Some Q's about today's sail.

[Valiente]

I think the original poster was brave to post some fairly basic questions, and I am glad to see they were answered civilly.

It did make me realize, however, how lucky I was to absorb whatever sailing knowledge I possess on a Great Lake, in racing and heavy weather conditions (sometimes at the same time), and how the nautical terminology that is now second nature to me might be very difficult to learn on a manmade lake, not only because you are going to be one of only a few sailors, but also because the kind of sailing done on such a lake isn't going to require you to know the specific names for the parts of the boat.

Good luck to you, Perithead, and fair winds. I hope you can "move up" to sailing on larger, more challenging bodies of water, if that's your dream. Wait until you go out in 25 knots, with a reef in and put the rail under. You'll probably like that, too.

[sailingdog]

Valiente-

Are you saying that some of us would have been less than civil??? I'm horrified to hear that might be the case. Your points are well made... I know from being a self-taught sailor for the most part, that a lot of the terminology didn't come along for me until I really had need of it on bigger boats.

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Valiente-

Are you saying that some of us would have been less than civil??? I'm horrified to hear that might be the case. Your points are well made... I know from being a self-taught sailor for the most part, that a lot of the terminology didn't come along for me until I really had need of it on bigger boats.

For me, the path to learning was through club racing, where you quickly learn that "pull that" and "over there" just aren't going to work on the start line...

I actually find it liberating that every line, halyard, sheet, guy and rope (yeah, I know...) has its own name, which usually indicates its function, and that once this admittedly dense language is understood, it becomes harder to make mistakes underway.

Although the words are different (naturally) in other languages, it seems that each European language has an equally opaque set of sailing terms, opaque, that is, to non-sailors.

I've also noticed, however, that some sailing words bear a distinct similarity from language to language, which points toward the historical fact that navies and merchant fleets alike have long been made of multi-cultural crews, for whom mutual comprehension was critical to avoiding injury or death.

[tenuki]

Another really cool part of racing besides having to know the terminology, is learning to communicate with other sailors efficiently. It's a fantastic team sport, and when you are in the groove with a good crew it can't be beat.