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My somewhat successful first-time sailing experience

Setting goals is the first step towards success. Monday evening I set a goal for myself as I tried sailing for the first time - do NOT sink the boat. One of the two instructors at the Battlefords Sailing Club, Payton Byrns, ensured me I wouldn't.
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This is me doing the easy part, tying down the main sail after bringing the boat ashore. Being on land while in the sailboat was the most ideal situation for me.

Setting goals is the first step towards success.

Monday evening I set a goal for myself as I tried sailing for the first time - do NOT sink the boat.

One of the two instructors at the Battlefords Sailing Club, Payton Byrns, ensured me I wouldn't. That was a heck of a prediction he made, clearly having no idea just how uncoordinated I can be when I try new things.

Before I had the opportunity to capsize the boat and dunk myself into Jackfish Lake, we had to assemble the boats. Basically we had to attach the sails (I'll try not to lose you with the fancy sailor jargon).

Our other instructor, Joshua Brown, helped us through this process. Had he not been as helpful to the 10 of us as he was, I have no doubt my sail would have fallen off into the water, which I've been told isn't an ideal situation.

We started by taking the boats off the trailer. The 4.2 metre boats, aptly named "420s," are heavy. After assisting in taking three of them off the trailer, I started to wonder just how badly I wanted to sail. There is no way I would be doing that with just one other person to help me.

There are a lot of steps in attaching the sails, so I won't bore you by listing them off. More importantly, I don't remember all the words.

Basically there's a jib sail, the small one, and the main sail, the big one. Each has ropes and wires coming out of everywhere. Both Joshua and Payton have at least 10 years of sailing experience. I would bet good money at least nine of them were spent learning the names of each part and how to tie knots.

As I write this, I'm looking at a multi-coloured diagram reminding me of the basic parts of a boat. It looks as if it was taken from a children's book, but it's assisting me greatly.

It's not as daunting a task as it looks at first glance. The most difficult part to remember is which knot to use where (or even how to tie them) and which direction to run the rope through each block. A block is just a wheel that the ropes weave their way through.

After spending 30 minutes to an hour assembling the boats, we hit the water.

The first thing I asked Payton as my partner Dave and I got going was, "How often do people fall out of, or capsize the boat?"

He informed me it was too many to count, but never on a day with the wind as calm as it was on Monday. Challenge accepted.

I began our voyage as the crew, Dave was the skipper. This meant I operated the jib sail, he operated the main sail and the rudder for steering. On top of his duties of doing the two most difficult jobs, he also ran the risk of being hit by the boom as we turned. The boom is a big metal pole along the bottom of the main sail that swings across the boat when you take a corner.

My job involved me pulling a rope after we turned.

Dave was a great partner. He was also new to sailing, so when he made skipping look easy, I got the impression it was. Dave tricked me.

When we switched, I quickly realized I was born to be crew, or stay on land. First of all, switching positions on a moving sailboat is extremely difficult with my level of co-ordination.

After finally getting to the back of the boat, I began my quest to learn how to steer. Rudders are surprisingly touchy. It takes very little movement to completely change the direction of the boat. I was already having trouble and we were still going straight.

As we took our first turn around one of the buoys, I found out going straight was far from the difficult part. After changing directions, the crew and the skipper switch sides of the boat. That way the skipper can always be on the opposite side of the sails so they can actually see. However, with a rope controlling the main sail in one hand, the rudder handle in the other, a boom coming across with nasty intentions and a leaning boat taking a corner, switching sides can be difficult.

More than once, I found myself navigating around the rudder handle and rope awkwardly. I also had a habit of forgetting to steer in the process and sending us in every direction. It might be possible I also tapped another boat. No harm, no foul.

I never did get the hang of this process. Even after an hour of sailing, I was still caught passing the rope through my legs, or getting it caught around my ankle, which actually held it in place nicely. I also almost fell into the water, but I never sank the boat!

Although I turned our boat into the slowest one in the water as the skipper, I'm happy with the way my one day of sailing turned out. I can confidently say I know how to sail a boat. I doubt I could put the sails on myself, and I would be extremely clumsy, but I could do it in perfect sailing conditions.

When we finished sailing and pulled the boats onto shore, we got a lesson in knot tying. I'm quite sure I could sail through a hurricane before I could remember each of the three main knots we learned. First was the figure eight, which I picked up rather quickly. Next up was the cleat hitch halyard. I managed to do it, but it's not one I could do again without help. Last was the bowline. The bowline is the type of knot someone can tie slowly right in front of my face and I can still be confused. Somehow I tied it perfectly the first time, but it all went downhill from there. On the bright side, I created a new knot in the process. I would argue it's better, but only because I actually did it successfully. We'll call it the "pretzel knot."

Knots just weren't clicking, but I learned the important lesson. Make someone else tie your knots, then sail. That's the fun part, anyway.

Kudos to Payton and Joshua for instructing a group of almost all first-time sailors and having none of us capsize, although if I had more time I'm positive I could have pulled it off.

The rest of the group will be sailing all week, trying new techniques each day. I, however, quit while I was ahead and, more importantly, dry.