Here is your first lesson........

· The little front sail is the JIB

· The big sail is the MAIN SAIL

· The ropes that you hold the sails with are the SHEETS

· The BOW is the front the STERN is the rear

· The boat has no keel it has a CENTERBOARD, this is pulled up or let down, the boat can float in 2" of water with the CENTERBOARD up.

· The wood or plastic stiffeners in the main sail are called BATTENS. I will yell if you break them!

· The RUDDER steers the boat and is controlled by the TILLER handle. Push it right go left!

· The BOOM is at the bottom of the mainsail it holds the sail straight. BOOM is the sound it makes when it hits your head.

· CLEAT is where you tie a sheet, a JAM CLEAT holds the sheet after you set it, automatically.

· LUFF is when the sails flap around because the boat is sailing to close to the wind.

· JIBE is when the boom moves from one side of the boat to the other with the wind direction passing behind the boat.

· TACK is when the wind direction passes in front of the boat and the sails move to the other side.

· A TACK or JIBE is a controlled move the captain performs with the crew. The captain gives the command COMING ABOUT then yells READY followed by ABOUT, when the command ABOUT is given the sheets are let go slack and the boat passes through the eye of the wind. Then the captain says pull in your sheets. A good crew member knows how hard to pull on the sheets and will make sure the sheets are free to move while the boat is turning. A stuck jib sheet during this maneuver can cause the boat not to turn and maybe disaster! The JIBE command is JIBE followed by HO! Watch your head, sometimes the boat JIBES unintentionally, the same command is yelled quickly, duck your head!!!!! Generally when the boat is completing a change of direction the crew is switching sides of the boat to sit on.

· When the wind catches the sails from the side we are sailing CLOSE HAUL, the boat will HEEL or lean over some, we move our bodies to the high side of the boat.

· PORT is the left side and STARBOARD is the right side.

· If we are on the STARBOARD TACK we have the wind coming over our right side and we have the right away over a boat on a PORT TACK.

· We have the RIGHT AWAY over any motor boat too, do we push our luck.......nope!

· Only a few more, yippie this seems like work!

· A RED NUN? The bottle of champagne we break over the bow of the boat before we launch? I guess I am getting punchy, it is a buoy a street sign in the water. Others are CANS, MID CHANNEL MARKERS and more. We will chart them on our map of the sea!

· MAN OVERBOARD! The first thing we do is throw a life jacket to the person, since we have no brakes we must Tack or Jibe around and pull up to the person so we can sail into the wind and stop next to them. This is harder than it sounds, get the life jacket over right away, I don't swim that well!!!!!

· Hey here is one I forgot, the HALYARDS are the lines that pull up the sails!!!

A little history on the boat. It is made by O'Day and called their Javelin series, that's why there is a big "J" on the sails. I think it was built in 1972, I bought it in 1985 I think again. It's class is a sloop. It is small only 15 feet long. Why don't I get a bigger one? It is like a sports car, cool. As I said it can float as long as there is water, I pull it up on the beach at fire island. The big boats all anchor out, we will make them jealous! I have been sailing since I was small with my dad and family. I have only entered one race and we one first place in our class. ( At the time we were the only one in our class, the first fiberglass sailboat, my dads) I have very fond memories of sailing, may all our trips be memorable for you.

Capt. Rich