How to Use Sail Boats

Sailing is a wonderful sport to experience the ocean and marine wildlife. Getting out on the water can also be soothing to the soul while allowing you to shape up and stay fit. Learning to sail can be done through universities, private sailing schools and community programs throughout the world. If you can land a position on a yacht racing crew, you'll learn everything you could want to know about sailing at about ten times the rate as you would by general cruising. And once you are proficient, you can use a sailboat for both racing and cruising, locally or worldwide, and for personal enjoyment or commercial enterprises. All in all, there are a few basics to understand ahead of time: key phrases and terms, and all about wind.

Things You'll Need

  • Rigged sail boat
  • Experienced sailor
  • Sailing gloves
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Instructions

    • 1

      Locate a vessel that you can learn to sail with one or more other people. Preferably, take a preparatory class at your local marina. Alternatively, you can rent a small sailboat or join friends on theirs.

    • 2

      Learn the names for and identify the key parts of the boat: hull, keel, deck, mast, boom, spreaders, stays, transom, bow, stern, rudder, tiller and so forth. You can use books or online sources for some of this, but it's best to do it while beside a boat, when learning what various parts do and any function they might have.

    • 3

      Learn the parts of the (usually triangular) sail: luff, leach, head, foot, clew, tack, battens, telltales. Some programs or groups have model sail boats with mini-sails to study these.

    • 4

      Learn the terms "port" (left) and "starboard" (right), luffing, upwind and downwind. These become important when underway, especially as relates to the International Rules of the Road.

    • 5

      Learn the points of sail and what is meant by "falling off", "heading up" and other directional terms. This has to do with wind and is imperative to understand before getting on the water. When a boat is pointed with the bow directly into the wind, it's called head-to-wind or "in irons". When the wind is directly behind the boat, it's said to be "running" or running with the wind. The points between are important to learn.

    • 6

      Rig a sail. Tie on the "sheets" - these are the ropes that control the sail, pulling it from one side to the other of a vessel. Attach the "halyard". While dockside, you can practice keeping a sail loose (or luffing) while raising and lowering it to see how the halyard works.

    • 7

      Leave the shore. Get out on the boat with an instructor or experienced friend and put into practice the knowledge you have now accumulated. Hoist and trim the sails. Practice moving the bow through the wind (tacking) and the stern also (gybing). Gybing is much safer to do in lighter wind during the learning process. Practice moving from point A to point B. Pull out a nautical chart and look for points of interest on land to sail between and start learning basics about compasses and navigation.

    • 8

      Take a course on navigation if you plan to continue into serious sailing. Also suggested is a course on marine weather. Understanding both of these is critical to being on the water for extended periods, and for traveling offshore.

    • 9

      Practice until you have mastered control of the vessel, control of sails, and all maneuvers to include man overboard and docking.