Andy wrote:
Jack Dale wrote:

On 27 Dec 2005 15:12:16 -0800, "Andy"
wrote:


Why do you say we were very lucky? What exactly does one need a lot of
experience with before going coastal cruising that can't be learned

from books?

Docking under power and sail


I mentioned earlier in this thread that docking is one of the things I
think is best learned from an instructor.


MOB (upwind and downwind) and under power


The basic principles of MOB are easily learned from a book and then you
can practice on your own by throwing a cushion over and getting it back
over and over. A live instructor is not necessary.


Reefing


Easy to learn from a book and practice on your own. I think my
instructor showed us once, the seller of our boat showed us once at the
dock how he had things rigged up, we read up on it, and then we
practiced a few times.


Gennaker and spinnaker handling and trim


You don't need a gennaker or a spinnaker to cruise. I figured out how
to use the cruising spinnaker that came with my boat from a 5 minute
explanation from the seller and some reading.


Anchoring with two anchors


Pretty straightforward to learn from a book.


Anchoring stern-to shore / dock


Ditto.


Practical application of Colregs


Easy to learn from a book.


Getting meaningful weather forecasts


I learned this from reading books and info on the internet.


Being able to read clouds, wind directions and barometers to do your
own forecasting


This is covered well in books.


Passage planning


Covered well in books.


The actual sailing part of cruising is pretty simple and
straightfoward. While it could easily take a lifetime to master the art
of sailing for maximum speed, for purposes of cruising you just need to
know how to roughly trim the sails.

Eventually you will want to learn sail trim to go faster as well as
save wear and tear on your sails.


I learned the finer points of sail trim from books and experimenting.
No particular reason to pay an instructor other than to teach you the
basic principles.


Navigation, especially with a GPS, is pretty straightforward and can be
learned from books.

I would suggest that navigation is not that straightforward. I teach
both traditional navigation and elctronic navigation (but not
celestial). Our courses run 8 to 10 weeks in length.


I don't see any advantage to learning navigation from a teacher as
compared to learning from a book.

I think an instructor is very useful for learning basic helmsmanship,
sail trim, rules of the road, and docking, say 15 to 24 hours worth of
time on the water. After that it is possible for an intelligent and
motivated person to teach themselves from books.

Andy

Funny, most books advise a course. You didn't learn that.

Gaz