cruising") but it covers absolutely everything you actually need to know.
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Yes, agree, we still have our 1976 copy - it's called "This is Sailboat Cruising" by J D Sleightholme. Amazon have copies for about a fiver.
 
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pvb said:
:D



Yes, agree, we still have our 1976 copy - it's called "This is Sailboat Cruising" by J D Sleightholme. Amazon have copies for about a fiver.
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I've just checked mine and it is just called 'Cruising', 2nd edition 1970, Adlard Coles. It is specifically about sailing the small cruisers of the period. I dare say they are virtually the same, as is this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Cruising-Sleightholme/dp/091137888X

I have never read a book from any other author that shows that the writer really understands the problems facing a beginner from the very start.
 
johnalison said:
I've just checked mine and it is just called 'Cruising', 2nd edition 1970, Adlard Coles. It is specifically about sailing the small cruisers of the period. I dare say they are virtually the same, as is this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Cruising-Sleightholme/dp/091137888X


I have never read a book from any other author that shows that the writer really understands the problems facing a beginner from the very start.
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I"ve ordered both so I'll let you know :)
 
bitbaltic said:
Buy Tom Cunliffe’s ‘complete day skipper’. Despite sharing a name with the RYA course he assumes you are doing it for yourself, first time, on your own boat. It starts with how to step aboard and goes on from there. Very worthwhile.
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Thanks, that sounds good :encouragement:
 
pvb said:
:D



Yes, agree, we still have our 1976 copy - it's called "This is Sailboat Cruising" by J D Sleightholme. Amazon have copies for about a fiver.
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Don’t know but I am guessing those books will not tell a 2018 owner much about sailing a boat with:

Roller reefing (headsails or furling mains)
Self-tailing winches (or anything not made of tufnol)
Clutches
Gas kickers/vangs
Single line reefing systems
Or most any modern sail handling systems. Ideal if the OP is looking at something with an up to date Procter boom furler (and he sounds like he might be) but the advice will be (excellent advice) about seamanship and less about the piles of rope and equipment which immediately confronts him in the cockpit
 
bitbaltic said:
Don’t know but I am guessing those books will not tell a 2018 owner much about sailing a boat with:

Roller reefing (headsails or furling mains)
Self-tailing winches (or anything not made of tufnol)
Clutches
Gas kickers/vangs
Single line reefing systems
Or most any modern sail handling systems. Ideal if the OP is looking at something with an up to date Procter boom furler (and he sounds like he might be) but the advice will be (excellent advice) about seamanship and less about the piles of rope and equipment which immediately confronts him in the cockpit
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Of course not, the book was written before lots of that stuff was invented! But many people starting out buy older boats, which often don't have the full complement of modern sail-handling systems.

The Sleightholme book is packed with drawings giving very understandable practical advice on many topics which are fundamental to an appreciation of sailing techniques.
 
johnalison said:
I've just checked mine and it is just called 'Cruising', 2nd edition 1970, Adlard Coles. It is specifically about sailing the small cruisers of the period. I dare say they are virtually the same, as is this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Cruising-Sleightholme/dp/091137888X

I have never read a book from any other author that shows that the writer really understands the problems facing a beginner from the very start.
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That sounds like a good read :encouragement:
 
pvb said:
Of course not, the book was written before lots of that stuff was invented! But many people starting out buy older boats, which often don't have the full complement of modern sail-handling systems.

The Sleightholme book is packed with drawings giving very understandable practical advice on many topics which are fundamental to an appreciation of sailing techniques.
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My point exactly. But I dont buy that you could seriously buy a seaworthy boat now which excludes all of these advances. Almost anything that was built 42 to 48 years ago (date of these books) and in now for sale in a seaworthy condition will have some or all of the upgrades I mention. Anything newer, even more so. It would be much better to buy a modern book eg the cunliffe one to learn on any yacht which is seaworthy in 2018.

