You can read about her journey at her website, www.jessicawatson.com.au.

While sailing 15 nautical miles off of the coast, she collided with a tanker ship while blogging below deck. She is fine and her boat is undergoing repair. You can read more about it here.

Everyone who has been sailing for a long time will know that you are always learning new skills and techniques. Regardless how advanced you certifications say you might be, there will be circumstances that you have not come across, new harbors you have not been in and new crew whom you have not sailed with. Part of being a good sailor is to adapt and react in any circumstance you come across.

My sailing club has a somewhat unorthodox system of completing each training and checkout of each boat in the fleet. As it is an all volunteer group of instructors and members, you often train and checkout with different people for different boats. It seems that the more sailing experience you have as a sailing instructor, the more you want to improve and change the methods set by your predecessors. This is the kind of stuff you hear sailing instructors banter about in the club house, on the docks or over their favorite bottle of chardonnay.

Since I am not a racer I will not even pretend to be any kind of an expert on sail trim. As long as I am moving forward at a reasonable speed given the condition, I am a happy sailor. I have heard it all from racers who talk about how much racing has improved their cruising and I really don’t doubt that. I am just not in that big of a hurry. Let’s face it, if I was, I wouldn’t be sailing. It’s the techniques like Man over board, close quarter maneuvering, throttle control, heaving to, reefing, anchoring and such that I have a little bit of a problem with from the perspective of having been a student with many instructors in the past.

I have picked up a little bit of insight on pretty much every aspect of sailing from all the sailing instructors I have ever worked with. The only thing that I can gleam from it all is that I will ultimately be developing my own set of skills based on my observations. Sure I will need to do what is required to get the certifications that I need at the time; even if it means changing my preferred methods temporarily to accommodate the instructor at hand; I will most likely go back to doing what I am most comfortable with.

Let’s take the Man Over Board maneuver as an example. This might be the single most discussed topic that instructor like to talk about when it comes to what is best. It is one of the most complex maneuvers for a novice sailor. It involves performing under pressure, staying calm, sail trim, tacking, speed control, helm control and giving directions to your crew. Every one of those affect the outcome of the job at hand. ASA officially endorses the Figure 8 and has been for many years. I have heard differing opinion from different ASA certified instructors of their own version of this procedure. Best points of sail, distance before tacking, may day or no may day call, release the jib or back-wind the jib, everyone has been trying to get me to buy in to their ideals. I feel like at some point, too much instruction starts to negatively effect your growth as a sailor.

Maybe it is just human nature to try to improve on what’s already in place. I am certainly one to always find a better way to skin the cat (sorry Yoda), but I am seeing a good number of beginning sailors in this club who are caught in the middle of these ambiguities. They get frustrated because every instructor teach every technique just different enough so they end up confused and not learning anything at all. The fact that everyone is a volunteer in this club often produce the kind if instructors who might be out there pushing their own brand of sailing certification.

I know I have been complaining a bit in the last couple of posts about some of the problems with my new sailing arrangement. It is actually much better than how I am making it seem. I have been sailing a lot more than this past year before I sold the O’Day and also meeting a lot of local sailors whom I would not have met otherwise. I am really not looking to change anything about the club as they have gotten most things right where others have not. After all, what is the blog if you don’t get to complain and voice your opinion at least a little bit…

Now get out there and practice some MOB maneuvers.

FYC is a co-operative, non-profit yacht club run by the members themselves. It offers a fleet of boats from both Channel Islands Harbor as well as Marina Del Rey at unbeliveably reasonable prices. Compared to other commercial charter businesses that charge you a membership fee plus hefty per use fees for their boats, Fairwind sustains itself by a nominal membership fee and the support and sweat of its own members. Each member is expected to volunteer in helping out with any and all aspects of the club. From changing engine oil to training new members on the use of their boats. Everyone chips in which allows the club to grow as a community. Using an online boat reservation system and each member’s honesty, everyone gets a fair share of use on their fleet of boats. As the memberships grow, a formula is used to determine whether or not new boats will be added to the fleet or if new memberships are to be capped.

It seem too good to be true at first when I looked into the price but after becoming a member, it makes a lot of sense the way the club operates. As an ex-member of a commercial charter club in the past where no one cared to put forth the extra effort in the boat upkeep since the company gouged you with exorbitant rates, FYC members have a particular kin-ship with each other as well as the fleet of boats that is similar to owning your own boat.

The club originated in the 1960’s out of a group of Hughes Aviation engineers in Marina Del Rey. It is now over 200 members strong in the MDR area and attempting to start a second chapter in the Oxnard, CA area based out of Channel Islands Harbor. There are no fancy club houses or six-digit salaries for the club officers but just a group of people who enjoy sailing and each others company.

If you are in the area looking to meet people who love to sail whether you own a boat or not, I’d highly recommend checking them out.

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Marina sailing is less like a club and more like a charter company. There are 6 locations all up and down the coast from Oxnard down to San Diego. There are over 20 additional sister companies that offer reciprocal memberships across the country which makes it even nicer. Most if not all of their boats are owned by individuals who chose to place their vessel with them to reduce the cost of ownership. It’s a pretty standard practice with chartering companies who do not wish to own their fleet so they can bring new boats into service without breaking their bank.

The upfront fee for becoming a member is 295 bucks plus a refundable $100 deposit. Monthly fees are 29 bucks and you pay for 3 months in advance. So that’s almost 500 bucks to get in before you even set foot on any of their boats. On the other hand, it is much cheaper when compared to owning your own yacht. Especially if you don’t go out every weekend.

