Adult Classes for 2010

Goal: Get map and chart skills to make sailing and cruising reliable, safe and fun.

Learn: How to use the basic navigation tools. Identify the basic symbols, Identify mapping colors and codes common to all "charts". Learn charting symbols and describe the objects and features in or on the water that they identify.

Practice: Introduce Tide Tables (depth). Learn how to plot a position. Meet "True North," and the basic format common to all navigation charts. Learn "Where am I?" and "What's that?" Make, read, and correctly write on charts. Then, build your own harbor chart of the waters near Edgewood Yacht Club.

Text: Eldridge: Tide and Pilot Book

Goal: Navigate underway. Lay and achieve a predicted course on the water, using charts, navigation instruments, and "Dead Reckoning".

Learn: How to use ded-reckoning and ship's log to plan and monitor a cruise.

Practice: Basic navigation skills. Use the chart and navigation instruments to 'sail' from one point to another in class work (like from Point Judith, to Martha's Vineyard). Meet "Magnetic North" (magnetic variation). Meet "Relative Bearing". Learn how to "take a fix" (visual, long-range visual, plotted, or electronic, including gps, and radar). Plan a safe DR Track, and estimate time of arrival.

(Required Prep: Part 1 or equivalent)

Text: U.S. Sailing Coastal Navigation

Goal: Confirm and adjust your predicted (DR) sailing path, to accommodate set/drift effect currents. Determine a course to meet, or to avoid, another ship. Know the law for right-of-way and navigation signals.

Learn: How to understand completely and to verify the instructions of your GPS and chart-plotter (or to stand in for it, if device is not functioning). How to make adjustments to travel, in compensation for set/drift error of tidal and general currents, time of day, side-drift, delays and other navigation factors that interfere with you. How to use Tidal Current Tables. How to use a Maneuvering Board to plot motion relative to your own ship's achieved course. How to de-code right-of-way, and other ships' navigation lights/signals.

Practice: Tackle rotaries, river currents, tidal currents, currents due to shore-line and weather. Adjust for the ship's natural leeway. Meet "Ship's Compass North" (compass deviation). Practice correcting basic planned courses by predicting and/or observing actual set and drift from predicted course or a position fix, and how to adjust course-to-steer and speed so as to plot these adjustments into the logged and predicted course sailed.

(Required Prep: Part 2 or equivalent)

Goal: Demonstrate your navigational skills -- actually aboard a boat, out on the water -- in both darkness and daylight. Demonstrate safe navigation by showing that 2 or more navigational data agree. During the demonstration, steer the ship either by full-sight, or by relying on single-source information (for instance, steering only on ship's compass.)

Learn: How to apply the navigation skills learned and practiced originally on shore.

HANDS-ON PRACTICE (IN DAY-LIGHT) - - - How to operate navigation instruments on the water. How to take fixes, monitor ships, set/drift, etc., find actual and Estimated Position, execute blind steering to ship's compass, on a given range, to a contour, etc.

HANDS-ON PRACTICE (IN DARKNESS) - - - In Darkness do the same, plus how to identify lights by signature, and steer to a "red sector" or danger heading.

This session will have on-water practice "in day-light" in the first meeting. It will practice "in darkness" in the latter meetings. Each meeting begins at the usual time and the usual EYC/ESS classroom. All classes return also to the classroom at the end of the meeting. (Specific meeting day/times for Part 4 will be finalized during earlier parts of the course, according to class size and sailing conditions.)

(Required Prep: Parts 1, 2 and 3, or their equivalent)

Goal: Checklist of maintenance and repair items required at the start of the boating season. Basic fiberglass repair and construction skill. On four weekends, go through the essential head-of-season check list to prepare a boat for summer, including hull, spar, electrical system, motor and mechanical, and learn "fiberglass basics" for simple repairs and maintenance. Materials are furnished

Volunteer team to launch Rhodes 19s, and to haul them out. Goal: working as a team to launch and/or haul out Rhodes 19 hulls. Location: as announced. Skills: handling lines, working as part of a team (heavy-lifting not required).

Saturdays 8:30am - noon. Find out what's going on when the Rhodes19s are "sleeping" and what it takes to keep-on-sailing. Join the fun ... make your mark(s) ... wield a tool ... see your picture on the website. Volunteers work on maintenance and repair projects for Sailing School Optis, R19s, Lasers and SunFish, c420, the whalers and the lengthy list of equipment, spars and sails inventory. Tasks and new skills combine, the Sailing School Fleet upgrades, and the ESS Sailors get the benefit. Tasks vary with the season, and match interest, skill and energy of the Volunteers, including rigging, splicing, fiberglass and gelcoat, carpentry, electrical wiring, motor and trailer mechanics, cleaning, painting, sail-mending, and organizing. Volunteers bring work clothes and gloves - - working outside (weather permitting) or inside. Tools, safety gear and all materials are provided.

Introduction to Sailing - Low-impact, preparatory coaching session, meant for a starter sailor who is about to enter ESS Level 1 class. "Intro" class meets for one (3-hr) session, scheduled several days ahead of the first meeting of the Level 1 class it's introducing. Sailing textbook included. No experience required to take the Intro class.

