Note from Trish: Wally Moran is a writer and cruising sailor who makes his home in Georgian Bay, Ontario. He is a regular on several online bulletin boards, and is a charter a "Nuts & Boats guy," being one of my first subscribers. This article, which serves as an excellent sequel to Russ Swan's article in the last issue, was originally published in the Tampa Tribune. Since this was written, Wally has singlehanded his new boat, a 34 Dufour, from Annapolis to Tampa Bay and thence back to Georgian Bay, Ontario, via the Hudson River/Erie Canal/Lake Erie route.
I rapped my ring against our sailboat's hull, hoping to magnify its sound and attract the attention of a pod of a dozen dolphins several hundred yards off our bow. Sure enough, a few seconds later, they were breaking the sea's surface just five feet off our beam, so near you could tell one from another by their markings. Dolphins are curious creatures, but they are also hunters and when it was obvious we had nothing to feed them, they went on their way. Still, it was a magical five minutes while they swam around and under our boat.
This is one of the joys of ocean sailing in a sailing destination that many Georgian Bay boaters miss out on for many reasons. One of those reasons is that many boaters fear that they don't have 'what it takes' to sail in the ocean. Another reason is the qualifications which the charter companies demand of sailors before you can use their boats. I am here to tell you that these barriers can be easily overcome, and it's a lot of fun too.
At this point, I was in Tampa Bay, Florida on a friend's boat. I had recently completed the live aboard cruising course with the Offshore Sailing School, whose Tampa Bay branch is located in St. Petersburg. There were two good reasons for learning advanced sailing here on Tampa Bay as opposed to a similar course in Canada. First of all, Offshore Sailing School is one of the top sailing schools in the world and, as we all know, most of the water in Canada is too solid to sail on in December!
The live aboard cruising course requirements are that you have completed the prerequisite learn to sail and keelboat courses, or that you have 'equivalent' experience. I think it safe to say that if you have sailed Georgian Bay in any sort of cruising sailboat for a season or two, you would have equivalent experience. However, to get the most out of this course, I would suggest that you have your Pleasure Craft Operator Card and also have done the Canadian Power Squadron's course. This will give you an understanding of navigation and rules of the road, both of which will help you and which you should know anyway. You should also know your basic knots (bowline, clove hitch, figure eight, reef, sheet bend, round turn and two half hitches, rolling hitch). Again, you should know most of these from your sailing.
Prior to the course, you will receive the necessary textbooks for each level you have to complete. Since none of us on board had taken lessons before, we all had the three texts and all wrote the exams, which are multiple choice. (hint - know your rules of the road, questions on this show up in all three exams!) The exams require 75% to pass.
Our course was conducted entirely on board a four cabin, 46 foot Hunter sailboat named Class Act. I joined my fellow students, Mel and Susan from Wisconsin. Our ages ranged from 47 (me) to 64 (Mel) and experience from limited (Susan) to over 50 years (Mel). Our own boats were a 32 foot Bristol (Mel and Susan) and a 24 foot Challenger (mine).
Rick Meyer, our instructor, was a Magnum P.I. look alike with a great sense of humour and limitless patience. Considering that the Hunter was nearly twice the length of any boat I had ever sailed, Rick's patience was indeed a virtue.
The goal of this course is to teach students in the six day course how to competently sail a large cruising sailboat. Boats of this type are available for charter at several locations on Tampa Bay and throughout the Caribbean, making the course attractive to those wanting to charter. Others, such as Mel and Susan, are moving up to a 52 foot ketch and took the course to increase their ability and confidence.
Mornings consisted of lessons (and quizzes!) on sailing, safety, boat maintenance, navigation and other skills involved in cruising aboard a large charter style sailboat. Most of the information you need you will either know from your own experience or from reading the textbooks, which are well and amply illustrated. If, as Mel did, you don't read the text and rely on your experience, it will catch up to you. Mel failed his initial attempt at the cruising exam.
Students Do it All
During the course, we were expected to do all of the required work on board - including cooking and cleaning! We learned how to check and operate the various systems - the engine and generator, water tanks, heads and macerator, remove and clean the knotmeter of any growth and more. While we started by watching Rick do these jobs, we quickly graduated to performing them ourselves, first under Rick's eye and then on our own.
The instructor's goal is to make the students entirely self sufficient on the boat as quickly as possible and the training reflected this. For example, while Rick took the boat out of the crowded marina the first time, the rest of the time we did all the sailing, docking and anchoring with Rick observing. Afternoons we sailed to various locations on Tampa Bay and out to the Gulf to hone our skills. We learned sail trim, boat handling under sail and power, anchoring and the ever challenging docking.
Take it from me, handling someone else's large, very expensive sailboat in a crowded marina is a challenge. We all spent turns botching our approaches with Rick coaching us until we got it right (see 'patience' above). Best of all, no gel coat was lost during our attempts.
Prop Walk Can Be Your Friend
Our first on-water lesson was learning to maneuver the boat, including how to not only live with but exploit prop walk in reverse. With this skill, you can easily turn this large vessel in little more than its own length - which comes in handy if you screw up in a busy marina or anchorage.
Susan was our least skilled boater, a common problem with couples where the husband usually skippers the boat. On our first foray into the Gulf, she was very frightened about keeping the helm in three to four foot waves when the boat heeled over 20 degrees. Rick kept her there, pointing out that heel is a fact of life on a sailing monohull and she needed to get used to it. He actively coached her on what the boat was doing and how to handle it, until her confidence level was equal to the task. In fact, Susan's confidence grew to the point where, on our last training day out in a 15 - 20 knot following breeze and choppy seas, we were all below drinking coffee while she helmed on her own! We even caught her smiling to herself, fear totally gone, when she didn't realize we were watching.
