Novice Series

After hearing the discussion about bringing people to sailing in Thursdays's meeting. I have been thinking about it. Reading Pacifen Massiel unofficial summary of the meeting has given me an idea.

I propose that we take an open sailing night, Monday, Wednesday or Friday, and have a Novice only series.

I don't know if it is possible but I propose that the participants "rent" for L$0 a Tako 2.3

The race would be very simple, i.e.. start, windward leg to a buoy, a downwind leg and finish. This will take navigation out of the picture. If possible each Novice would have a ride along experienced sailor.

Each participant would be expected to race on 3 nights. After completed 3 nights of racing the participant would "graduate" and receive a Tako 2.3 as a graduation gift. I would be willing to underwrite the cost of the Tako's. Another choice (if Kanker agrees) would be to purchase a Tako 3.1 at some discounted price.

A general comment to people who read this post. Please make some comment even if all you say is "Yes" or "No". That way I can gauge the interest and decide to proceed with planing this or let it die a peaceful death. Thank you.

BTW I don't remember anything about a L$50,000 salary. I remember Pacifen saying she would donate some Lindens for the honor of serving SLSF.

One problem with a regularly scheduled event is ensuring there are people prepared to run the event every week. I always want to volunteer, because I want to get the event off the ground, but the reality check in me hates the idea of committing to being there *every* week. What can I say, I have committment issues.

That said, I like the idea of novice races, but not necessarily a series. It's intimidating to get into a race with a bunch of veterans, but it is a good way to learn the tricks of the trade. From my own experience, the only way I improved was noticing how the veterans were taking their tacks. I studied them, tried to copy their every move.

I think what we really need are more scheduled lessons for new sailors. Teach them how to adjust the sails, tell them about gestures, take the time to answer questions. We could then have a race at the end of the lesson, or just direct the novices to something like the SYC's Sunday races, since Mark does his B fleet races for just such a skill level.

So what I'd like to see is a group of us who agree to be available at a given time and night to instruct novices. With a group, we don't have to depend on one single person keeping the event going on her own. If one person can't make, another will be there to take her place. And if we can get more instructors at the event, then we can work with any novices who show up in smaller groups.

Al and Pacifien, if you want to run the events, you are welcome to use Sanchon for this. I'm already running two events a week, and that is enough for me, but feel free to run organized or disorganized novice events in Sanchon. Times that would/would not work:
- Fridays good anytime
- Saturdays before 4 pm and after 7 pm is good
- Sundays good anytime
- Mondays not good (we have pirates practicing and they set up docks and things)
- Tuesdays before 7 pm and after 10 pm is good
- Wednesdays not good (we have pirates fighting... docks and things again)
- Thursdays good anytime

...i think it's a great idea to do one single novice 'learn to sail' event per week, promote it regularly just like the three major regattas, and gradually recruit a pool of teachers...ideally we'd have ninety minutes of teaching and practice followed by thirty minutes of formal racing, maybe two novice races with a single throwout?..

...while sanchon is a great venue, i wonder if there might be a natural synergy with hollywood's thursday night practices?..or would three to five boats of novices with teachers riding along, each doing their own thing, just get in the way at that time?..

...whatever we do and whereever we do it, it needs to be scheduled not to conflict with any major event, which basically limits us to thursdays (if it's a good match) or fridays...another alternative would be to piggyback alongside a regatta, say two hours in advance, which is what i've been doing lately to show new skippers the ropes, but that makes for an awfully long 4+ hour commitment...whenever i've asked newcomers to hang around after a regatta for sailing lessons, about 90% of the time they seem to either be intimidated or lose interest after waiting around so long, and are nowhere to be found afterward - not a very good track record...

...my preference is to integrate this with hollywood thursdays, so teachers can get in a bit of organised practice if there aren't enough students to keep everyone occupied, and also because saturday-sunday-tuesday-thursday has a nice pace to it, and also also because that balances two major events per venue, but i'm open to anything we can establish as a recurring and dependable novice event...

Good idea, Al. I think most novices can afford the $1 Tako 2.3, but if not I would be willing to sell them for $0 Or I could work on a rentable 3.1, which wouldn't happen overnight.

I'll donate a Tako 3.1 as a weekly prize.

One other thing... If the point is to introduce newbies to sailing, then there's no need to have a regularly scheduled event with all the RL juggling that entails. Just find some time to host a novice race, get it posted to the events calendar, and do it!

This is a great idea, perhaps it could be expanded a little though. To be novice classes follower by an amatuer race. So those of us who have taken the classes, but are way, way behind the pack in the regular races, have someplace to go with a slightly more level playing field.

