Fast Track to Cruising: How to Go from Novice to Cruise-Ready in Seven Days - Brossura

Colgate, Steve; Colgate, Doris

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0071406727 ISBN 13: 9780071406727

Casa editrice: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2004

Riassunto

Learn how to handle a cruising sailboat in as little as seven days—even if you’ve never sailed before!

Who says you have to be an experienced daysailor before you can think about cruising? Steve and Doris Colgate know that most of us don’t have that kind of time. At the Offshore Sailing School, the Colgates have helped more than 100,000 adults—three-quarters of whom started as beginning sailors or complete newcomers--take the helm of a midsize cruising sailboat. Now Fast Track to Cruising offers these proven instructional methods to all aspiring sailors with big dreams and little time.

This is the very first guide that teaches sailing and cruising together, taking you from your first sail to independent cruising in one leap. You can make that leap in as little as seven days—as in the Colgates’ “Fast Track to Cruising” course—or you can get there at a more leisurely pace. Either way, no other book will take you from your first tacking or docking maneuver to a mastery of navigation and diesel engines as efficiently as this one.

"America's most experienced sailing instructors present a thorough and easy to understand look at cruising. Leisure time is precious. Safety is paramount. The Colgates will help you maximize your time on the water."--Gary Jobson, ESPN's lead sailing analyst and editor at large for Cruising World and Sailing World

“Doris and Steve Colgate understand that people want to reach their sailing goals as quickly as possible and they've built the excellent Fast Track program to accomplish it.”--Bernadette Bernon, former editorial director of Cruising World magazine

"Together Steve and Doris Colgate have been teaching beginners to sail for over half a century. In Fast Track to Cruising they have included every concept and procedure you need to get yourself from a want-to-be sailor to one who is knowledgeable and competent to take the helm--with confidence and a smile."--Charles Mason, Executive Editor, SAIL magazine

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Informazioni sugli autori

Steve Colgate founded the Offshore Sailing School in 1964. He has participated in two America’s Cup trials, seventeen Newport-Bermuda races, seven Fastnet Races, the Pan American Games, the Olympics, and six transatlantic races. The Offshore Sailing School operates from four Florida locations (Captiva Island; Ft. Myers Beach; St. Petersburg; and the Florida Keys) and from Chelsea Piers, New York City; Jersey City, NJ; St. Michaels, MD; and the British Virgin Islands. In 2003, US SAILING awarded the Colgates the Timothea Larr Trophy in recognition of their outstanding leadership and excellence in sailing education.

Doris Colgate is president and CEO of the Offshore Sailing School and founder of the National Women’s Sailing Association. The Offshore Sailing School operates from four Florida locations (Captiva Island; Ft. Myers Beach; St. Petersburg; and the Florida Keys) and from Chelsea Piers, New York City; Jersey City, NJ; St. Michaels, MD; and the British Virgin Islands. In 2003, US SAILING awarded the Colgates the Timothea Larr Trophy in recognition of their outstanding leadership and excellence in sailing education.

Dalla quarta di copertina

Learn how to handle a cruising sailboat in as little as seven days—even if you’ve never sailed before!

Who says you have to be an experienced daysailor before you can think about cruising? Steve and Doris Colgate know that most of us don’t have that kind of time. At the Offshore Sailing School, the Colgates have helped more than 100,000 adults—three-quarters of whom started as beginning sailors or complete newcomers--take the helm of a midsize cruising sailboat. Now Fast Track to Cruising offers these proven instructional methods to all aspiring sailors with big dreams and little time.

This is the very first guide that teaches sailing and cruising together, taking you from your first sail to independent cruising in one leap. You can make that leap in as little as seven days—as in the Colgates’ “Fast Track to Cruising” course—or you can get there at a more leisurely pace. Either way, no other book will take you from your first tacking or docking maneuver to a mastery of navigation and diesel engines as efficiently as this one.

