I
want to start...
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Video! Take
a ride around our Obstacle Course. A class does a lap around,
performing the four major sailing maneuvers. Other telling clips
follow. (File is 2.9 MB, 1'43".
Opens with Windows Media Player and Real Player. To download either
see our video page.)
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| At New York Sailing Center, we don't just
put you in a classroom for awhile (and put you to sleep), and then put
you on a boat and sail around for awhile. We keep things structured,
effective and entertaining! (Of
course, there are the occasional breaks to simply absorb and enjoy.)
Our teaching aids are unmatched in the
region, if not the industry in general. Our two best examples are
our exclusive Obstacle Coursesm
and our gigantic Model Sloop.
The Obstacle Coursesm is an on-water teaching
and practice aid found at no other school. Some other schools occasionally
employ a model sloop, but we have yet to see any others that are large
enough, or with real sails and marine hardware - as ours has. |
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Why is this woman smiling? We'll show you
shortly...
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Whether it's light winds
or a blow, nothing is more
effective and fun than our
Obstacle Course.sm
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| We adapted this concept
from skiing decades ago: set some markers in the water and have the students
sail around from time to time during the course to test and sharpen their
skills.
Nothing teaches you more
quickly or effectively, and it's fun as well.
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Rick Tucker, one of our instructors.
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... she's smiling because she just singlehanded
around our Obstacle Course! You can too.
Essential skills don’t rub off on you
by just sailing around. Amazingly, however, we seem to be the only
program in the region actually using this method,* which is now
even advocated by the American Sailing Association. Of course, our
location lends itself to this practice. Most other schools would
have a hard time trying to set marker buoys each day without running afoul
of commercial traffic or their local harbor police! |
While this shot was from a private lesson, all our Start Sailing
courses include singlehanding, where everyone keeps out of the way while
you sail the boat.
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| Sailing in a straight line doesn't accomplish
much at all. But each turn around our Obstacle Coursesm
requires students to perform at least one of each basic manuever in sailing:
heading up, bearing away, tacking & jibing. Almost more importantly,
it makes them do it "now." Each students sails to buoy A, has to
perform some maneuver, then on to B where a different maneuver is required,
and so on.
Sailing around the course also gives students
strong confidence in passing close to other objects, which is critical
to maneuvering around docks, crowded anchorages, and on busy summer days
with lots of boat traffic. And while no sailing school is deliberately
trying to cheat you by allowing you to simply sail in a straight line,
it's just too easy to fall into that trap without a regimen.
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