Mentoring

At the Humber Sailing Club – Mentoring is our most popular program. The reason for this is that our club members enjoy sharing their knowledge and helping other members build up their on-the-water skills to ensure that our members are both the safest and most proficient group of sailors on Lake Ontario. 

 So how does it work?

  Each Tuesday and Thursday members that wish to be mentored are assigned to a boat with an experienced club skipper. The skipper acts as a Mentor to approximately 4 assigned members for the evening and, by following a predefined list of skills to be practiced, the Mentor/Skipper will coach the individuals through the various skills required to earn one of two Skipper Certifications namely - Skipper A which is applicable to taking responsibility for our Martin m244's and J24’s and the Skipper B designation which allows the member to act as skipper on any of the boats in our fleet. The amount of practice that each individual requires varies but generally after about 5 or 6 sessions members are ready to challenge their Skipper certification by doing a checkout sail with one of the Humber College sailing instructors. Don’t worry – your mentor will advise you when you are ready and they are just as anxious that you succeed in obtaining your Skipper designation as you are.  

 

How do members get involved?

 Each week between May and September the Club’s Education Committee coordinator will pre-book a cross-section of boats from our fleet for use on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for Mentoring. Club members wishing to be mentored are invited to book themselves as crew members on these boats using the regular boat booking process.

Special Skills Clinics

In addition to the twice weekly mentoring sessions outlined above there are also Special Skills Clinics that are usually scheduled on weekends. These are on-the-water hands-on practice on such topics as:

  • Handling Crew Overboard & Recovery
  • Big Boat Docking and Maneuvering Under Power
  • Spinnaker & Gennaker Flying Clinics

 These clinics are excellent ways for members to either build or refresh their skills in these areas under the direct guidance of our more experienced members.

Both regular Mentoring and the Special Skills Clinics are excellent ways to meet other club members, enjoy some excellent sailing and build up your skills and confidence.

Before you know it – you’ll be that experienced Skipper that will be guiding the newer members toward achieving their Skipper Certification.   

Oh, and you can browse pictures of our various Mentoring activities in the Humber Sailing Club Mentoring photo album.