Help! How to teach someone to maintain heading

[nauticalrich]

Let me tell you what''s worked for me: NOTHING!
What I noticed about my wife is that she drifts off looking at something else. If she looks at something to the right she turns the wheel to the right. Then wonders why the sails are flapping or we tacked.
She has her masters degree but boy oh boy, you put something in her hands and she doesn''t know what to do with it. Well almost.

However, we gave up yelling. I sail the boat on a close reach and on a run. She gets the other positions of which she can handle better. Then she feels better about herself.
Will never give up trying though. Stay calm and if that doesn''t work, throw her over the side.

[nauticalrich]

Let me tell you what''s worked for me: NOTHING!
What I noticed about my wife is that she drifts off looking at something else. If she looks at something to the right she turns the wheel to the right. Then wonders why the sails are flapping or we tacked.
She has her masters degree but boy oh boy, you put something in her hands and she doesn''t know what to do with it. Well almost.

However, we gave up yelling. I sail the boat on a close reach and on a run. She gets the other positions of which she can handle better. Then she feels better about herself.
Will never give up trying though. Stay calm and if that doesn''t work, throw her over the side. aarrrgh

[RichH]

Suggest that you let you let your wife (with a few of her friends) take the boat out on a relatively calm day ... all by herself. But then you risk being left on the shore a lot if this ''cures'' her.

[Sailormon6]

Another method I often use with a novice is to get the boat on its heading, and turn the tiller over to the novice and tell him/her to keep the tiller centered. Then, while I am raising the sails, I simply tell them to "push the tiller away from you a little," or "pull the tiller toward you a little." In effect, I am steering the boat, but the novice is acting as my hands. I''ve never seen a novice who couldn''t follow instructions, if the instructions are given in terms the novice can understand.