In yesterday's entry I wrote about how important it is to train your crew well, teaching even total newcomers some useful skill that you can count on in a pinch.
For how to teach, I used the example of how one club instructor put her hands over her mouth to force her to not give too many prompts when her students should have been performing independently.
While teaching sail school, she had realized that her students couldn't dock a sailboat unless they could do it without her giving them a single prompt, and she had her hands over her mouth as they approached the safety boat to dock next to it.
Last night I happened to speak with the father of this instructor. Her father said that she had been steering their tiller sailboat for 10 years when she signed up for driver's ed at school. Neither she nor her parents expected any problems. She was a straight-A student, and many students took "Driver's Ed" for the easy A of it.
Not this young lady. She was flunking driver's ed. HUH? NOBODY flunks driver's ed!
So her dad took her to a large, empty parking lot one Sunday, one without parking bumpers or other barriers, to see what was going on.
She started out driving straight, just fine. He didn't see a problem. Then he told her to turn left -- and she turned the car right!
She was handling the steering wheel like a tiller!
So if you have a crew member struggling with some basic skill, isolate that skill and watch carefully what is going on. Several months ago, I did this with a sailor I knew. He had been sailing the Catalinas for five years but his movement across the water was often erratic and unpredictable. He obviously struggled with tacking to the point that he would know he was going to run aground on a known high point, but seemed unable to turn the boat in time to get out of the way.
So I went out with him, and discovered that he really didn't have any solid idea of how to tack the boat. He just tried something new each time, hoping he would figure it out and get it right (it turned out that someone had told him to do this -- see my many references about people who give one bad advice!)
I wrote a very detailed, 15-step method for tacking and gave it to him. He said he would read it and study it, and agreed to go out with me on one of the little 16.5' Catalinas to sort it out.
After reading the list, he politely canceled the sailing date.
He canceled s similar date with someone else.
Finally he said to me one day, "I just want to be the best sailor I can." I said, "Then go out with me and let's sort this out."
So we did, and I and my list of things to do were driving him crazy. Finally he said, "Just let me do it my way," and I said "OK."
Turned out he was doing everything right -- except for one thing: he didn't know where to start the tack. Somewhere in sail school he had not learned that (probably because instructors always prompted him -- too much "help"). So he would, say, have the wind nearly astern when he started the tack. Of course the boat would make a broad, slow turn, and it might end anywhere, including moving in a complete circle, ending where he had been before. If you don't tack with a plan, how will you know when to end it? Or he might not have had enough speed by the time he got to the "no-go" zone, and the boat would swing back over to starboard.
All I had to do was remind him of the "no go" zone, and explain that he should sail along, say, the starboard side, build up speed, spot where he wanted to end, move through the "no go" zone -- and stop the tack.
He did it perfectly the first time -- with no prompts. Then he did it perfectly three more times.
So then we expanded the concept to a controlled jybe, keeping the boom close to center so there wouldn't be a huge snap when the sail picked up the wind on the other side. Then he did THAT perfectly with no prompts.
So then we just sailed around, and he started calling all the moves very well: "prepare to tack," and I had to hustle to keep up with him, because he now knew exactly what he was doing. Acting as skipper and calling all the shots, sometimes he tacked and sometimes he jybed, getting it all right every single time.
Meanwhile, the wind shifted to northerly. Uh-oh! When the wind is from the north, to get into the marina you have to sail up a narrow north-south canal to get to the entrance. It certainly isn't impossible, but unless you have a motor, you have to make a series of short, quick tacks -- or run aground at a place where this man had been notorious for running aground.
No problem this time!. He took charge as skipper, executed the tacks crisply and accurately, turned into the club's basin, and expertly sailed the little boat into its slip. He told me what to do, when to do it, and used one sail, expertly managed, to get the boat home -- just as he had been doing most of the afternoon.
Give too many prompts, and you keep your crew member from learning. This person's problem with tacking is the most concrete and perfect example I can think of to demonstrate just how important it is to let anyone you're teaching to perform completely independently, even if you see them making a mistake.
If they make a mistake, discuss it *afterwards.* Give them a chance to practice it, and when they get to that point on the next attempt, put your hands over your mouth if you have to, but DO NOT PROMPT THEM OR GIVE THE CLUES. Just don't. Discuss it afterwards.
Even then, don't tell them what they did wrong. ASK them if they know what mistake they made. Give them time to think. Give them a chance to learn.
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