Kids should sail because it’s fun, not because it’s homework
February 15, 2015 § Leave a comment
If you haven’t heard, US Sailing is going all-in on STEM. The plan is to integrate school subjects with sailing lessons in a program that some claim will revolutionize the teaching of sailing and attract gobs more kids to it. Sailing centers and clubs around the country are jumping on the bandwagon. Sailing coaches and club directors are pitching school boards to deliver kids to the docks, where sailing instructors will do the teaching. Imagine, one day, the guy who codes your kid’s shoot-em-up computer game will have been trained on an Optimist pram. Tillers may soon have joysticks.
I can’t imagine a quicker way of making sailing—which I think ranks right up there with the most fun things ever—less fun than polluting it with algebra. Read more in Sailing Magazine.
Sail trim class presentations
February 11, 2015 § Leave a comment
It’s always fun, and a sign that spring will eventually arrive, to share sail-trim concepts with the hopeful and studious folks at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center. Here are the presentations from this year’s classes. Download and share as you wish.
Upwind Sail Trim; Mains, Jibs and Rigs
Downwind Sail Trim: Spinnakers, Speed and Polar Diagrams
And here’s the cool Wind Tunnel App that makes classroom conversation a tad more tolerable.
Let’s do this on the water when the ice breaks.
-N
