SAILING / LIFE #2

As promised, here is a partial list of sailing lore that I feel competent to share. Please let me know your specific interests relating to these topics. Your questions and comments are most welcome.

A. BOAT

1. Purpose / Usage
   a. Pleasure or commercial
   b. Freshwater or saltwater
   c. Racing or cruising
   d. Day-sailing, voyaging, or live-aboard

2. Acquisition & Documentation
a. Commissioning a design
b. Stock design/construction
c. Newly constructed custom “one-off”
d. Build-it-yourself
e. Used
+ Designer
+ Inspection
+ History
f. Documentation
+Registration
+ Canal permits

3. Priorities
a. Safety
b. Comfort
c. Durability
d. Range
e. Simplicity
f. Maintainability

4. Design
a. Size
b. Comfort & Privacy
c. Hulls and keels
d. Weight distribution
e. Type of Rig
f. Spar construction (masts, booms, & spreaders)
g. Mast stepping
h. Standing rigging
+ Stays and turnbuckles
+ Cleats
i. Running rigging
+ Sheets and Halyards
+ Swivels
+ Running stays
+ Fairleads
+ Blocks
+ Tracks
+ Winches
j. Rigging redundancy
k. Steering and Self-steering
l. Payload
m. Range
n. Stability at sea
o. Convenience at dockside
p. Reliability
+ Accessibility
+ Maintainability
+ Durability
+ Redundancy
+ Structural integrity
q. Auxiliary propulsion
+ All about diesel
+ Importance of spares
+ Maintenance and repair tools
+ Choice of propellers
r. Crew requirements

5. Materials
a. Concrete
b. Wood
c. Fiberglass / composite
d. Metal

6. Construction
a. Laminates & laminating
b. Metals & welding
c. Avoiding rot and corrosion

7. Maintenance
a. Supplies
b. Tools
c. Other Equipment
d. Repairs under way

8. Gear choices
a. Sailing
b. Navigation
c. Safety and Emergency
d. Maintenance and repair
e. Personal

B. Crew

1. Number needed
2. Skills required
3. Redundancy
4. Compatibility
5. Decision-making protocols

C. Sailing the Boat (“Seamanship”)

1. Principles
a. Up-wind tacking
b. Down-wind running
c. Cross-wind reaching
d. Transitions

2. Practice
a. Cautions and precautions (Risk “management”)
b. “Tuning” the rig
c. Single-handing
d. Watch-keeping
e. Heavy weather
+ Wind and waves
+ Rigging and sails
+ Ropes and spars
+ Special equipment
+ Anchors and anchoring
+ Electrical threats
+ Strategies

3. Destinations
a. Voyage planning

• Pilot Charts
• Other charts and forms
• Aids to Navigation updates
• Standard steam and sail ocean routes
• Local tide charts and publications

b. Inter-port distances (US and International)
c. Knowing what you need to know

• Port facilities and provisioning capabilities
• Clearing canals (Panama, Suez, Western Europe)
• Port fees and procedures
• Permits
• Customs & contraband
• Immigration
• Animals allowed?
• Weapons allowed?
• Immunizations
• Incidence of local piracy

D. Navigation

1. Coastal vs. “Blue-water”
   a. Coastal pros and cons
   b. Blue-water pros and cons

2. Aids to navitgation
a. Lights
b. Buoys
c. Markers
d. Beacons
e. Signals

3. Navigational aids
a. Compasses
b. Binoculars
c. Position-finders
d. Charts and chart instruments
e. Tables
f. Bearing instruments
g. Logs and speedometers
h. Chronometers
i. Radar
j. Sonar
k. Depth sounder
l. Reference books

4. Dead reckoning
a. Direction
b. Speed
c. Time
d. Distance
e. Winds, tides and currents

5. Electronic
a. Direction-finders
b. LORAN Receivers?
c. Time and Weather receivers
d. GPS-based on-screen charts
e. Gyro-compasses
f. Autopilots

6. Astronomical
a. Marine sextants
b. Bubble sextants
c. Star charts
d. Plotting charts
e. Computational tables
f. Methods and procedures
g. Calculators

E. Weather

1. Persistent weather patterns
2. Predictive statistics
3. Precautions
4. Voyage planning
5. Weather awareness
6. Rules of thumb