"America's most experienced sailing instructors present a thorough and easy to understand look at cruising. Leisure time is precious. Safety is paramount. The Colgates will help you maximize your time on the water."--Gary Jobson, ESPN's lead sailing analyst and editor at large for Cruising World and Sailing World

“Doris and Steve Colgate understand that people want to reach their sailing goals as quickly as possible and they've built the excellent Fast Track program to accomplish it.”--Bernadette Bernon, former editorial director of Cruising World magazine

"Together Steve and Doris Colgate have been teaching beginners to sail for over half a century. In Fast Track to Cruising they have included every concept and procedure you need to get yourself from a want-to-be sailor to one who is knowledgeable and competent to take the helm--with confidence and a smile."--Charles Mason, Executive Editor, SAIL magazine

Steve Colgate founded the Offshore Sailing School in 1964. He has participated in two America's Cup trials, seventeen Newport–Bermuda races, seven Fastnet Races, the Pan American Games, the Olympics, and six transatlantic races. Doris Colgate is president of the Offshore Sailing School and founder of the National Women's Sailing Association. In 2003, US SAILING awarded the Colgates the Timothea Larr Trophy in recognition of their outstanding leadership and excellence in sailing education.

Estratto. © Ristampato con autorizzazione. Tutti i diritti riservati.

FAST TRACK to CRUISING

HOW TO GO FROM NOVICE TO CRUISE READY IN SEVEN DAYS

By STEVE COLGATE, Doris Colgate

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2005 Steve and Doris Colgate
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-140672-7

Contents

FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
DAY ONE GETTING TO KNOW YOUR BOAT
CHAPTER 1 The Language of Sailing
CHAPTER 2 Start Sailing
CHAPTER 3 The Points of Sail
DAY TWO BUILDING CONFIDENCE AND SKILLS
CHAPTER 4 Wind and Sails: A Powerful Team
CHAPTER 5 Balance and Stability
CHAPTER 6 Handling Heavy Weather and Rescuing Crew
DAY THREE GOING AND COMING WITH EASE
CHAPTER 7 Mooring, Docking, and Anchoring Under Sail
CHAPTER 8 Right-of-Way Rules and Navigation
DAY FOUR GETTING FAMILIAR WITH BIGGER BOATS
CHAPTER 9 Transition to a Cruising Boat
CHAPTER 10 Getting Underway
CHAPTER 11 Basic Maneuvers Under Sail
DAY FIVE SETTLING DOWN FOR THE NIGHT
CHAPTER 12 Docking and Mooring a Cruising Boat
CHAPTER 13 Anchoring Your Cruising Boat
DAY SIX TECHNIQUES FOR SUCCESSFUL CRUISING
CHAPTER 14 Sail Trim for Cruising
CHAPTER 15 Safety and Health Tips for Cruising
DAY SEVEN GONE CRUISING!
CHAPTER 16 Navigation: Knowing Where You Are and Where You Are Going
CHAPTER 17 Creature Comforts and Other Tips for Cruising
CHAPTER 18 Cruise Ready!
APPENDIX 1: SEVEN-DAY STUDY PROGRAM
APPENDIX 2: TIPS AND CHECKLISTS
GLOSSARY
INDEX

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

THE LANGUAGE OF SAILING

The language of the sea is deeply rooted in the era of square-rigged ships, andtoday sailors around the world use a kind of shorthand that has evolved fromthat period. We were reminded of the importance of sailing language when weraced our 54-footer with crew from various countries. We could all communicateeasily during those races—even though we didn't share a common tongue.

To the uninitiated, sailor-talk may sound strange. But it's an essentiallanguage to learn. There are times on a boat when the correct action must betaken quickly and at the right moment, or problems will result. You can't affordto say, "Let go of that thing over there!" when you really mean, "Free thejibsheet!" Through repetition, you will learn the necessary sailing terms tohelp you sail well.

Although there are many types and sizes of sailboats, the learn-to-sail sectionsin the first part of this book are focused on one type of boat—the Colgate26, a family sport boat designed for training, racing, and family fun. TheColgate 26 is characterized as a sloop-rigged keelboat. The word sloop refers toa boat with one mast; the keel is a heavy fixed fin beneath the boat thatprovides stability. What you learn on this boat can be applied to any sailboat.

IMPORTANT WORDS TO KNOW

This chapter covers some key terms that are important to learn, along withsummary lists that will serve as an easy reference.

If you are standing on a sailboat facing forward, you are looking at the bow,with the starboard side on your right and the port side on your left.Conversely, if you are facing the back end of the boat, you are facing aft andlooking at the stern, with the starboard side on your left and port to yourright. The widest part of a boat is called the beam. Some people confuse stern(the whole back end of the boat) with the word transom, which is the vertical orslanted part that goes from the deck to the water.

