Speleos
at Sea...?
I have recently started living out one of my life long passions and that is to learn how to sail.
Photo Album and Spe's Sailing 101 Defined
I have been spending my early weekend mornings on Lake Michigan in sailing school and loving every minute of it. The best quote I have heard so far would be the following: "To powerboat is to reach a destination, to sail is to experience an adventure." And this is so true when you try to just leave Monroe Harbor under sail instead of power. I have taken two courses with two separate sailing schools with very separate ideologies on two very different style boats. The first school got me a great taste of what sailing could be like and also got me immediately on the water. The second school, Sail Chicago, which I truly appreciate, taught me that faster and bigger is not always better. The second school has older boats with less convenience features such as rowing a dingy to the sail boat instead of walking a pier, sailing in/out of a harbor instead of motoring, going to dry land classes instead of jumping into your first sail lesson and requiring more instruction then four days before you go out on the water by yourself.
I started to learn how to sail on a "J/22" at the first school, which is a newer style sailboat which had an outboard motor, a pier for its docking, and auto-bilge system requiring its cockpit or sitting area to be above the water line. I then switched to Sail Chicago and thought I was downgrading to a Rhodes 19 which I thought to be a smaller boat, docked to a mooring can in the middle of the water, no outboard engine for leaving and entering the harbor, and requires manual bilge pumping because its cockpit is under the water line.
Well I was surprised that I actually enjoyed all of the differences which I thought to be downgrades but were actually what I preferred and found more enjoyable of the two boats. The 3 feet difference in length was replaced by 2 feet of a wider and another 1.5 feet of length in the cockpit. The cockpit being below the water line means that the boat doesn't tend to heel as much (tip to the side) when going fast. When sailing, you spend all your time in the cockpit and you have that much more room, you quickly forget about the 3 feet of the fore (front) deck that you lose but rarely go on. This is especially true when you are in a sailing class with three others (one instructor and two fellow classmates) and you don't have jump from one side to the other during a JIBE or TACK (45 degree change in directional path when either moving with the wind or against the wind). And finally one HUGE difference is that the boom mast is above the your head in a Rhodes 19 instead of at eye/nose level on a J/22. Anyone who takes sailing classes can appreciate this during an "accidental jibe" (one that is not planned where the boom comes swinging over the boat).
I by the way want to suggest to any and all nautical committees that we rename the term "accidental jibe" and the command "Jibe Ho" to "GUILLOTINE" or "LOUIS the 16th" which is the truest expression I can think of when that boom comes swinging over in a accidental or uncontrolled jibe. But alas, only in sailing school can you say you experience frequent amounts of accidental jibes and no one in the US Sailing Community wants to rename any terms since the sailing language is as old as the sport and a universal language that translates into all languages.
I was also thinking it would be more difficult to have to sail out of a harbor then "motor" out of a harbor. Well I was right, it is harder but it definitely teaches you how to be a better sailor when you have to tack (switching 45 degree angle directional paths to go up wind) in a narrow channel with a break wall on one side and boats on the other side. Your confidence in your sailing abilities becomes much greater once you master how to sail out of a harbor which I am glad to say I now have. I also enjoy how effortlessly a sail boat can start moving instantly and quietly once you sail away from your mooring can (big floating bobber like devices when no pier) as opposed to motoring out of a pier.
I also can't say enough good things about Sail Chicago, which is a non profit sailing club, which allows for a "drylander" like me to enjoy and learn all of these finer moments of sailing. Sail Chicago allows you to learn, and then become certified to sail their own fleet of boats for less then it costs for two to go to the dinner and a movie for two. It is also a true sailing social club where everyone who joins pitches in to help maintain the fleet to offset the costs. If you also have a passion to learn or continue sailing but are without a boat, this is a club with top notch, friendly, and dedicated people to both sailing and making sailing accessible to others on Chicago's Monroe Harbor on Lake Michigan.