Learning To Sail
Many people learn to sail at accredited sailing schools, or through their local sailing club. Many books and training DVDs are also available, allowing the novice sailor to reinforce the learning in their own time.
Boats that many children learn to sail in are the Optimist, Topper and the Laser Funboat and Picos. The Wayfarer was the standard teaching boats for Adult schemes, however many centres have moved onto more modern 'Centre-Main' boats such as the Laser Stratos and Topaz Omega. In Australia the main boats children learn in are Sabot, Manly Junior, Heron Flying Eleven with the Optimist becoming more popular. Adults often learn in Spirals or Lasers or by crewing in NS14s or Tasars
In the UK, the Royal Yachting Association is the governing body of all dinghy sailing qualifications, offering Youth Stage 1 through 4 certificates, and Adult Level 1 and 2 certificates. More and more boat hire companies ask to see certificates before they will allow you to hire out a boat. In Australia Yachting Australia fulfils a similar role. On yachts in Australia a Competent Crew course is usually the first formal learn to sail course.
Read more about this topic: Dinghy Sailing
Famous quotes containing the words learning to, learning and/or sail:
“I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on,—s’pose you’d a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I’d feel bad—I’d feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)