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Teaching a loved one to sail
OK, I admit I am unable to teach someone. Sometimes you explain it
several times and they dont get it. What do you do? Years ago, I taught College Physics and my students seemed to think I was good but that is all abstractions. Teaching a skill is different. I have never been able to teach my wife to steer a canoe either. I cannot explain how to do it, I just do it. Its like explaining how to ride a bike. Some people really want personal instruction and others just want to be pointed in the right direction and let them go. My son is like my wife, he craves instruction to the nth degree and he makes me crazy. My 10 yr old daughter just wants some general directions and she'll figure out the rest. Of course, my little daughter drives my wife crazy. Tacking in the channel was like that. How do I tell her "Steer up when you feel power coming on from the wind and then down a little when it goes away". "When you tack, you gotta feel when the wind begins to catch the jib to help push the bow around in a tight tacking situation" There is a lotta "feel" that goes into this that I cannot explain. |
Teaching a loved one to sail
wrote in message oups.com... OK, I admit I am unable to teach someone. Sometimes you explain it several times and they dont get it. What do you do? Years ago, I taught College Physics and my students seemed to think I was good but that is all abstractions. Teaching a skill is different. I have never been able to teach my wife to steer a canoe either. I cannot explain how to do it, I just do it. Its like explaining how to ride a bike. Some people really want personal instruction and others just want to be pointed in the right direction and let them go. My son is like my wife, he craves instruction to the nth degree and he makes me crazy. My 10 yr old daughter just wants some general directions and she'll figure out the rest. Of course, my little daughter drives my wife crazy. Tacking in the channel was like that. How do I tell her "Steer up when you feel power coming on from the wind and then down a little when it goes away". "When you tack, you gotta feel when the wind begins to catch the jib to help push the bow around in a tight tacking situation" There is a lotta "feel" that goes into this that I cannot explain. A proper education instills self learning. You can teach others, but you certainly can't think for them. It is up to them to chose to learn, to do that they must chose to think. If they can't think they can only be trained like animals. |
Teaching a loved one to sail
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Teaching a loved one to sail
Maybe she's just genetically predispositioned to be a stinkpotter. Worse things have happened. :-) |
Teaching a loved one to sail
Chuck Gould wrote: Maybe she's just genetically predispositioned to be a stinkpotter. Worse things have happened. :-) We will soon know as I have finished my Tolman Skiff and plan to launch it this coming Saturday. Maybe that will be "her" boat. She doesnt allow me to use her car (the good one in the family) as I would and I go beserk if she tries to clean my old Nissan truck with 302,000 miles on it. |
Teaching a loved one to sail
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message ups.com... Maybe she's just genetically predispositioned to be a stinkpotter. Worse things have happened. :-) In my experience, most women are. Not all .... but most. Something about the ability to go home when you want ... not when you get there. I wanted to get a sailboat a few years ago. Vetoed. Eisboch |
Teaching a loved one to sail
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Teaching a loved one to sail
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Teaching a loved one to sail
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:59:04 -0500, DSK wrote: That said, the best answer is really to let somebody else teach your wife to sail. All those words for that one gem of wisdom. One of the best things I did when we were in the process of buying a sailboat was to talk to my sister who recommended that I take a course in sailing without my husband. I did that - actually I took 3 courses. One in a Rainbow 23 foot with no engine, one in a Newport 30 (I think), and the third one was a weekend with my husband on a Morgan 45. In the first (beginner) course, they had a short class work session, and then we went out in the boats and we each took a turn steering and sail handling until everyone had mastered each of the skills that were presented in each lesson. You could do this in 4 sessions - morning and afternoon Sat and Sunday, but I picked to do it in the morning of 4 successive weekends so I could process the information between each lesson. BTW I was already completely comfortable in the water, as in swimming and I can canoe and row. My biggest problem was learning to reverse think when I was using a tiller. I still can't do that, and if I try, I then can't use a wheel either for awhile. There are some skills that just aren't worth it to me to learn and that is one of them. Another one is a racing flip turn and also any kind of diving (as in diving off a diving board - I love SCUBA and snorkeling, but I just am not coordinated enough to reliably go into the water head first when I start out standing up on my feet) |
Teaching a loved one to sail
OK, I admit I am unable to teach someone. Sometimes you explain it
several times and they dont get it. What do you do? Years ago, I taught College Physics and my students seemed to think I was good but that is all abstractions. Teaching a skill is different. I have never been able to teach my wife to steer a canoe either. I cannot explain how to do it, I just do it. Its like explaining how to ride a bike. Some people really want personal instruction and others just want to be pointed in the right direction and let them go. My son is like my wife, he craves instruction to the nth degree and he makes me crazy. My 10 yr old daughter just wants some general directions and she'll figure out the rest. Of course, my little daughter drives my wife crazy. Tacking in the channel was like that. How do I tell her "Steer up when you feel power coming on from the wind and then down a little when it goes away". "When you tack, you gotta feel when the wind begins to catch the jib to help push the bow around in a tight tacking situation" There is a lotta "feel" that goes into this that I cannot explain. A lot of good advice has been givien here but I think that the answer to how you teach someone to get the feeling of the thing has not really been adressed fully. Admittedly I have never taught someone to sail, as I am just learning myself, but I do have a lot of experience in another area that is perhaps more difficult. I am a martial artist in several styles and the task of learning/ teaching someone, how to feel your body move and react to itself is very difficult. How do you tell somone what it feels like from your point of view to push or hold some thing. The thing that I have always felt worked best was to put their hand between mine and the target, going lightly. If i am pushing they can feel how much force goes into them and what I am reading that comes out of the object. I would suggest putting her hand on the tiller, when it comes time for that, and holding her hand over the top. She can feel when you move and why, she can feel how hard you hold it and when you shift directions. This might also have some benefit in the patience and understanding arena as she might feel better holding hands and being close to you than she would standing across the deck with you shouting orders. In my experience, most women like holding hands. If she doesn't learn to sail at least you had fun. -- Message posted via BoatKB.com http://www.boatkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/boats/200611/1 |
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