There is no substitute for learning how to sail from an experienced captain. Of course! The second best way to learn to sail a catamaran is probably YouTube. But unless I’m all wet, I think you’re here because you asked Google. That’s great. I’m glad you’re here.
Learning how to sail a catamaran. Here’s what I did: I started reading everything I could find about sailing. I learned sailing terms, history, parts of a boat, types of wind, I called friends that had a boat and businesses that had classes. By the time I got on a boat, I had learned a lot. Here are ten creative ways of learning to sail a catamaran, or any sailboat.
When my friend decided to sell his old sailboat, I suddenly remembered the freedom that comes from sailing. Then I realized that with a catamaran, I could live anywhere. And, then I planned to build one, but that’s another story….
On Your Own
Much of what you need to learn is something you can do on your own. You can learn them before you ever set foot on a boat. Grab a book and start reading. Google the sailing terms and test yourself. By the time you get to a class, you will be ahead of the curve. Besides, it’s cheaper!
Certifications
You don’t need to be certified to be the captain of your own boat, but it doesn’t hurt. And, it’s available. There are two certifying schools for sailing: ASA and US Sailing. If you need to be certified, then you will want to end up there. It looks like both of these organizations have an app. I didn’t go this route, but it would be way easier on an app.
Take a Cruise
If you are near water, you can start by getting on a boat. Take a vacation. Take a charter. Sometimes chartering companies offer certified courses under an intensive course schedule. This means that you will have to do a lot of studying. I currently live only three blocks from the Pacific Ocean, so I walk there nearly every day.
If you are not interested in certification but improving your skills, you can always ask. Sometimes you can audit a class for less. One downside of this is that you have to share the teacher with the other students. The upside is you get to learn from the other students. This can take off some of the “private lesson” pressure.
See if you can find someone near you (I like meetup.com) who is also interested in sailing. It is so much easier when you have company. You can share tips and learn from each other. You might be able to spend time with people in the same skill level and make new friends.
Join a Crew
Many sailboats need extra hands for managing the sheets. When you do this, everyone wins. As a result, you have new sailing friends.
FindaCrew or Crewseeker are websites such where yacht owners are looking for crew. They post their needs and wannabe crews can find a boat near them.
Crewseeker.net is free to look around. However, you will have to pay a fee for the contact details.
FindaCrew.net does not charge for their service.
Many skills are needed on a boat. You can market the skills you have in exchange for the ones you want to learn. Think outside the box. Do you know how to build a website or a social media influencer? Can you help out with their web page or Instagram? Maybe you could sow new cushions for the boat. The possibilities are endless.
There are many types of crews: yacht racing, yacht deliveries, charters and many more. Moreover, you will have some actual experience.
Learn From a Friend
Online courses are not able to teach how the boat will feel and handle on the water. For this, you will need an actual ship and input from a captain. But you can start at the beginning and work your way up from there.
On water training will teach you when the boat is overpowered. Therefore, when it is time to put in a reef. And, how close to the wind you can sail in that particular boat.
Learning from a friend can be done in several ways. Join a friend that is going out sailing. This will give you a lot of useful experience on the actual management of the boat. You can learn everything from docking to putting up sails. Also, immerse yourself in sailing language. Socialize with your sailing friend and other sailors.
Most people enjoy talking about a subject they love. With learning how to sail, it’s usually a love or hate kind of thing. People either do it their entire life or they quit shortly after starting. Offer to do something in return, like help out on the boat. Offer to crew or pay for snacks so it’s a win-win.
Learning How to Sail
Google your learning how to sail questions and take notes. Then ask more questions. This is where I usually start. It is an immersion process that is self-directed. As a result, you can learn at your own pace. This leads to a better understanding of current information. Because of this, you can ask more intelligent questions when you get the chance.
Play Sailing Apps
Playing learning how to sail games is not as far-fetched as it would appear. Many skills are needed and the spaced repetition is extremely useful for leaning some things, like those nautical terms! Ropes are ‘sheets’ and sails need ‘reefs’. Yikes!
Learning how to sail and having fun at the same time helps absorb new skills. Why not make it fun.
Sailing games and apps can give you many tools you need. The games are similar to online courses but are way more interactive, and the skills are taught subconsciously by visual and emotional inputs.
Online Courses
One of the best ways to acquire a new skill is online courses. This really good for things you need to memorize. You can test yourself at regular intervals on your smartphone and later on your laptop. For example, learning the parts of a boat, or the kinds of wind, or processes.