That the sleightholme book offers fantastic general seamanship advice I don’t doubt. As do many books from the last 100 years of yachting- I have a library full of them myself- I recommend all of Adlard Coles’ books on his various yachts from the twenties to the sixties, for instance. But this is the next stage on from learning what does what on a Bermudan sloop that is sold as seaworthy in 2018, and they are not the place to start.
 
bitbaltic said:
My point exactly. But I dont buy that you could seriously buy a seaworthy boat now which excludes all of these advances. Almost anything that was built 42 to 48 years ago (date of these books) and in now for sale in a seaworthy condition will have some or all of the upgrades I mention. Anything newer, even more so. It would be much better to buy a modern book eg the cunliffe one to learn on any yacht which is seaworthy in 2018.

That the sleightholme book offers fantastic general seamanship advice I don’t doubt. As do many books from the last 100 years of yachting- I have a library full of them myself- I recommend all of Adlard Coles’ books on his various yachts from the twenties to the sixties, for instance. But this is the next stage on from learning what does what on a Bermudan sloop that is sold as seaworthy in 2018, and they are not the place to start.
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Rubbish...my last boat a lovely old 1965 Invicta 26 did not have self tailing winches, still had hank on foresails, used cleats not clutches, rope and pulley vang and standard slab reefing. The comment from the surveyor last time she was surveyed before we tried for the Azores was that he would be happy to go with us in such a seaworthy boat. There are at least two other boats in our small harbour that don’t have these additions that I would be happy to go to sea in, whilst a couple which have got some of these item I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
 
Praxinoscope said:
Rubbish...my last boat a lovely old 1965 Invicta 26 did not have self tailing winches, still had hank on foresails, used cleats not clutches, rope and pulley vang and standard slab reefing. The comment from the surveyor last time she was surveyed before we tried for the Azores was that he would be happy to go with us in such a seaworthy boat. There are at least two other boats in our small harbour that don’t have these additions that I would be happy to go to sea in, whilst a couple which have got some of these item I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
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And I was agreeing with you until you started to rubbish modernised boats simply because they have been modernised.

You might not touch those modernised boats for some tangible condition reason (ie they are not seaworthy) but you didn’t explain that.

I didn’t say that old fashioned boats are unseaworthy. I said that most seaworthy boats will have been improved. That your boat is not improved and is seaworthy in no way undermines my point, which is that you are unlikely to sell your much loved and original boat to the OP. Most things on the market will have been (at the low end, haphazardly) improved. And my point is that he should learn from books that reflect this- my point certainly is not to suggest that older fit outs are not seaworthy but that he is not likely to encounter, or learn the ropes, on them.

What’s rubbish about that?
 
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bitbaltic said:
And I was agreeing with you until you started to rubbish modernised boats simply because they have been modernised.

You might not touch those modernised boats for some tangible condition reason (ie they are not seaworthy) but you didn’t explain that.

I didn’t say that old fashioned boats are unseaworthy. I said that most seaworthy boats will have been improved. That your boat is not improved and is seaworthy in no way undermines my point, which is that you are unlikely to sell your much loved and original boat to the OP. Most things on the market will have been (at the low end, haphazardly) improved. And my point is that he should learn from books that reflect this- my point certainly is not to suggest that older fit outs are not seaworthy but that he is not likely to encounter, or learn the ropes, on them.

What’s rubbish about that?
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I don’t recall rubbishing boats that have been modernised, what I said was that there were some boats in our small harbour that had been modernised that I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole and a couple that hadn’t which I would, what I didn’t say was that all the modernised boats in our harbour were unseaworthy, just some. It’s not the goodies such as furling genoa and self tailing winches (which unless you’re racing a lot I honestly don’t see the point of) but the design, construction and way the boat is maintained that makes it sea-worthy.

My ‘new’ boat is a 1981 Sadler 25 which has furling Genoa and single line reefing(first reef only) but still has rope and pulley vang and non- self tailing winches. Furling Genoa is great.
 
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