Friday, February 4, 2011

Free Sailing Lesson on the Water | Berkeley

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit, volunteer-run sailing club located in Berkeley gives free Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Sailing Lessons on Monday and Thursday afternoons at 1pm.

To take a sailing lesson come to the clubhouse at 1:00 PM. Lessons are taught on a first-come, first-served basis by qualified fellow Cal Sailing members.

You don’t need any gear whatsoever. We have loaner gear for everything you need…. everything from the boat to life jackets to sailing bibs to foul weather jackets – even wetsuits if you would like to get really wet. All of these are available in a variety of sizes for you to borrow while sailing.

Questions? Give Cal-Sailing member Joel a call at 510-343-5635
What Can you Learn at This Sailing Lesson? A Cal Sailing beginning sailing lesson typically provides an hour and a half on the water with one instructor and up to four students in a 15′ dinghy sailboat.
Students rig the boats (put them in the water and raise the sails). On the water, each student gets about twenty minutes at the helm (driving the boat) to practice steering, adjusting the mainsail, coming about and jibing, man overboard drill (picking up a float from the water), hiking out (using your weight to balance the sails’ force), docking, and other maneuvers. When not at the helm, the other students practice keeping watch and applying right of way rules, adjusting the jib (front sail), hiking out, and identifying wind direction and point of sail (angle of boat relative to wind). Students who pass the written, rigging, and sailing test (and contribute 2 hrs extra work) get the Junior Skipper rating that allows them to practice and take out friends and family in club boats.