Fishing Frenzy

Learn to sail with confidence when you know the safe, easy way to put sailboat winches to work. These mechanical devices save you time and effort and help you trim sails for power and speed. Read on to learn how to put these Chicago sailing workhorses to work aboard your sailboat.

Why sailing is such a popular sport, hobby and as travel tours or trips is found deep down in our core, our very history. Centuries ago the human race strived to find new ways to travel to distant lands and to master the oceans. Now today we have so many forms of transportation that we, as a race have since forgotten the once important skill of cruising.

Now in modern days, all sorts of sailors, cruisers, and seafarers are taking to the seas and waterways for cruising trips to explore their own cities or towns, for events such as corporate team building as well as longer cruising trips. Maybe island hopping the Greek Islands or around the Galapagos Islands.

Knowing how the sheets work is an important skill here. For example, if you were cruising upwind you would use a zig-zag motion called tacking to use the wind to your advantage as much as possible. Generally, this works better and is much easier on a crewed sailboat and working as a team.

Finding the right sailboats balance known as keeping it trim is yet another skill to master when learning these techniques and skills. Basically, this is keeping the vessel upright on an even keel which in turn reduces any drag caused by the winds. Trimming the sheets is the skill of mastering the actual sail-sheets. Trimming the sheets in and out with the purpose of capturing the wind to propel the boat is what this skill is all about. If your sheet is flapping out of control, you would need to tighten the trim to create smooth conditions.

Another skill to learn on the actual sails of the boat, is knowing when you should reduce or increase the sail. If you wanted to slow down, for example, you would reduce the sail so that you are not picking up as much wind. The above are the general skills required to sail however learning to sail the many different sail boat types requires various skills.

For example cruising a tall ship with a crew of say over 20 will be a completely different set of skills to a two-manned sail sail-boat. Some of these different sail boat types include sharpie, skiff, cruising dinghy, clipper ships, and catamarans. Each has their own unique set of skills although all follow the above general rules and methods of cruising.

As far as adventures are concerned, ones that entail cruising are the most remembered and often times passed from generation to generation as a bed time story or that of encouragement. Cruising has come a long way from the early times when people used the activity mainly for survival. Nowadays, it is more of a recreational activity that is truly fun and interesting to learn. Take it easy and acquire some cruising skills and look forward to another new and unforgettable adventure.