{"id":463,"date":"2002-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-08-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=463"},"modified":"2012-03-07T22:57:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T03:57:37","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew203\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice to a SetSailor on "Getting Started""},"content":{"rendered":"
Steve and Linda’s advice to a family with questions about "Getting Started with Cruising".<\/div>\n

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A visitor recently asked SetSail: I started reviewing your site and found a ton of stuff to read I haven’t gotten around to yet, but one burning question hasn’t been answered yet for me, so let me try to frame it and see if you have some advice for us. <\/h3>\n

I am toying with the idea of a circumnavigation with my family and have floated the idea with my wife; she is slowly coming out of shock and is starting to ask questions… :-). There are a few big question marks (lots of little ones) in our minds, but the most burning one is, what sailing experience do you need to get started? My wife has never really sailed (we are planning for starters a sailing trip for all of us) and my sailing experience is limited to zero, but I have been windsurfing for almost 20 years and I paraglide, hence spend lots of time with the weather. Bottom line, we can’t even start to make any risk evaluation or assess how long it would take us to get going. <\/h3>\n

Here are a few suggestions that I gathered from different sources:<\/h3>\n

Get out with the family to make sure we all like it (ASAP) Go to sailing courses for both of us to get the basics Get myself on a delivery to or from Hawaii to gain more experience Get the boat and do 6 months of coastal sailing in as many different and strong conditions as possible Get a skipper for the first big crossing, e.g. to Hawaii from San Francisco <\/h3>\n

Given where we are in our lives now, we are looking at a minimum of 6 months prep and 6 months active coastal sailing before anything goes. Does that seem reasonable? Are we out of our minds (or I guess I should ask am I out of my mind …)? <\/h3>\n

In all of my life, learning has been very easy for me, intellectually, motoricly and intuitively; experience can only come with time, but how much before you feel someone can be ready? We would appreciate some honest feedback and input. Hope this finds you well wherever your are voyaging right now. Thanks, Robert<\/h3>\n

Hi Robert: Interesting set of questions. We’re going to send this out to our SetSail correspondents for them to reply to as others are probably wondering the same thing.<\/p>\n

We’re enroute from Ventura to Marina Del Rey, CA-very long and arduous passage (four hours) so I am replying wth the help of my cell phone (wonderful technology!).<\/p>\n

Experience is a very tough issue to quantify. There is no substitute for the real world. However, there are a couple of key factors which will mitigate the learning curve. <\/p>\n

First, always take a defensive attitude toward the sea and weather. Do not take anything for granted, and have a plan “B” ready in case plan “A” takes a turn for the worst. In this same context, avoid doing what the “herd” is doing-unless there is a logical reason they are doing it. Regardless of your experience level, if you follow the preceding, it will keep you out of most of the situations you would rather avoid. <\/p>\n

Second, make your first priority understanding weather in general, and risk analysis in particular. It takes a while to get a handle on all of this-you probably have a big headstart on a lot of folks-but this is a key to staying out of trouble and everyone in the family enjoying the cruising. <\/p>\n

The third aspect deals with boat handling. Make skilled handling and seamanship a goal unto itself. Practice sailing in and out of tight situations, reefing, using heavy weather sails, and flying your light canvas until you know this stuff cold and can execute efficiently in the dark, with no deck lights, when things are bouncy. This does not take a lot of sea miles. It is more a case of making the commitment that seamanship is as important as adding a lot of stuff to the boat. <\/p>\n

One of the problems that everyone faces when they decide to go cruising is squeeze on time. There is never enough time to do it all-prepare the boat and the crew. In terms of what makes for the most successful cruising we feel strongly that the priority should be first on the crew skills, and with what time is left, deal with the boat improvements. This invariably leads to a simpler, less expensive boat. There is a side benefit in that, because you are forced to wait on a lot of equipment decisions, you will be better prepared to make these after some real world experience. <\/p>\n

Now to your specific questions:<\/p>\n

1-I would suggest basic sailing school for all to get down the basics. For you, handling a small keel boat or dinghy will be a piece of cake after the sailboard! <\/p>\n

2-Get involved with some local racing-even a Sabot or Laser will do. This the fastest way to learn about boat handling and performance. <\/p>\n

3-Work your family into the equation slowly and in sheltered waters, so as not to scare them at first. <\/p>\n

4-Getting some offshore experience on your own is a great idea and confidence builder. You can do this with a formal school-like John and Amanda Neal run wth Mahina Enterprises<\/a> , or with friends. <\/p>\n

5-When the time comes to really go cruising, my suggestion is to do it on your own, with the family, and without a “captain”. Better to learn at your own pace, as you go. There are lots of local spots where you can practice boat handling in adverse situations, and then duck into shelter when the time comes. Once you head offshore, to Hawaii for example, you will find that security and sea-room are synonymous. Good Luck – Steve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve and Linda’s advice to a family with questions about "Getting Started with Cruising".<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beowulf-logs","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}