Something I always dreamed of was to go sailing. I live in Hobart, a few hundred metres from the sea and when I go cycling on weekends, to the beaches on the eastern shore, I have always been fascinated by the many sailing boats on the Derwent river. I wished I would have the chance to go sailing myself. Sometimes it seems like everyone in Tasmania owns a boat, and with all the great beaches and bays, and coastal areas fantastic for cruising, what could be better than going sailing?
A while ago one of my office mates pointed me to the website of Adult Education Tasmania where they offer a wide range of courses, including boating. Last year I already signed up for a sailing course, but it was cancelled due to lack of participants. Now I tried again and spent the whole weekend on the water.
I booked the most basic course - ‘Start Yachting’ - since I haven’t had any previous experience with sailing. So last Thursday after work I walked down to Sandy Bay to the Derwent Sailing Squadron to attend the first lesson. I was expecting mostly a theoretical lesson, but the weather was so good that after a short introduction, Ian, our instructor, invited us on his boat where we spent most of the evening practising things like setting sail, rope handling and safety onboard. When I walked home afterwards, I was totally excited and looking forward to Saturday and Sunday with the practical part. I had a feeling that sailing could become my new passion. When we sat on his yacht and it slowly got dark and all the crews came sailing back from training or race, and berthed their huge boats, it was an awesome feeling.
The last two days were fantastic. We met around 9am and stayed on the water until late afternoon. On Saturday we started with motoring exercises, approaching moorings, getting a feeling for speed and wind. For lunch break we anchored in a sheltered corner near the beach in Sandy Bay.
After lunch we set sail and practised the different angles of sailing against or with the wind, changing the reefs, main- and headsail according to the wind conditions. It’s amazing to steer the boat into the wind with full sails and suddenly a breeze hits the boat and leans it to the side until part of the deck is underwater.
Today on Sunday I was on the helm most of the day and really enjoyed having so much time to steer the boat, giving instructions to tack and experiencing difficult situations like sudden wind changes. Sailing is mostly about experience, you need to know what to do in which situation, you need to know your boat, the helmsman needs to instruct the crew and most of all you simply need a bit of a feeling for the wind.
We had the whole range of Tasmanian weather on one day, sunshine, rain, wind, no wind at all, sudden breeze, wind changes, etc. For lunch we sailed into Hobart Port and berthed at King’s Pier.
After all it was a fantastic experience with a great tutor. Now that I finished the introduction course I’m really keen to do more sailing and I plan to book a passage cruise down the D’Entrecasteaux Channel where you spend 3 days and 2 nights on the boat, with night sailing. After completing this course I would receive a ‘competent crew certificate’, a worldwide recognised certificate that would allow me to hire boats without the need for a crew or qualification courses first.
Can’t wait, sailing is fantastic!
