About Us
Without giving two much away, this site is run by two people passionate about sailing, one a qualified dinghy instructor, and one a web developer and developing sailor. We can't guarantee the frequency of updates, but hopefully they'll be worth it when they do come along.
Why?
The big question - why? There seems to be a pitifully small number of websites dedicated to teaching sailing these days. The RYA is making great leaps forward bringing sailing back to a popular sport (despite the efforts of the ISAF and the Olympic Committee!), particularly with Onboard, but there is still a severe lack of good and accessible sailing information around!
By accessible we mean easy to read! There are loads of sailing books around, but many of them are aimed at the older sailor, or are very dry material (difficult to understand). We want to get past all that, sail through all the nautical terms, and present it in a format that's easy to understand and learn.
This doesn't mean that we're going to limit ourselves to just the basic "learn to sail" articles. We're starting with those - because they're the local starting point for learning to sail. However in time, we'll move onto more advanced techniques, how to get the best speed out of your boat, information on racing and racing tactics - lots of stuff you only usually learn after years and years of sailing!
We also have a sailing club directory, for you to find out where you can sail, and rigging guides for popular boats, so you can figure out how to rig your latest dinghy purchase. Don't forget to check out our online sailing glossary too.
The time for keeping sailing to a select few people willing to invest huge amounts of time around boring old barnacles is passed - let's bring sailing to the masses, and make it fun!
On a serious note though, please note that our articles are NOT a replacement for a proper sailing course. If you have no sailing experience, even after reading our articles you will not, and definitely should not, go and jump in a boat. Sailing is easy to learn, but pretty difficult to get right without proper demonstration. By all means use our articles as a supplement to a training course, but please not as a replacement. Yes, sailing courses can be expensive - but for good reason, they're usually worth it.
Finally...
We will gladly welcome any suggestions, or recommendations for articles, and will try to accommodate people where possible.