The upside of doing it this way is that you do this on your own terms and you set your own pace. The downside is that it may feel a little impersonal. You may forget the schedule or lose interest. At their best, for some things, online courses are very efficient. Besides, it’s free.
The ideal online class in interactive, which can be better than just reading a book. Apps can also apply “gaming theory” to boost your motivation to stay with it. Some apps are free. But even a small fee would be worth it to keep you motivated. Well designed online courses are nearly ideal for learning rules and necessary names.
Charter a Boat to Learn Sailing
An enjoyable way to learn, that is more relaxed than most formal classes, rent a sailboat from a captain and then learn everything you can while sailing around some pretty islands. If you don’t have your own boat yet, this is second best.
This is similar to the “cruise and learn” concept above. The difference is that there are no fixed classes. This means that you will not get certified. However, you might have to deal with less of an instructor compared to regular sailing schools.
The beautiful part of this concept is the simplicity of it. You only do whatever it is that you want to do. The curriculum is all yours, and you can ask whatever questions and practice whatever maneuver you like.
And you have more freedom. When you get tired, you switch over to vacation mode. The captain takes you where you want to go.
You may be surprised how much knowledge is out there and how willing people are to share that knowledge with you.
Try Teaching Sailing
I know this sounds counter-intuitive. Hear me out. There is nothing like setting a goal to motivate the learning. Teaching is learning. People who thought they understood something suddenly find they need to know more, but this forces the learning to a deeper level. When you do this, you will have a much deeper understanding.
You might never have great teachers if you wait until they become an expert. Once you put yourself on the track to becoming an instructor, your dedication and attention to detail will grow. Answering the questions from students will spur your own learning.
So if you have the basics skills figured out and you are serious about learning all you can, becoming a teacher or instructor may be the way to go!
You can also be a teacher’s assistant, prepare lessons, help rig the boats, and answer the questions where you know the answers. And when you don’t know the answer, you ask the teacher, helping yourself and your student learn something new at the same time.
Learn to Sail by Going Racing
Competition often makes people better, it can push your skills to the next level, and you can find interested people all around you. There is nothing like doing to learn fast. If there is an urgency, you will make mistakes, and you will learn!
Racing is not the best way to enter any sport at first. Once you get an understanding of the basics, competition and racing will supercharge your learning curve. The adrenaline and laughs will also connect emotions and cognitive functions, making for powerful emotional memories that are hard to forget.
Since racing is usually a safe environment, it creates a very safe place to try new stuff and see where your limits are. So when you end up in your first storm, you will already be able to handle the pressure. Racing only has a sharp focus. This simplifies the learning curve and eliminates everything that is not directly contributing to this goal. This leads to a strong focus on the learning.
Joining a race team will make your development structured, on your training days, every session will focus on one skill set that you need to improve upon. You will also be included in a community of like-minded people, which is a great way to find energy and motivation to keep going when it gets hard.
Old-Fashioned Lessons
As I mentioned above, there are two main organizations in the USA sailing lesson market: ASA and US Sailing. Both offer certification classes to improve your sailing. Personally, old fashioned lessons just doesn’t excite me, but if they are available for you, they may be just what you need.
You could spend a vacation on an intensive course. This type of training will be very hands-on and very high-paced, it usually requires nothing of you before you show up, but demands much of you once you join the class.
Often these courses stretch from 1-2 weeks and lead to some kind of certification. That probably is optional for most of us. We just want to be able to pilot our own catamaran without problems.
Intense courses are usually great at building a solid basis of knowledge. Make sure you practice your new skills before the course is over. I usually pick a buddy from the class who I can partner with outside of class. We can test each other by asking questions. If you or your buddy has a boat, that’s even better. You can study on the boat.
Like many other things, something that can be gained in a short time can also be lost in a short time. As a result, you will have learned from a reliable source.
Conclusions
I hope this article helped you. If you are anything like me, you will probably be a little overwhelmed by all the new terms to learn and the many types of boats and all the different rules. No worries. Take it slowly and all will be right.
Please check out the other articles here. Feel free to look at my YouTube channel, and please ask questions! I love answering questions. You are never the first one to ask, so go for it! If Google doesn’t know the answer, then I definitely want to find the answer for you.
If there is something I can answer or you need to know more, please leave me feedback and I can reply to you.
Sources:
https://asa.com/certifications/