White Sail Level I Achieved

It’s long been an ambition of mine to learn to sail, and this summer was my chance to do it.

Through a sailing school, hosted by the Regina Sailing Club, myself and 15 others achieved the Canadian Yachting Association (CYA) White Sail Level I certification.  We can now all rig a boat, tell you the major functional parts, talk like sailors (mostly) and sail in a straight line (again, mostly).

Although our course was held in conditions that have to be regarded as “rare” in Saskatchewan, we all had a blast and learned a lot from our two, wonderful, instructors Christina and Ilia.

When I say we had rare conditions, I’m referring to the almost perfect LACK of wind that managed to stifle our need for speed.  I have NEVER seen so little wind for so long.  The course was a week long and we got a bit of wind (maybe 2 knots) for part of the first day, and for a whole hour as we wrapped it up on the last day.

Not only was it light, it was shifty, first going one way and then another.  The instructors spent most of their time moving the marks (our targets to sail to and around) to various points of the compass, in order to keep us on an intended course.  No sooner would they get the course setup for a broad reach (see, I told you we learned to talk like sailors) than the wind would shift and we’d suddenly find ourselves on a straight up-wind, down-wind course.

They finally gave up saying, “You’re sailors.  You find the wind!”, and giggled at our attempts.

I’m happy to report that we all figured out how to deal with it, with varying degrees of style and grace, and our instructors assured us that learning to sail in extremely wind-challenged conditions actually made better sailors.

I’ll defer to their greater experience, but I suspect the first time I’m faced with a good 15 knots of wind that I’ll be wishing we’d had a bit more time with some actual breeze.

An advantage of having 8 becalmed sail boats and two stymied instructors stuck in the middle of a lake is that the instructors will go to almost any lengths to teach you SOMETHING, and if it can’t be sailing, it might as well be capsizing.

So, for the next hour or so we practiced tipping our boats over and bringing them back upright.  It’s easy.  Get enough weight (I have plenty, trust me) on one side and she roles over nice and neat.  To bring the beast back up, swim around to the bottom of the boat, which is now nicely vertical to the water, grab the centre board and pull.

“No sweat… now, how do I get myself back into the thing?”  A couple of minutes of pulling and kicking and using more sailor talk and I managed to get back in.  Capsizing lesson complete.

One of the traditions of sail schools held at the Regina Sailing Club is to let the students, after proving ourselves sufficiently in control of the boats, and under chaperon of the instructors, sail across the lake from Saskatchewan Beach (where the club is located) to Regina Beach.  Once there we’d  pull our boats up on the sand, have lunch and congratulate ourselves on our skills demonstrated.

Unfortunately, with less than 1 km per hour of wind blowing (can you call that blowing?) on the day chosen, we all had to suffer the indignity of being TOWED across the lake and TOWED back home again (after landing, having lunch and congratulating ourselves on our exceptional control WHILE UNDER TOW).

The Commodore of the RSC happened to show up just as we were getting underway and snapped this photo.

2010 RSC Learn To Sail class being towed to Regina Beach

How he managed to get a good, clear picture while laughing so hard I don’t know, but he did it.

He told us when we got back that he couldn’t quite figure out what was going on when he first pulled into the club yard, because all he could see were the tops of 8 masts, bobbing in unison up the lake.

Here’s another that the instructors took from their boat.

RSC 2010 Sailing Class In Tow (Side-by-Side)

And one more, on the way back to the club.

2010 RSC Learn To Sail Class in Tow (bow-to-stern)

Regardless of the lack of wind, it was a great experience and a chance to make some new friends as well as to connect with some old ones.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Thanks to all involved, and especially to the Regina Sailing Club for hosting.  It’s a great facility and everyone is very accommodating.

Oh, and I should mention, that on the Sunday following the course, the RSC hosted an open clinic.  There was lots of wind, lots of sun and great sailing.  Many of the students, who were becalmed in class, got a chance to get out and get some wind in their sails at last.

Thanks again RSC!