Curriculum

The Goal of our adult sailing program at CYC is to have fun learning how to sail safely.

Starting Curriculum

 Picking up the necessary safety equipment (radio, orange box) at the club; logging the boat out with estimated return time; and confirming that the required number of life jackets are aboard
 Describing the expected weather, wind, and tide direction (check the ipad in the clubhouse)
 Describing the safety issues that sailors of club boats face
 Describing how to steer when approaching an oncoming powerboat, sailboat or crew shell or overtaking another sailboat or crew shell (beginning rules of the road)
 Demonstrating proper operation of the radio and radio etiquette
 Preparing the boat for sail, attaching jib boom (Sweet Pea), and raising the gaff sail (Fiddler) and pumping the bilge
 Showing how to cleat off a line
 Identifying wind direction and estimating wind speed
 Demonstrating proper sail trim for each point of sail (close hauled, beam reach, before the wind)
 Demonstrating how to tack inside the harbor in order to avoid having to jibe
 Conducting a controlled jibe at will when outside the harbor and then demonstrating the ability to tack and jib back and forth
 Dropping sail without fouling the halyard by flaking out the halyard before lowering
 Putting the boat to bed
 Securing the mooring painter properly
 Logging out in the launch shed and returning the safety gear noting any repairs needed

Intermediate Curriculum

 Sailing off the mooring without danger to boats or occupants; backwinding the jib to get out of irons and off the mooring
 Teach beginner students to sail in the harbor with sails set at close reach and cleated (keeps boom from hitting other boats). They can still sail up and downwind with this configuration. If jibing becomes mandatory, it will be controlled as main is already in and skipper can concentrate on finding way around boats without sail trim distractions. Slow is good in harbor! This should become every student’s mantra!
 Safely sailing back and forth through the harbor allowing for wind, current, other boats, traffic and obstacles;
 Visually identifying the locations of the three channels and major navigational aids and hazards;
 Making the mooring with crew without overshooting the buoy by more than half a boat length
 Demonstrating the ability to come alongside a cushion representing a person overboard outside the harbor, stopping the boat and maintaining the boat in the proper position to retrieve the person overboard
 Describing how to handle a person overboard situation using the ladder to get that person back onboard;
 Demonstrating proper sail tension with the halyard (and gaff halyard Fiddler), downhaul, and outhaul (Sweet Pea, Syndicate & Kinnear)
 Tieing basic knots, bowline and square knot, clove hitch, reef knot or sail stop
 Describe full rules of the road

Pre – Certification Curriculum

 Describing how to identify changing weather and safely respond to adverse weather conditions, when not to sail, who to check with when in doubt;
 When in close quarters how to leave the mooring by taking the float aft and holding it until boat swings downwind.
 Demonstrating that they can sail close hauled well enough to tack in or out of the channel against significant current and into a head wind or very fluky wind, at dead low tide, under varying conditions;
 Demonstrate how to recover if the boat runs aground so that no one needs to leave the boat;
 Demonstrate landing at the outer yacht club float;
 Demonstrating how to secure the boat at the float using spring lines and fenders (snubbing/making lines fast to cleat) and then how to sail away from the club float;
 Making the mooring without crew without overshooting the buoy by more than half a boat