When identifying a direction, another boat, or something you need to take noteof, the words ahead, astern, and abeam come in handy. A buoy you're looking formay be ahead, or forward of the boat. The dinghy you are towing is astern, orbehind the boat. A lighthouse ashore might be abeam, at a right angle off theleft or right side of the boat. "Abeam" is a word that takes on specialimportance when you learn to identify the proximity of other boats, especiallyat night, as you'll learn later.

SAILING LINGO

* Bow: forward end of boat

* Stern: back end of boat

* Port: left side when facing thebow

* Starboard: right sidewhen facing the bow

* Beam: widest part of boat

* Ahead: in front of boat

* Astern: behind boat

* Abeam: at right angles fromboat.

HOW TO MEASURE A SAILBOAT

Open any sailing magazine and you will find a list of dimensions, usuallyabbreviated, alongside sailboat designs. These are the terms you use indescribing the length, depth, and width of a sailboat.

LOA stands for length overall. This is the total length of the boat from the bowto the end of the stern in a straight line. LOA does not include the bowsprit(if your boat has one), which is a pole that extends beyond the bow of a boat.When you rent or buy a sailboat, LOA is a very common specification—ascommon as MPG is to a car shopper.

LWL is the load waterline length, or simply waterline length. This is thestraight-line distance from the point where the bow emerges from the water tothe point where the stern emerges from the water. Sailors need to know the LWLwhen calculating the potential speed of a sailboat.

Draft is the vertical distance from the water surface to the deepest part of theboat (the bottom of the keel). This measurement will tell you where you can andcannot sail. If your boat touches bottom in 3 feet of water, its draft is 3feet. Stated differently, your boat draws 3 feet. When you ask a marina for aslip to rent you will probably be asked, "How much does your boat draw?" Youwill also be asked the LOA of your boat, because slip fees are calculated indollars per foot.

Instead of a keel, some boats have a centerboard—a relatively thin panelmade out of wood, fiberglass, or metal that can be raised or lowered to changethe draft of the boat. In this case, you might hear someone describe the boat ashaving two drafts: "My boat draws 6 inches with the board up and 4 feet with theboard down."

The freeboard of a boat, which is measured vertically from the edge of the deckto the waterline, is an important determinant of its interior space. The morefreeboard a boat has, the more headroom there will be in its cabin (assuming theboat has one). Some sailors erroneously use freeboard interchangeably with thetopsides of the boat, but the latter term actually refers to the sides of thehull above the waterline.

The beam of the boat described earlier is its maximum width, not its width atdeck level as one might expect. The topsides on some boats curve outward fromthe deck and back in at the waterline. In this case, the beam is measured at thewidest part of that curve.

SAILING LINGO

* LOA: length overall (tip of bow to end of stern)

* LWL: load waterline length (length from bow to stern at water level when at rest)

* Draft: vertical depth from water surface to bottom of keel

* Freeboard: vertical height from water surface to edge of deck

* Beam: maximum width of boat

* Hull: body of the boat

* Cockpit: where the crew sits to operate the boat

* Keel: fin under the boat, incorporating weight for stability

* Rudder: underwater fin moved by the tiller to steer boat

* Tiller: "stick" used to steer the boat from the cockpit

HOW TO DESCRIBE A SAILBOAT

Picture yourself standing or sitting in the cockpit—where the crew sits tooperate the boat. The hull is the body of the boat. The keel, which you can'tsee while you're sailing, is the fin under the boat that is loaded with lead tomake the boat stable. The Colgate 26 weighs 2,600 pounds and 40 percent of thatweight (1,050 pounds) is the lead in its keel. The boat can lean over in thewind, but it will not easily turn over.

In the back of the cockpit is a stick called a tiller. The tiller attaches to apost that goes through the hull of the boat to a rudder, a fin-shaped bladelocated underwater, behind the keel. When you move the tiller you are actuallymoving the rudder, which steers the boat by diverting the water that is movingpast it. If the boat is not moving, turning the rudder will not cause the boatto turn.

Aboard a sailboat that has a cabin, you enter the cabin through acompanionway—a passageway from the cockpit to the interior. The roof andsides of the cabin house comprise the cabin trunk.

STANDING RIGGING

Now that you are able to look at a sailboat and describe its parts, the nextstep is to identify rigging and what it does. Rigging is all the wire and rope(called line) on a sailboat and is divided into two major categories: runningrigging and standing rigging. Because there is a lot of force on sails when theyare filled with wind, and sails need something to hang from, rigging is requiredfor sail support and shape.

