| PERFORMANCE AREA - PLAN AND PREPARE | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Group and individual safety awareness, clothing, safety equipment, sailing stretches. | To prepare for and what to wear when taking part in on-water activities. Buoyancy aid & appropriate footwear. Consideration to the prevailing weather conditions. | Trapeze harness selection.
Knowledge of other types and classes of dinghies- single and double handlers, traditional and asymmetrical spinnaker dinghies. |
Basic fitness principals, sailing stretches, accurate timekeeping. | Different clothing & equipment needed for a journey.
Able to create a pilotage/passage plan which will include bearings of legs to be followed, time and distance of each leg, hazards that may be encountered /avoided on each leg, alternative destinations, final destination and return journey. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - RIGGING | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Wind awareness, awareness of parts of and rigging on the training boat. | Independent rigging of training boat. | Learn to rig a boat to optimum effect. | To use the sail controls (sheets, outhaul, kicker, Cunningham) to achieve the correct sail shape for the prevailing conditions. | Rig a boat to optimum effect, use of spinnaker. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - ROPEWORK | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Figure of eight, round turn and two half hitches. | Reef knot, bowline, sheet bend. | In addition be able to tie a double sheetbend and a fisherman’s bend. | Refresh ropework skills. | Refresh skills, application to camping ashore. |
| PERFORMACE AREA - SAILING TECHNIQUES AND MANOEUVERS | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Paddling and rowing. Basic heave-to, primary boat controls, reaching, helming under supervision. Understand and make efficient use of the 5 essentials. | Sailing to windward, sailing downwind, gybing and tacking, points of sailing, helming with minimal guidance. | (Independent) Boat speed control, sailing backwards, getting out of irons, heave-to, (jib aback), roll tacking, roll gybing, spinnaker handling, trapezing (when applicable). Boat handling in moderate wind conditions. | Knowledge of the nature of a start line, line bias, knowing position on the line (transits), a basic starting sequence and how to cross it on time and at speed, rounding mark, boat handling in moderate to fresh wind conditions. |
Tuning/controlling power/rig control, sailing blind, sailing rudderless. Anchoring a dinghy Understanding of and be able to heave to from any point of sailing. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - RESCUE PROCEDURES AND DRILLS | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Actions on Capsize, recovery drill by instructor. | Capsize recovery drill, crew actions.
Able to simulate ‘man overboard’ situation and carry out rescue. |
To perform full inversions capsize where the dinghy turns completely ‘turtle’ or fully inverted.
Action to take if a crew member is trapped beneath the upturned hull. |
Refresh ‘man overboard’ drill and capsize drill. | Understand how to tow and how to be towed.
Able to simulate a ‘man overboard’ recovery situation, using a suitable ‘dummy'. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - LAUNCHING AND RECOVERY | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Able to correctly prepare a dinghy with all its equipment, hoist the sails (if appropriate), float the dinghy off its launching trolley and leaving under control. | The correct procedure for leaving a cross-shore, lee-shore or weather shore situation. | Able to bring their dinghy to a controlled stop alongside a moored vessel,to fixed/anchored structure and securing.
Leave by backing the jib, allowing the bow to pay off before sheeting in both sails to sail away. |
Knowledge of NOR, sailing instructions, visual and sound signals. |
Pilotage - understanding of local navigation marks, channels and hazards and sail a passage using all of these accordingly. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - SAILING THEORY AND BACKGROUND | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Learn the basic controls and how they function in isolation and collectively (jib, mainsail, sheets, centreboard and rudder/tiller/extension). | Theory of how a sail works (pressure differential & laminar/turbulent flow) and the various points of sailing including the ‘no-go zone’.
Able make seamanship-like decisions based on simple rules of the road IE port & starboard tack, windward & leeward vessels and overtaking vessel. |
Navigation markers/bouyage, first aid awareness/injury prevention.
Knowledge of the priorities of port & starboard tack, windward vessel and overtaking vessel, and the significance of the ‘3 boat length’ rule. |
How sails work/basic aerodynamic theory, components of a race and effects on race outcome, racing rules, team work. | Knowledge of the nautical charts, navigation marks and their significance, charted depths & drying heights, compass rose. Latitude & longitude grids and their significance, scale, distance and the measuring of bearings.
IRPCS-understanding of the relevant collision regulations. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - METEOROLOGY | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Understand weather forecast. | Able to obtain a weather forecast relevant to their sailing activities and to interpret the forecast with regard to wind direction, strength, the Beaufort scale, temperature, precipitation and the significance of each of these factors. | Be able obtain an appropriate weather forecast, from more than one source. knowledge of the significance of wind strength and direction, the effects of wind against/with tide, sea breezes and other significant local effects. | Learn to take advantage of wind strength and direction, the effects of wind against/with tide, sea breezes and other significant local effects. | Learn to use synoptic charts to best effect. This will include recognising high and low pressure systems, warm and cold fronts, isobars and trends. |
| PERFORMANCE AREA - WINDS, TIDES AND CURRENTS | ||||
| BASIC SKILLS 1 | BASIC SKILLS 2 | BASIC SKILLS 3 | RACING SKILLS | DAY SAILING |
| Wind awareness, direction and relative strength indicators. | Able to obtain tidal information and be able to make simple tidal predictions (IE high/low water). | Lifts and knocks, twelfths rule and relationship to tidal flow (strength). | Geographic, oscillating and persistent wind shifts, identification of sea breeze pattern. | Interpret tidal diamonds – streams & rates for passage planning. |