Never sailed before, some questions

Not sure what type of boat I'll be learning on yet. Even though it might be cold, I guess I'll just try and deal with it. Do you know approximately how long you'd be in the water for while trying to right the boat from capsize recovery?


If you are at Jericho the chances are you will have started in an Escape. The horrid little roto-molded orange rubber duck. I hated those things. If you capsized 5 times already that means you must have had some wind! They turn back over easy peasy but they are darned hard to climb back into. Nothing to grab. I was not able to climb back into mine. They had to haul me into the coach boat by my life jacket. I landed face first on the bottom like a Tuna fish. Not my proudest moment.

After 3 days of instruction you should be moving to the double handed Pirates. A new set of challenges for the new sailor. How to work with crew.

I hope that you are having a ton of fun!
 
Glad to hear your class started. Sounds like you are progressing normally. Have fun. :cool:


OH, and about the "land sickness" thing, it goes away. For the longest time I thought I was weird and it was just happening to me. Just don't close your eyes in the shower for awhile and you will be fine.
 
where Jess is sailing the water is much colder than 22C, it is more like San Francisco Bay. He could get away with shorts and a PFD during the hottest days of summer, close to shore, any other scenario is wet suit city.
 
flaserlover, shorts and tee-shirt this time of year and the water is 21C, your obviously not sailing off West Van.

i actually am sailing out of west van, i think i may have forgotten to say that i am not one of the people in board shorts,:eek:: but they only dress light for a short sail, never for a reggata:)
 
Completed my course now, got my White Sail I/II. Yes, those Escapes were not the best things to be learning with indeed. Climbing back onto them after capsizing was NOT FUN. Especially when your whole body is shivering. As soon as I moved onto the Pirates, it was so much better.

As for an update on what I wore, non-cotton shirt and rainpants (even though it wasn't raining) because I know it'd get really wet. Wore a fleece jacket one time because I was abit worried about windchill on that day (was raining). Especially how you have to get onto the boat while standing in the water.
 
You are thinking of cotton sweatpants and shirts. Polyester isn't nearly as heavy when it's wet and dries quickly. Take along a windbreaker.
 
You are thinking of cotton sweatpants and shirts. Polyester isn't nearly as heavy when it's wet and dries quickly. Take along a windbreaker.

Just because you cut and pasted post 11 of this thread (one of mine, BTW), doesn't mean you've made meaningful contribution. I believe you are attempting to set us up for some spam. Quickest route to being banned.
 
Going back to the seasickness topic, this is something I researched extensively a while ago. I tend to get motion sickness under certain conditions:

- when my eyes cannot see what my balance system is feeling. So inside a keelboat, with lots of up-and-down combined with side-to-side, and all I can see is the fixed structure of the boat. This is a known cause, related to how your body and brain process information from the three main systems of balance control (your eyes, your balance centers in your ears, and the "proprioreceptors" or position indicators built into your muscles). If the systems report different things, you end up with confusion in areas of the brain you can't control, that leads to illness. When you are on deck, you can see the waves, and generally what you see is immediately felt by your body.

- if there are unusual smells on the boat. For example, gasoline or diesel fuel smells, the odour of cooking down below, strong musty or other "bio" smells, a head that is not working correctly, even perfume or strong sunscreen smells.

- if the motion are very violently up-and-down even on deck

None of these conditions will apply in an open dinghy, because all your systems will be "synced up", odours will be limited to the lake water or smoky smells from nearby campfires (very soothing, actually), your own sunscreen which you can control, etc. Also, they will not let you out in a dinghy under the conditions of up-and-down that are needed for my third trigger.

Being in control of the vessel, even if only the sheet or rudder, also helps as other posters have noted, by taking your mind off the developing illness.

Good luck, and welcome to the sailing community.
 

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