RIGGING LINGO

* Mast: vertical spar

* Boom: horizontal spar, connected to the mast and supporting foot of mainsail

* Jibstay: wire from mast to bow; called a headstay if it goes to top of mast

* Backstay: wire from top of mast to deck at or near stern

* Shrouds: wires from mast to left and right sides of deck

* Spreaders: struts that increase the angle shrouds make with mast

The mast is the vertical pole (spar) and the boom is the horizontal spar.Together, they support the mainsail. Incidentally, the word boom is Norwegianfor tree. Kevin Wensley, an Offshore Sailing School instructor who hails fromEngland, likes to tell his students that the boom gets its name from the noiseit makes when it hits you. As you will learn later, when the boom crosses theboat you always want to stay out of its way.

Standing rigging holds up the masts of a sailboat. Made out of twisted wire onsmall to mid-sized boats, standing rigging consists of stays and shrouds. Stayskeep the mast from falling forward or—over the bow or the stern. Shroudskeep the mast from falling athwartships—over the sides of the boat.

The backstay runs from the head (top) of the mast down to the deck at the middleof the stern. The jibstay runs from the bow of the boat up to the top or nearthe top of the mast. If it leads to the head of the mast, it is a headstay, andthe rig is called a masthead rig. If it leads to a point partway down the mast,it is a forestay, and the rig is called a fractional rig. Many sailors use theterms jibstay, headstay, and forestay interchangeably. If a wire leads frompartway up the mast to the middle of the foredeck, between the mast and the bow,it too is called a forestay; but this is a complication that doesn't concern usfor the time being.

Because shrouds lead from the deck edges to attachment points on the mast, theangle they make to the mast is more acute than that of the stays. For thisreason, the shrouds that lead highest on the mast—the uppershrouds—run through the ends of a strut or tube on either side of the mastto make a wider angle. These struts or tubes are called spreaders, since theyspread the angle the shroud makes with the mast and thus provide better supportfor the upper section of the mast.

The compression load on the spreaders tends to bend the mast from side to sideat the spreader base. To counteract this tendency, most boats have another setof shrouds—lower shrouds—on either side of the mast leading from thebase of the spreaders to the edge of the deck. Since these originate lower downthe mast, the angle they make with the mast is sufficiently wide to eliminatethe need for extra spreaders.

RUNNING RIGGING

Running rigging consists of all the lines on a boat that adjust the sails.Halyards raise and lower the sails. Sheets adjust sails in and out.

Halyards and sheets take the name of the sail to which they are attached. Forexample, a main halyard raises and lowers the mainsail. A jibsheet adjusts thetrim of the jib.

The trim of the jib or any sail is the angle of that sail to the wind directionat a given time. The word trim is also used as a verb in sailing. For example,the sailor to the left in Figure 1-4 is turning a winch (more on this later),which is moving the corner of the jib in, and he is therefore trimming the sail.

When you trim a jib, you are pulling the sail in with the jibsheet. When youease a jib, you are letting it out.

When you're sailing you adjust the sheets a lot; but halyards are seldom changedafter the sails are up. When you're preparing to go sailing, you raise thehalyard to hoist the sail. Actually, you are pulling down on the halyard as thewoman on deck is doing in Figure 1-5. When you are finished sailing, you easethe halyard out to lower the sail. (The halyard is actually going up.) The wordhalyard is a derivation of "haul the yardarms," from tall-ship days.

SAILS AND HOW TO DESCRIBE THEM

Today's mid-sized to large sailboats are designed with your precious time inmind, as well as your desire for an easy-to-sail boat. Regardless of size, theyusually have a mainsail and a jib. On a sloop like the Colgate 26, the mainsail(pronounced mains'l but more often just called the main) is the large sailbehind the mast, supported by the mast and the boom. The jib is the sail carriedon the headstay or jibstay in the front of the boat.

On the Colgate 26, as on many boats these days, you control the jib with afurling mechanism that allows you to roll the sail up on its headstay whenyou're not using it. When a jib is on a roller-furling headstay like this, thejib halyard is always up. Not long ago, when you were finished sailing for theday you had to lower the halyard to bring the jib down, take the jib completelyoff the jibstay, fold the sail carefully to avoid wrinkles, and place it in abag to stow below or ashore. This is still the case on most small boats and manylarge ones. But on some big boats, even the mainsail can be rolled up inside themast (as you'll learn later, in the cruising section of this book).