Goal: Introduction to sailing. Skills: the basics, including boat handling on all points of sail, knot-tying, attaching sails, steering a course, stopping safely, retrieving a person overboard, tying up to a mooring, safety rules and moving around in the boat. By the end of the course, the student should feel confident and comfortable sailing a small boat in a sheltered area.

Goal: Build from skills acquired in Level 1. Skills: Matching fleet speed, sailing with crew, down-wind sailing, knots, day-sailing, mooring and docking, emergency procedures, awareness of weather, the uses of navigation aids, and compass. By the end of the course, the student should feel confident and comfortable sailing on supervised courses and short trips around well-serviced areas similar to Narragansett Bay. ("Brush Up" Skills for sailors holding Level 2 certificates, or equivalent.) (Required Prep: Level 1)

Goal: Recreational day-sailing Skills: Day-sailing is introduced, including trip planning and provisioning, then class moves as a fleet on a trip all-day down Narragansett Bay. Lunch on board. Return by early evening. Accompanied by Sailing School instructor safety boat and by a supporting cruising class sailboat to provide amenities. (Required Prep: Level 1) Tuition fee for the picnic sail: $35/person, or $70/boat.

Goal: Independent safe sailing in challenging situations with full rig and spinnaker. Boats carry 1, 2, or 3 persons, according to sail rig. Skills: At the Intermediate level, predict and sail compass course, secure and depart from adverse-wind docking, sail and maneuver (single-handed) onto heave-to with full rig, proceed safely under tow, plan and execute a day-long trip, recover and deal with equipment failures. (Required Prep: Level 2)

Goal: Independent safe sailing in challenging situations with full rig and spinnaker. Boats carry 1, 2, or 3 persons, according to sail rig. Skills: At the Intermediate level, introduce sailing, and racing, with 2 and 3 crew using spinnakers. (Required Prep: Level 2)

Goal: introduce Sailing and navigation basics for safe sailing in darkness.
Skills: introduce Boathandling (Level 2), using, visual, chart and gps navigation elements. Crew Overboard recovery in darkness. Styles for displaying and recognizing light signals required under International COLREGS Rules and the U.S. Inland Rules. Introduces skills and conditions for basic boat handling on-water at night that are expanded and continued in "Night Sailing" (3fb and 3fcr)

Goal: Sailing and navigation basics for safe sailing in darkness.
Skills: Boat-handling (Level 3), using, visual, chart and gps navigation elements. Crew Overboard recovery in darkness. Styles for displaying and recognizing light signals required under International COLREGS Rules and the U.S. Inland Rules.
After "Introduction to Night Sailing" (3fa), this is a 3-meeting class (3fb) at Level 3 sailing skills. The classes in this session cover fundamental navigation skills set, basic chart-reading and navigation; and various specialized boat-handling at night, progressing from basic on-water at night, to general keel-boat, to sailing a Rhodes 19 at night in familiar waters.
Required prep: Level 2.
(Tuition: $120 for the 3-meeting session.)

Goal: Introduction to recreational harbor sailing Skills: Friday evening or Saturday afternoon open sailing, supported and supervised by an on-duty ESS Instructor and VHF radio net. Open to qualified Edgewood Yacht Club Members, and to Sailing School Students. (Required Prep: Level 1)

Goal: Certification for safe and standard one-design racing Skills: General preparation for one-design racing in Rhodes 19 keelboats, including the rules, wind, tactics, boat set-up, sail trim and spinnaker work. Skippers demonstrate boathandling and trim, knowledge of racing rules, and awareness of standard tactics in a short "racing orientation" evening before enrolling in the one-design series. (Required Prep: Level 3 or equivalent)

Goal: Advanced boat handling in racing situations. Skills: Classes must be taken along with Level 3, until Skipper is Certified. Skippers are scored in monthly EYC Club series. Open to "Skippers" with certification or enrolled in Level 3; and to "Crew" with Level 2 skills. Crews may sail as "extra" or be teamed with Skipper. (Crew Required Prep: Level 2) (Skipper's Required Prep: Level 3 or equivalent, and ESS Class 4a Certification.) Tuition/fee per evening.

Goal: General issues, and electronics, mechanicals, maintenance, safety checks, and the provisioning of a typical cruising keel-boat. Skills: Visiting and sailing on several yachts, introduction to boat handling and operation of small and medium-sized cruising keelboat. (Required Prep: Level 3) Enrollment limited: 6 students.

Two-hour Private lessons, one to four people, are available on Sailing School's Rhodes 19, Optimist, c420, Laser or SunFish. Students may be adults or youths. Coaching and instruction according to the skills of the student. Group lessons (for 5 or more students) can also be arranged. How to register for individual/small-group lessons: Please register here to set up private, individudal, and small-group lessons. Details will determine costs. Describe the details (times, dates, etc.) in the Comment box of the Registration From. Please wait for confirmation email from the Sailing School staff, before you send payment.