SuperNewbie

Phil gave great advice......

I think if anyone wants to learn how to sail they should do atleast a season as a crew.

Check out some boat clubs and ask around if there are any crew spots available for a biginner. Don't bother with spinnaker cats for quite some time.

Best and quickest way to learn is to race as a crew. Sailors are very freindly and more than welcome to teach someone especialy if they show comittment and an eagerness to learn.

The reason I said the best way is to race is because you have to go around a set course. You have to learn all angles of sail... Upwind, downwind and across the breeze. If you just go out cruzing you tend to spend most of your time sailing backward and forth across the breeze - beam reaching as it is called. This is the fastest point of sail, most exciting (unless you have a spinnaker) and also the easiest, hence why beginners get stuck on that point of sail. If you do not learn how to sail upwind or downwind you could get yourself in a bit of trouble one day. Also racers are very safty concious (even if they sound like mad men) and place a great deal on boat maintenance.... You could pick up alot of good habits.

A great exercise I have found to do with biginners to teach them how to steer is -

Set up 3 bouyes in a triangular course

Have 2 biginners on the boat without the sails up. One guy paddles whilst the other steers. The reason for no sails is so they don't keep worrying about the sail / boom swinging above their head and just focas on learning how to steer. The guy paddling will also let you know if you are not steering a staight line because he has to paddle further.

Steer around the corse until you feel compitant then swap possitions.

Once you are both expert helmsmen, put the sails up.

Set up 2 bouys so the course sails at right angles to the breeze. Sail between these bouys, rounding one with a tack and one with a gybe (check a boat book regarding tacking and gybing)

Tack - To turn the boat so as the bow (front) of the boat passes through the direction from which the wind is coming from.

Gybe - To turn the boat so as the bow (front) of the boat passes through the direction OPPOSITE from which the wind is coming from.

Keep praticing until compitant.

After this set the bouys up so one is upwind of the other. Sail around the course, tacking upwind - Heading up to the bouy closest to the wind direction sailing at an angle about 45 degrees to the wind direction and tacking (turn the boat 90 degrees through the direction of the breeze... see definition of tack... so you are sailing at about 45 degrees to the wind but with the wind coming over the opposite side of the boat).

Then round the mark and sail in the direction the wind is blowing (downwind). Turn the boat through a gybe and round the bottom mark and sail upwind again.

These excercises will realy help you compitantly sail your boat.

I have taught many first timers how to sail at the New South Wales Accadeny of Sport (Australia). We have had young kids go from not knowing the front of a boat to the back.... to compitantly sailing around a race course within 2 days.

PS - Before you put the sails up it is a good idea to learn how to tip your boat over and bring it back upright again. Tipping over is nothing to get scared about - you just get wet. Learn this in fairly shallow water and once you have mastered this it will give you great confidence.

Best of luck
Enjoy your sailing future