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FairwindSailing School

On the water

Three of these seven conditions cancel nothing at all.

3 of the 7 lines below are ordinary teaching days. The two that put us ashore are lightning and fog, and neither is weighed against anybody’s travel plans.

We sailRain, any amount
Bring the jacket we listed. You will be wet and it will be fine.
We sailWind to 18 knots
Normal Chesapeake summer afternoon. This is the course as designed.
We sailWind 18 to 25 knots
We reef and shorten the course area. First-day students get a smaller sail plan, not a cancelled day.
Session movesSmall craft advisory
Everything below bareboat prep moves. Heavy weather clinic, on the other hand, is probably about to be called.
Ashore immediatelyLightning within eight miles
Off the water immediately, and we do not go back out for thirty minutes after the last strike. Not negotiable, not weighed against your schedule.
Session movesFog below half a mile
Except navigation ashore, which becomes rather more interesting than usual.
Session movesAir below 40°F
Cold students learn nothing. The season runs late March to early November for this reason.

A day, hour by hour

Every teaching day has the same shape and works on exactly one new thing. The shape is the point: by the third morning nobody is asking what happens next.

  1. 08:45DockKit on, log signed, and the forecast read out loud rather than assumed.
  2. 09:00RigYou rig the boat. Every day. It stops being fiddly around day three.
  3. 09:30LeaveUnder engine to the creek mouth, then sails up in open water.
  4. 10:00WorkOne thing per session. Tacking, then gybing, then heaving to, then docking.
  5. 12:30Anchor for lunchFifty minutes at anchor, which is also the anchoring lesson.
  6. 13:30HelmEverybody drives. This is the part four students buys you.
  7. 15:30HomeSails down in the creek, then docking practice until somebody has had enough.
  8. 16:00DebriefTen minutes on the dock about what went wrong, which is the useful bit.

Bring this

  • Soft-soled shoes that can get wet. Not sandals, not new white trainers.
  • A layer more than you think, and a waterproof outer even in August.
  • Sunglasses with a retainer, and a hat that will survive being blown off.
  • Sun cream. The bay reflects and people burn on grey days.
  • Water. There is no shop at the anchorage.
  • Gloves are optional and mostly unnecessary on our boats.
The points of sailA circular diagram with the wind blowing from the top. A wedge of roughly ninety degrees directly into the wind is marked as the no-go zone. Either side of it, in order away from the wind, are close hauled, close reach, beam reach, broad reach, and, directly downwind, the run.No-goClosehauledClosereachBeamreachBroadreachRunBroadreachBeamreachClosereachClosehauledWIND
Everything on day one is this plate. The hatched wedge is the only direction a sailing boat cannot go, and the whole first afternoon is spent finding its edges.
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