Why were we there and what did we learn? Why? Because it was cold outside and warm inside. What did we learn? Phil is a dab hand at cutting and shaping MDF to look like a sailing boat and a dock.
Seriously though, Phil took us through how to park your gin palace without crunching either it, the adjacent gin palace, or the jetty that you are trying to get onto, how to get out of your parking space, how to go sideways using propeller walk, and how to tell which way it walks (look over the side and watch the wake). What else? How to tie up, where to place the fenders, and how to use the lines between the boat and the jetty to ensure you come in and out with minimum effort and without crunching anything, which to let go and in which order. The analogy is trying to teach a group of 12 of us sat round the table how to park a car by describing which way to turn the steering when many of us have never sat behind the wheel.
How did he do that?
Phil made a model boat with holes drilled through it. It also had cleats for demonstrating how to tie up. Just as with the boat, the dock also had cleats. What were the holes for? Phil placed a pencil through the holes to demonstrate how the centre of rotation changes between going ahead and going astern.
Having docked and undocked successfully, Phil then took us through some rope tricks with full size rope and cleats, for example, always ensure the shorter end of a rope on a cleat is at the top so there is less rope to pull through, and demonstrating “sweating” – how to lift a weight with little effort – very useful for hoisting a main.
These mini training sessions are not hard going if you have Phil giving them – bite-size learning at its best. Thanks, Phil.
If there are any topics you would like us to cover, tell us, so we organise relevant bite-size training sessions for you.
Robert
22.3.2007