Teaching sailing

[holz_g]

hi, its my first summer working at camp and ill be teaching sailing... ive had no experience of teaching it at all and im only a basic skills certificate. can anyone give me any tips for any games to play, that sort of thing!!, thanks!

[drink the wild air]

We've done races getting the boats set up and taken down. Normal sailing races, around bouys and stuff. We've also done funny races like 5 kids sitting on the boat without the mast or sail and they have to use canoe paddles to get around (we usually do this if there is no wind!) . If the teaching part is very emphasized things like dry erase boards help. You draw the sailboat in permanent marker and then the kids have to label in the dry erase markers the different parts of the boat. We have had sailing instructors take pieces of old unusable sails and make them into awards at the end and the kids get titles like captain, skipper, etc. depending on their skill level. I can't think of anymore at the moment, I will keep trying to remember though.

[Flukie]

Hehe.. We have what I like to call a hardcore sailing program. (It may not be that hardcore, but when you are a girl that knows only canoes, it's impressive to get the 5th graders to rig your Sunny for you!)

Our girls earn ratings based on their ability - Crew 1, Crew 2, Crew 3, Apprentice, Able, and then some more up through Skipper. Able means that they can head onto the bay for Advanced Sailing and Skipper is the highest rating available. So we do a lot of sailing and a lot of lessons. Our girls spend about 2-2.5 hours on the water each day. At least 30 minutes of that is spent on dry-sail - it may be super basic for new sailors such as parts of the boat or points of sail or it may be very complex such as racing points and physics of sailing. (I learned the difference between a jam, cam, and clam cleat this summer at dry sail...)

While out on the water, they practice capsizing (always great fun!), sailing a practice race course, learn to tack and gybe proficiently, learn to rig and derig... I'm not sure they play games per se, but they have a pretty good time out there sailing. We do a lunch sail during two week sessions where they sail to the local beach, and swim ashore to hang out on the beach. On days we have whitecaps or they can't sail for other reasons, they do knot races, intensive dry sail, and sailing "quizzes". I'll see what else our sailing directors do.

Girls learn on Sunfish - we have a fleet of 12 now, I believe. If they do well on Sunfish, we'll move them to Mercuries to have a go at a bigger boat. On the bay for advanced sailing, the girls say JYs and 420s. The Hunters are coming back to the pond this summer, I believe, to introduce the intermediate girls to a different type of boat.

[holz_g]

hi, thanks for all the good advice... ill keep it in mind. let me know if you think of anything else!! cheers

[CAMPFRIEND]

I wish that I had sailing at camp. I miss it so much. Have a great summer!