New Experiences through Scouting

Dinghy Sailing

Hi, my name is Owen I am in the scouts. I have been sailing twice and it has been great fun. If you do sailing training then you do it through the Royal Yacht Association, known as RYA.  You need to get RYA stage 2 to qualify for the Scout Dinghy Sailing Badge.

I did both of my sailing days in Ellerton Park in Richmond. The first time I did sailing I went in a sailing boat called an Omega which needs more than one person to crew, from doing this I nearly completed my RYA stage 1. 

On my second day I went in a Topper which is a one man sailing boat.   When I went in the Topper I finished my stage 1 and nearly finished my stage 2.

This is a topper single person boat

In stage 1 there are 21 tasks to complete and stage 2 there are 25 to do.  You have to do lot of other things in sailing apart from just the sailing itself like the rigging, the safety check and launching and recovering the boat.

Here are a few of the tasks:

The Boat: you need to know the names for the parts of a boat including helm, stern, boom, sail, rudder, centre board and mast

Knots: you need several types of knots in sailing, some are just used with boats and boat sports like cleating a halyard others  like a figure of eight knot  are just in all sorts of things besides sailing including climbing and caving.

Paddle: you have to show you can paddle or row, in case sail breaks or is damaged.

Rigging: can assist with rigging a boat, rigging means getting a boat ready to go on the water.

Safety:  Of course you have to stay safe and must wear a buoyancy aid.  A wet suit is handy but not essential.  When you do sail training there are also life boats that go round as well they give you instructions and they help if you need it.

Capsize: Part of the boat safety for stage 2 of the training is to capsize and right the boat.  Once you capsize you  have to go round to the bottom of the boat (it will be on its side) without letting go of the boat.  When you get to the centre board, reach and grab it then push down on it so that the boat starts to tip back the right way up.  It is difficult to hoist yourself out of the water to get enough weight onto the centreboard to tip the boat.  But once you get the sail up from the water surface the boat tips easily. Once the boat is upright you need to be able to reach inside from this position and grab on to a leg strap and pull yourself in.  Once you are in you can start sailing again, this is for a single handed boat like a topper .  

 Sailing

You need to sail the boat around a simple triangle course, to sail you need wind in the sail but of course the wind does not blow in a triangle shape!  So there are two techniques you learn in the first stage of RYA.

Tacking: this involves going in a zigzag along the water, getting the wind to the port and then the starboard, you do this when the wind is coming from in front of the boat.  The sail stays fairly central just moving a little to the left and right as you change direction.

Jibing: You do this with the wind behind you and during this movement the boom of the sail will swing all the way from one side to another.  You have to be ready or it might hit you!