Hi Mary,

A few years ago, I spent a lot of time teaching people how to sail, both at clubs at the NSW Academy of Sport..... We used a very simple training technique that was very effective, worked well in monos and multies and had people sailing around a course with good VMG within a few days, ready to hit a club and race.

Day 1

Firstly in the morning when the wind is light, step the mast on the boats (no boom or sails), have the students tip the boats over and practice righting the boats.... This will show them that getting wet is no big deal and they can easily right the boat again.

Now set up 2 marks on the water. Put the boats on the water once again with only the sticks up and have one student paddle up front whist the other steers.... This will teach the student how to steer without worring about that thing (boom) swinging about there head. If the student is steering all over the place the other student up front will sure let them know about it. After one lap.... They change places. With several students, you can turn it into a race to add a bit more fun to the task.

Now they know how to steer with the rudder, set up the 2 marks as shown (Can set them up like this for the steering task too)


Fully rig the boats for sailing whilst students attend a theory leason on what is tacking and what is gybing. Show them this diagram and explain how they are going to sail around these 2 marks and where they will need to tack and gybe. Then explain to them how to trim the sail... ie. pull in until the sail just stops luffing. Keep it simple.

Now send them out for their reaching leason. Quick de-brief and answer any questions.
This will be a good solid days work and they will leave feeling a real sense of accomplishment.

Day 2

Breif the students on what they did yesterday and then explain to the students what todays task is..... Upwind / Downwind. Use the diagram below to explain. Whilst you are doing this, have the boats and course set as below.



Now explain how and why we zig-zag into the wind and how we change directions for this (tack).... Teach them about sail trim ie pull the sail in tight and steer up until the sail luffs and then steer down.

De-breif & questions, then continue.

Explain what to do at the top mark... Bear away and ease sail, gybe half way down, then at the bottom mark round up and sheet in.

The students will be tacking a lot in here and it may be necessary to give them on the water advice (as with other tasks)......

When they feel fairly competant with this, set up a wing mark and get them to run windward / leward, triangle, windward / leward course.... Help them out and work with any strugglers.

Day 3

Now teach them how to rig and de-rig a basic boat. Let them go out and sail the course again, then bring them in for some more theory such as how to read tell tails and how to depower a boat plus hove too techniques. Also talk to them about how to go about continuing to sail when they leave the training course ie how to find a club and how to get involved. Then let them go out and have a little more sailing, de-rig and lessons over.

Hope this helps