Most mains and jibs are made of Dacron, which doesn't stretch much and,therefore, holds the shape of your sails. A sailmaker cuts and sews a sail tocreate a desirable contour for maximum speed when the sail is filled with wind.Since it is important the sail retain this shape when wind creates pressure onthe cloth, sailmakers choose cloth with a predictable stretch factor, the leastamount possible.

When you see a sailboat gliding along the horizon with a dazzling white sail,you're looking at Dacron. More exotic sails that are steely gray, brown-tinged,or even translucent are made of Mylar, Kevlar, or Spectra cloth. With even lessstretch than Dacron, these pricey materials are in demand by highly competitiveracing sailors to whom "go-fast" ability is more important than cost.

A finished sail is triangular in shape, and each corner has a name. The head isthe top corner, the tack the forward lower corner, and the clew the aft lowercorner. The luff is the leading (front) edge, the leech is the trailing (aft)edge, and the foot is the bottom edge.

If you draw a line from the head of a mainsail to its clew, you can see that theleech is convex. When the leech of a sail is curved or rounded so as toincorporate more area than the equivalent straight-sided triangle, that extracloth is called roach, and its purpose is to give you more sail area, whichresults in more power. To remember where the leech and roach are located on asail, instructor Kevin Wensley says: Nasty critters like roaches and leecheshang out at the back of the sail.

LINGO FOR DESCRIBING SAILS

* Mainsail: large sail attached along mast's after edge

* Jib: sail carried on the head-stay or jibstay

* Head: top corner of a sail

* Tack: forward lower corner of a sail

* Clew: aft lower corner of a sail

* Luff: front edge of a sail from head to tack

* Leech: after edge of a sail from head to clew

* Foot: bottom of a sail from tack to clew

* Battens: slats inserted in trailing edge (leech) of sail to retain shape

* Roach: convex area of extra cloth along mainsail leech

To support this extra cloth and hold its shape in wind, thin pieces of wood orfiberglass called battens are inserted in pockets that are evenly spaced alongthe leech. A typical batten for a 26-foot boat might be 1 inch wide by 24 incheslong. Some sails have full-length battens running all the way from leech toluff.

Sails that are furled up when not in use, rather than taken off and folded,don't have battens because they cannot be wound around a headstay or furled upinside a mast. Sails without battens do not have extra cloth (roach) along theleech. When you're out for a lazy afternoon sail or cruising off to wondrousspots, extra sail area doesn't matter that much. Ease of managing the sails ismore important. Roach is most helpful when performance is apriority—either for competitive sailing or for fast passages in lightwinds.

TEST YOURSELF

Key Sailboat Terms

On the sailboat above, identify the following and then check your answersagainst the labeled photos and illustrations in this chapter:

1. Cockpit

2. Hull

3. Tiller

4. Bow

5. Stern

6. Port

7. Starboard

8. Beam

9. Ahead

10. Astern

11. Abeam

Describe the following:

1. LOA

2. LWL

3. Freeboard

4. Draft

5. Rudder

6. Keel

Rigging

Identify the rigging, referring to labeled photos in this chapter as necessary:

1. Mast

2. Boom

3. Jibstay

4. Backstay

5. Upper shrouds

6. Lower shrouds

7. Spreaders

The Anatomy of Sails

Identify the sails and their parts, referring to the labeled photographs in thischapter as necessary:

1. Mainsail

2. Jib

3. Battens

4. Head

5. Tack

6. Clew

7. Luff

8. Leech

9. Roach

The only rope on a sailboat that isn't called line is the boltrope, which issewn to the sailcloth along the foot and luff of the mainsail for reinforcement.Sometimes sail slides are sewn into the boltrope, and the slides literally slidethe mainsail onto a track that is screwed to the mast or boom. But sail slidesare usually found on larger boats; on a smaller boat, the boltrope is likely tobe inserted directly inside a groove in the mast or boom when raising themainsail.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from FAST TRACK to CRUISING by STEVE COLGATE. Copyright © 2005 by Steve and Doris Colgate. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0071406727
• ISBN 13: 9780071406727
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 256
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; 0039 0245774342; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8.; Assago Milano; 20090; Italia