Mentoring Program
Mentoring Program - Outline
Welcome to the mentoring program! Our aim is to provide members with a regular
platform for improving your sailing skills, and with particular reference to attaining firstly,
the Skipper A proficiency level, which allows you to skipper the Martins and J24s, and then
the Skipper B level, which will prepare you for skippering all other boats in the HSC fleet.
Mentoring takes place on every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6 pm until dusk, from
May 6, 2008 until August 28, 2008. Members should sign up in advance using the boat
booking system, as turnout is generally high.
Here is how you can get the most out of your sailing experience at Humber.
Humber Sailing Club Humber Sailing School
Crewing CYA Basic Cruising Standard
Mentoring
General
Docking
Points of sail
Crew overboard
Heavy weather
VHF license
Toronto Harbour License
Skipper A checkout (Martins, J24s)
Crew management
Systems management
Emergency procedures
CYA Intermediate
Coastal Navigation
Skipper B checkout (Big Boats) CYA Advanced
Skipper C checkout (Night sailing)
Related bulletins:
Introduction to Skipper A checkouts
Skipper A checkout sheet (members only)
Coles Notes for Skipper A checkouts (members only)
From Skipper A to Skipper B
Coles Notes for Skipper B checkouts (members only)
Skipper B checkout sheet (members only)
Introduction to Skipper A Checkout
By Ian Savidge & Ken Gillstrom
The attached “Coles Notes” are designed to help aspiring
Skipper A candidates attain the requirements for
qualifying as A Skippers.
We believe that the A Skipper level is probably the most
important building block in your sailing experience with
Humber Sailing Club, because your approach to safe
sailing could have a profound influence on the other club
members around you.
If you are a Skipper A candidate, here are some guidelines:
1) Make sure you can demonstrate an excellent awareness for safety and weather-
related issues. If you have not read our articles on Developing a Sense of Safety, and
Developing a Sense of Weather in the Beam Reach News, now is the time to do so,
because these are the kind of issues that we are talking about.
2) Make sure you can demonstrate excellent crew-overboard maneuver and retrieval
techniques. Practice hitting a beam-reach effortlessly from any point of sail, because that
is the fundamental building block for the COB return maneuver. Also, if you have not
taken in one of our COB retrieval clinics, ask one of our mentors to demonstrate the Martin
main-sheet block and tackle retrieval technique to you.
3) Use the mentoring program to improve your sailing skills. Work through the Skipper
A check-list, and look for positive feedback from your mentors. Do not be discouraged if
you are told to do some more practice, because lives could depend on your skills.
Finally, we will not be passing any A Skippers for the sake of numbers – if you pass, it will
be because you deserve to, and because we feel that your approach to skipperdom will help
promote safe sailing skills among your fellow crewmembers.
GOOD LUCK!
From Skipper A to Skipper B
By Ian Savidge and Ron Hosking
After you have passed your skipper A checkout, what is
left to learn before you are ready to skipper a big boat?
We would say three things – crew management, systems
management and emergency procedures.
Crew management is all about communication – if you are behind the wheel, you need to
be able to direct your crew clearly, and describe to each crew-member what you need him
or her to do, before your next maneuver. So plan all your maneuvers well in advance, and
give yourself enough time to make sure that every crew-member understands what they are
required to do, before you have to perform the maneuver. A useful tip – get in the habit of
addressing your crew by name, so that if they are facing forward, they don’t have to turn
around and read your lips. And if you have a less experienced crew-member on board, take
extra time to explain what you want them to do.
Also, if you anticipate heavy weather, check with the crew before you leave that they are
familiar with that boat and know where the reefing lines are, and go through with them the
procedures for reefing and heaving-to.
Systems management is about using the labour-saving devices that the boat comes
equipped with. In Martins, if your timing is good, you can sheet in the sails without ever
having to use the winches – on the bigger boats, not using the winches is an unnecessary
expenditure of effort, unless you regard it as an alternative form of cross-training from the
gym. So spare your crew, and give them time to set up their winches to get the sails across.
Finally, make sure you can anticipate virtually any emergency situation. Sinking is not
good in any boat, but being five miles offshore, and having 100 gallons of water a minute
coming through a burst through-hull fitting would be particularly unnerving. So before you
get tested on emergency procedures for your Skipper B check-out, make sure that you have
checked where all the through-hull fittings on your boat are located, and that you know
where the wooden plugs are on board.
Here are some scenarios you may be asked to handle:
You have just left the dock against a strong wind, and your engine quits twenty
meters away from the dock.
Suggested action: Drop anchor – (check anchor line is free before leaving dock).
Alternative: raise the sails.
A crew member goes below, and calls out that water is pouring from the head.
Suggested action: Start pumping with bilge pump, check that through-hull in head is
not in open position. Also, check to ensure the toilet is on ‘dry bowl’.
The floor-boards in the cabin are under water.
Suggested action: Start bilge pump, check through-hull fittings (make sure you
know location of all through-hull fittings). Also, check the head, as above.
Water appears to be flooding in from the engine compartment.
Suggested action: If you checked the through-hull fittings before leaving, and they
looked sound, you could go directly and check a) the engine water intake, and b) the
stuffing-box around the propeller shaft.
You successfully return to a COB, but the person is too weak to help
him/herself back on board.
Suggested action: Attach COB to boat, lower sail, attach mainsail halyard to COB
and winch in.
You are out sailing, and your forestay/ shroud/ backstay snaps.
Suggested Action: Immediately go onto opposite point of sail, lower sail, use motor.
You may be able to attach the halyard to the bow, etc., to help support the mast.
The wheel suddenly goes loose, and you cannot steer.
Suggested action: Take out and use emergency tiller. (Tiller cover may need prying
open with screwdriver). In the interim, trim the sails to help steer the boat (harden
the mainsail to head up, harden the jib to bear away).
The tiller breaks on a Martin, J24.
Suggested action: Rig a jury tiller, trim the sails as above.
Your engine stalls, and you cannot restart the engine, as your battery is getting
low.
Suggested action: Use decompression lever on engine to re-start. Use crank, if
necessary, to assist.
The furling mechanism on your headsail jams, and you cannot furl the headsail.
Suggested action: Lower headsail halyard and remove sail.
The fog comes down, and you do not know which is the way home.
Suggested action: Always know where you are in relation to the club. Take a
bearing before fog envelops you. Then, set up watch-and-listen procedures. Check
your GPS. Heave to? Lower your sails? Drop anchor?
You see a squall coming, and realize that you cannot get out of the way.
Suggested action: Lower your sails, tie them down, tie down all loose articles, and
start engine. Head back out to lake, keep yourself and one crew on deck, the rest
below. Put on harnesses? Head into storm, or run before it on bare poles.
Lightning is getting very close, and you want to minimize the exposure to
yourself and crew.
Suggested action: Lower sails, start engine, lash down tiller or wheel, head out to
lake, get everyone below. Do not touch metal.
And as many other diabolical situations as our members can come up with!
So come prepared, because the big difference between A and B skippers is that for the
latter, you are most likely to be a lot further from home when faced with an emergency
situation than on a smaller boat. And finally, remember to be polite to your crew – a
barking skipper belongs in the dog-house, and not on board a boat!
Last revised on August 20, 2010. vcm
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