Thanks for the suggestion Al and Myrrh. Sorry I am a bit late getting in on this thread. As some of you may know I have had a death in the family and am heading to Chicago this AM for the funeral.

Absolutely we want to make Hollywood and SYC the host site for Al's proposal. As a matter of fact, if you have been in SLSF racing for more than a couple months you remember that Nber and I used to host a LEARN TO SAIL event on Sundays. The promotional ad is shown below. Several of our skippers helped out with this event.

The spirit of the event continued when LEARN TO SAIL became FUN SAILING which preceded our regattas. And the spirit continues in our thursday night practice sessions, as well as during the week when Nber and I, and I believe others, give informal one on one lessons.

When I return from Chicago I will post our plans for hosting newbie events as suggested by Al, who of course just volunteered to help by starting this thread.

Well, I seem to have hit on something here.

First, thank you for all the input. This is exactly what I was hoping would occur. With this kind of feedback maybe we can develop a course that makes sense.

My initial concept was modelled after the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) model. When you apply for a competion license you have to complete so many hours of class room training and compete in 3 Novice races before you get your Amateur License. After so many Amateur races you can step up to a Professional License.

If you are a true novice to sailing I don't think you can learn enough in an informal hour of training. Yes, you will learn to get around in a Tako but not race. I think you need at least 3 hours of training to be able to race. Topics to be covered included: terminology, sailing principles and rules all reinforced with some hands on experience. After all we don't people leaving the course with a false feeling that they are sailors only to have them dashed when they get into a race. Let's face it gang, we tend to take our racing seriously and look out for any one who does not.

Another point is that I think the novice session should be run under the banner of the SLSF. since it is one of the charter points. -Promote sailings in SL -

Ok now to some specific points.

Pacifen, what I am proposing is just what you said. "So what I'd like to see is a group of us who agree to be available at a given time and night to instruct novices." Except I'm trying to put a little more structure to it. In any case, for it to work it will rely heavily on experienced skippers helping out.

Pixeleen, thank you for offering Sanchon. However, I think Hollywood might be a better venue for at least the first 2 sessions of a 3 session course. Hollywood has room for classroom instruction, already has learning aids on the docks and if laid out properly will offer an easier course. I propose we use Sanchon for the "graduation " session since it offers some things that Hollywood does not like crossing Sim boundaries which we all have to learn to do. Also, since the plan will depend on experienced volunteers we have to look at the schedules to insure that the Novice time does not interfere with any Regattas. With this in mind a potential schedule could be Fridays , the first 2 sessions at Hollywood and the third session at Sanchon.

Myrrh, I like your idea of dovetailing the Novice sessions with the Thursday sessions at Hollywood. We need to talk to Mark about it. I also agree with not interfering with scheduled events. And yes whatever we do it must be a regular event.

Kanker, thank you for offering the Tako's. But you brought up a point that i have been grappling with and do not have a solution for. People being people will always show up if they can get something for free. I'm afraid we would have 100's of "students" to get a boat and never show up to race. The ideal solutions would be an enticement to have them complete the course. Then we will only get people who are really interested. Here's a thought (have no idea of how hard it is to implement) what about a temporary rez of a boat. I have test driven some vehicles around SL that rez for a period of tine so you can try them out then automatically derez. what do you think?

ZATZAi, I like your idea of an amateur class. I think that's what Mark is trying to do at Hollywood with his A & B fleets. Maybe a better way would be to call then Novice, Amateur and Pro fleets. Of course people like Mark and Pixeleen would be in the Super class. hehehe

Mark, sorry to hear the news, my heart felt condolences go out to you.

I agree with making Hollywood the starting point for the course, especially since you already have so many teaching aids set up. And yes your "Fun to Sail" events were a blast. I still smile at the sailboat soccer event, but these kinds of things help people get comfortable with sailing without having to worry about being super competitive which is an excellent way to start.

And yes, Mark, I am volunteering to help with this project. I get so much out of sailing that it would be my pleasure to give something back.

Sorry, Al. We seem to be talking at cross-purposes. The Tako 2.3 is $1 everywhere. And it's perfectly race-legal. That's the boat I would be willing to sell for $0 .

I could work on a temp-on-rez Tako 3.1 for those who can't afford the $100 or $250, but it will take some time... or maybe not, who knows.

Your suggested schedule is fine as are as I am concerned. However I just want to clarify one point. When the Santa Barbara sim is added to the north of Hollywood and the Santa Catalina sim is added to the south of Hollywood (this coming week) there will be two sim crossings in the Hollywood sailing complex. Hopefully these will be minor bumps but we will have to see what it's like.