Many boaters haven't experienced the sort of conditions which Georgian Bay boaters take for granted - shallow waters and narrow channels. One evening we sailed into St. Pete Beach via Passe Grill channel and up a canal past the Busch (Busch beer) estate to our anchorage. Depths went to under six feet - our draft was 5'6" - and we had to helm the boat past homes and yachts through this narrow channel for about a mile to reach our destination. The goal was to replicate cruising conditions in areas such as the Bahamas, which are notorious for thin water. Also, there was an excellent restaurant which we visited in the dinghy later that evening.
Our course wasn't all work and study. There was lots of time for boat talk and comparing sailing experiences. During these sessions, many a discussion was held on the what's and how to's of sailing and a great deal of knowledge was gained by all. I had brought my charts of Georgian Bay with me, along with photos and a cruising guide and everyone was fascinated by the sailing opportunities which Georgian Bay offers. Rick commented that the inside route up the Thirty Thousand Islands looked particularly challenging, and he has a 100 ton captain's license!
Out on Our Own
Graduation day at last! After taking our last test, we were permitted to take the boat for an overnight trip without Rick on board. We chose to sail south across Tampa Bay to Bahia Beach and up the shallow canal to a local marina. This was a reasonably challenging sail as it involved navigating to a pre-chosen location eight miles away, then motoring our large craft up a narrow and shallow channel to where we would overnight before returning.
Other than its short length, this trip mimics the style of sailing which many people enjoy throughout the world and which Tampa Bay and the Gulf offer many opportunities for. It is also typical of what we in Georgian Bay do regularly!
The Course in Practice!
Using the boat's library, we consulted the cruising guide, various charts and the tide tables, laying out our course based on what the next day's weather would be from the VHF. Since the route was challenging, and the boat wasn't ours, I reviewed our proposed course with Rick the next morning. While I wasn't planning on changing our destination without good reason, I did want local knowledge of the channel which Rick of course had. He advised that we stay to the south side of the canal where we would find six foot minimums at low tide. This agreed with the cruising guide as well.
Our one concern was a buoy which was drawn on the chart in pencil. Did it exist or not? We chose to allow it, since it fit in with our chosen route. If it didn't exist, we would still be sailing conservatively and safely. We headed out from our slip after lunch, with Mel at the helm. Leaving the channel, we raised sail on a port beam reach, as predicted by the weather forecast, and sailed by the compass to our mark across Tampa Bay. Reaching our chosen spot at the mystery bouy, which did exist, we confirmed our position with the GPS and visual sights. This was crucial as there was an extensive shoal along the shore and if we strayed from our course, we risked finding the bottom on a lee shore.
Shallow Water...
By mutual agreement, I took the helm here and motored the boat to our chosen anchorage. Mel stood a bow watch while Susan eagle-eyed the depthsounder and called out the depths so that I could helm in the 40 foot wide canal. I admit we all felt nervous when the gauge showed 5.8, 5.7 and then 5.6 feet but Rick had told me earlier that the depth sounder was set with six inches leeway. We were still in six feet plus, so as a good Georgian Bay Sailor, I wasn't (yet) too concerned about the depth. Besides, this was mud, not good ol' Georgian Bay granite!
How bad could going aground be? Still, I was relieved when the meter showed six, then seven and eight feet after crossing the bar. Unable to raise the marina by VHF as they were away from their office, we came into the fuel dock to seek a slip for the evening. It was at this point that I realized just how big this Hunter was. The dock girl called on her portable for the manager, asking "Have we got room for a boat - pause... - a big boat?" We laughed over this during supper and also at my surprise when I looked across the marina at Class Act and saw that she took up two thirds of the outside dock we tied up to - easily the biggest boat in this marina! Wow! I had been sailing this huge boat for a week? What a feeling of pride and accomplishment I felt at that moment.
Back at the Dock
Many graduates of this course state that it has given them a great deal more confidence in their own abilities, particularly as most sail smaller boats than those used in the course. I know that personally I would now have no concerns about taking a charter or other boat out in coastal waters or the Caribbean. That of course is the goal of this course and it is, I believe, realistically achievable by anyone with reasonable experience on his or her own boat in Georgian Bay.
Do I think that we became better sailors from this course? Susan certainly did and I probably did also, but more importantly, I learned a lot which will serve to make me a better sailor as I put these new skills into practice on Publisher's Choice next summer in Georgian Bay.
Since most of us who sail are self taught sailors, confirming that what you do on your boat is correct and learning how to improve your performance under sail with new techniques is a valuable legacy of this course. You will be a safer sailor and enjoy your time on your boat much more. There is also the cachet of having the qualifications and the logbook and diploma which come with them.
Would I recommend this course to others?
In a heartbeat! If you love to sail, it is a superb vacation experience - you get away from our Canadian winter, you learn more about your favourite pastime on a beautiful new boat, you make new friends...Best of all, it is no more expensive than a good resort vacation, which you are probably going to take anyway to get away from the winter, so why not sail instead? I plan to eventually take the passagemaking course, which is a week offshore, and includes night sailing.
Readers wanting more information on sail training, from beginner to passagemaking, can contact Offshore Sailing School at 1-800-221-4326, sail@offshore-sailing.com or www.offshore-sailing.com. Prices and course descriptions are available on the website.
