Table of Contents How to Sail a Boat............................................................................................................................................1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................................3 Chartering....................................................................................................................................................3 Parts of the Boat...............................................................................................................................................4 Sails and Rigging..............................................................................................................................................5 Parts of sails................................................................................................................................................5 Rigging........................................................................................................................................................5 Sail terminology...........................................................................................................................................5 The two types of sails..................................................................................................................................5 Winches............................................................................................................................................................6 Loading a winch...........................................................................................................................................6 Cranking a winch.........................................................................................................................................6 Easing a winch.............................................................................................................................................6 Jammers, Cleats and Stuff................................................................................................................................6 Sailing Basics...................................................................................................................................................7 Points of sail................................................................................................................................................7 Sailing into the Wind....................................................................................................................................8 Tack, Tack, Tacking!.....................................................................................................................................8 Adjusting sail................................................................................................................................................8 Tacking and Gybing..........................................................................................................................................9 Tacking........................................................................................................................................................9 Gybing.........................................................................................................................................................9 What can I do?...........................................................................................................................................10 Miscellaneous Stuff.........................................................................................................................................11 Putting sails up and taking them down.......................................................................................................11 Anchoring...................................................................................................................................................12 Rules of the Road...........................................................................................................................................13 Safety..............................................................................................................................................................13 The 7 F’s of Safety.....................................................................................................................................13 Emergencies and responses..........................................................................................................................14 Man overboard...........................................................................................................................................14 Distress signals..........................................................................................................................................14 Radio.........................................................................................................................................................15 Glossary..........................................................................................................................................................16