Thanks Al, for the kind thought on our family's loss. I hope to be back on Wednesday night. I will expand my comments at that time.

Al I love this idea I seem to be getting frustrated and would love to come sale in a novice kind of thing. I seem to know what i am doing I think at some points but than I lose the wind and get frustrated and than give up. I was at the recent race as you know in Hollywood and I was really ready just to quit the whole thing about sailing cause your suppose to have fun and I was not. I would love to come to your even please keep me advised.

Jemster Hartnell

...jemster, if you're in-world anytime before 7.00SLT this evening, please IM me and i'll gladly take the time to sail with you and offer a few pointers...often just a couple of basic misconceptions can make handling the tako under race conditions tremendously frustrating, but i bet with an hour or two of instruction you'll be having the time of your life and ready to sail with tonight's VYC fleet...

...and by all means, as soon as they're listed please make a point to attend SYC's thursday night practices in hollywood...we're all a really friendly group of folks happy to show the ropes to anyone interested, despite the clamorous impression sometimes given to newcomers during active regattas...

Myrrh is right. We do have regularly scheduled practice races on Thursdays in the Hollywood Sims at 6pm. However there is no need to check events for this, as we have not posted it in events up to this point (although I think we will start doing so). We typically will get 7 to 10 boats out at these practices. Based on the current discussions I think we will probably exand thursdays from the concept of "practice races" to "practice races and lessons". Look for a more formal set of plans when i get back from my trip.

But remember that even if an formal event HASN'T been posted, we ALWAYS have this practice. Also, the Hollywood sailing complex of three sims is always open to sailing.

If you are experienced come by and hang out, we daily have newbies coming to Hollywood to learn aboutg sailing. SYC members are encouraged to help these newbies and give informal lessons as needed. You are also welcome to IM myself or Nber to let us know you would like to be contacted if a newbie needs some help.

If you are a newbie, come by Hollywood and see if some of our regulars are around and are available for some advice. Worst case scenario IM myself (MarkTwain White) or Nber Medici, if we arent tied up we might be available or know of a skipper who is available to help.

I have posted this to events for Thursday at 6 pm. If you are an experienced sailor come and practice racing or help provide lessons to some newer sailors. If you are a newer sailor and would like to get some tips or just practice your skills, come on out. Hope to see YOU on the water this Thursday.

http://secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=170505&date=1141891200

...nber and mark, if you two make a point to list thursday night lessons/practice races every week, i'm sure the rest of us will do our part to promote the heck out of them amongst novice skippers...

I suggest that you rotate the novice training sessions through each of the SLSF starting line venues so that the novices get exposed to different conditions. This would be Hollywood, Sanchon, and Tompson/Torch (the sea of sighs). I'd also strongly suggest that you hold some sessions where there are enough sim crossings that you have to use landmarks and the map to navigate through at least 5-10 sims.

Its good to have these sorts of learning opportunities... but I am not excited about labelling people as novies/semi-pro/guru or having some requirement that you need to have completed a course before you can try racing. We should welcome those that are brave enough to try without lessons, and have lessons available for those that want them. We should also be making heavy use of the the existing web-based training materials at www.ussailing.com so we are not re-inventing the wheel. I'm thinking particularly of the racing rules online course at http://www.sailingcourse.com/ which includes a self-test. This would seem to remove much of the need for classroom training, and allow these sessions to concentrate on on-the-water experience.

Practice will be listed in events and on the forums. We will use our Hollywood contacts to have sailing practice promoted subliminally in upcoming major movie releases. Between everyone's help promoting Thur night practice, our announcements, and the special subliminal adverstising, we will flood the world with a tsumani of skippers.

Boffo thinking Myrrh!

To follow up on this discussion, SYC is revamping its schedule to accomplish some of the goals discussed here. The new schedule is posted both on the Events Forum and on the Upcoming Events thread here in the SLSF Forum.

An important part of getting novices comfortable with sailing will be the one on one help each you can provide. Please attend the NOVICE CLASS at 1PM and FUN SAILING event at 2PM. where there will be lots of opportunity to help build SLSF sailing by helping novices. I will try to create a notecard for coaches that give you a few pointers how to ride along with a novice and help them out.

Our weekly regatta follows at 3PM.

...what a great turnout for sailing lessons today in hollywood!..i look forward to these continuing for a log time yet to come; the sailing community can't help but grow by leaps and bounds under this sort of shepherding...