Their fleet range anywhere from 25 ft all the way up to 50+ foot sailboats. Between all the locations I think there is only 1 powerboat but it might be an area they are trying to grow into. Daily rentals are from 8am to 8am with prices ranging from 150 bucks all the way up to 600 bucks a day for the big ones. During the week they will allow people to take the boat out for half or quarter days at pretty reasonable rates. Being in Ventura, I can take a boat out in the summer time after work out of the Channel Islands Harbor location and come back before sunset for a nice little BBQ on the boat before heading home.

I just joined last weekend and hopefully will get a chance to take one of the yachts out in the next couple of weeks to see how the processes works. Booking is done via a Web scheduling tool. Although not very aesthetically pleasing, it seems to be functional. If anyone in the Ventura/Oxnard area is interested in splitting the charter fee to go sailing just shoot me an email. I’m looking forward to getting out on the water this spring…

Even since I played Virtual Skipper 4 during my sailing hiatus and piloted the digital rocket sled, I’ve been dreaming about sailing a planing, keeled sloop. The SB3 is similar to the Melges 24 but a couple of feet shorter and a little less expensive (relatively). The big problem is that it is not that readily available in the US.

Here is a little video of rigging the SB3

Sailing the SB3

One day I will own a fast keelboat. One day.

I have no experience in sailboat racing but it seems to me that they have more crew than is needed for a 25 ft boat. I had 5 people a few weeks ago on the O’Day 22 and with that much weight on board, distribution of bodies became really important. Of course it can obviously help you if weight is distributed properly but in this video it definitely seems to hold them down after the broach due to all the bodies on the leeward side of the boat.

Sailing accidents are like train wrecks where you just can’t take your eyes off and you hope it never happens to you. Luckily no one seemed to be hurt in this video.

It is a comical perspective into the transition of music between the 70’s and 80’s. The stories they tell are absolutely brilliant and it sometimes make you think if it actually happened the way they have depicted it. There are only 10 episides of it so far and each are only about 5 minutes.

If you have an hour to spare and you enjoy really smooth music, this is a must see. Enjoy.

As fun as the event was, it had nothing to do with sailing. You might have noticed on this blog that I am a bit of a fan of wind-powered vessels. However, while we were there the city was hosting another event called Tall Ships Chicago. I didn’t have time to make it to Navy Pier to see the event but it looked like a lot of fun. Daily tours were given on the docks as well as some cruises around Lake Michigan. Only if I had more time on my hands… We did however make it to Gino’s East twice for some lip smacking good dish dish Chicago pizza. It made the trip all worth while despite the heat wave.

When I go back late Friday night I was jonesing to get out on the O’Day to go sailing and Andre and I did just that Saturday. That shall be another post as we encountered some interesting events on our trip…

He went to the Ventura Port District who handles the management of my storage yard and happened to get a spot right next to my boat. It is a 25 ft slip so he can bring down his Aquarius 21 from time to time and store it there mast up. He lives in Santa Barbara and works in Ventura so it would be cool to be able to take it out for a quick sail at his lunch break.

Today I met him at the yard as he was getting the Hobie setup with his friend Omri also from Santa Barbara. Since I had the right hitch ball I trailered the hobie out to the ramp and we promptly rigged it up and launched her for a little test sail. The boat is pretty much good for an afternoons sail but the trampoline and the hulls are getting pretty worn. The port side trampoline probably should be replaced as it is holding on by a thread in the front right below the mast base. The decks are soft to the touch and seems to crack with a minimal amount of pressure but you can really expect more from a boat this age and price. The wire main sail halyard had a weird crimp near the connections to the sail that prevents it from being hoisted all the way up. We had to basically reef the main right from the get go until he removes the crimp in the halyard later.

When we did get it in the water though it floated right off the of the fair conditioned trailer. Its suppose to have a hole in one of the hulls but it doesn’t seem to be taking on water. Both of the sails however are in excellent condition. No visible tears or rips nor are there significant stretch marks. We manage to fit all 3 of us on the trampolines and we gave her a little push and off we went in the Ventura Harbor.

It took off with ease under a fair amount of wind and started to accelerate at a closed hauled course towards the harbor entrance. As we got closer to the mouth of the harbor the winds started to pick up and we were now moving probably at nearly 7 or 8 knots. It was pretty awesome to be on a boat that has the potential to really move. Just last Friday I went out on the Capri 13 and today I am making another maiden trip and a Hobie 16. This definitely makes me envious and wanting a little fast and manuverable sailboat myself. Marlene will never go for that and I suppose that’s fine since I will get plenty of chances to sail both of these boats. Back to the Hobie. Now we are crusing towards the harbor entrance and there are just a small amount of swell in the water but the way Ventura harbor is setup you get a fair amount of it head on right at the entrance. Water was starting to splash through the tramps and Omri being on the leeward side was getting drenched. Luckily he was wearing a wetsuit and stayed warm and comfortable through the entire trip.

We did a little loop outside and decided to turn around and go back in. On the way back we decided to make a turn to port so we can check out some of the houses in the Ventura Keys. These are a couple of tracks of custom homes that have direct access to the water in the back of there houses. With the real estate boom of the last 10 years, these are now well into the multiples of millions in price. It was pretty amazing to see some of the boats thats dock directly behind some of these people’s houses. It would really be great to have that kind of access to your boat. Unfortunately some of these boats don’t seem to get a lot of use or attention.

Once we were in one of the narrower channels we had lost wind completely. Being a small boat without a motor we had to drift our way back out to the main channel of the harbor. After a few painfully slow and many more failed tacks we finally made it out. Omri had to go back up to Santa Barbara so we called it quits and made out way back to the ramp.

These little boats I’ve been sailing lately really made me even more excited about sailing in general. There are so many facets of this sport and I am looking forward to taking them out for more extended trips in the future. Tomorrow I’m planning on taking out the Capri for the afternoon and maybe there will be another post about what it is like in a couple days. Ciao….