Many people thinking that becoming a cruiser is all about sailing, maneuvering, and mooring. The sailing side of things is easiest to learn. Maneuvering takes quite a bit of practice and there’s a low margin for big errors. And Mooring is easy in principle but many variables cause serious complications.
The sailing, maneuvering, and mooring aspect is just a small part of the big picture.
Saying that there are quite a few lessons we’ve learned over the years that we’ve included here for you. We have not included any how-to sail tutorials or sailing basics because you can learn that when getting your ASA or RYA qualifications.
What we cover here are sailing, maneuvering, and mooring explanations and procedures that you won’t necessarily learn at a sailing school. As we often say, get your sailing qualifications at a school and then come to us to see what life on the sea is really like.
Sailing, Maneuvering & Mooring Articles/Videos
Stern To Med Mooring
Follow this eight-point checklist to successfully complete a stern to med mooring procedure when using a mooring ball. Watch the video and follow the checklist. When you go out to practice the procedure yourself you’ll be more prepared to do it successfully. This particular Med Mooring procedure is most common in the Caribbean.
High Wind Sailing Techniques – Sailing, Maneuvering & Mooring
You can’t avoid high winds if you’re going to be a sailing cruiser. Squalls and even minor storms pop up unexpectedly. Heck – not long ago a Tropical Storm unexpectedly popped up over the top of us and we had absolutely no warning. So…if you’re going to become a bluewater cruiser it’s important to know high wind sailing techniques.
How To Tie Onto A Mooring Ball
In this video, I’ll show you how to easily tie onto a mooring ball (otherwise known as a mooring buoy), how to release the lines and leave a mooring ball and at the end, I’ll give you a little known technique about how you can prevent a mooring ball from hitting your hull (making a disturbing noise and damaging your paint job).
How To Tie Onto A Mooring Ball
How To Leave A Dock – The Easy Way
Newbie boaters often find success or failure in their sailing cruising dreams based upon their first few experiences, not with sailing (ironically), but with getting the boat in and out of the marina. Time after time, I’ve seen dreams shattered due to a bump, crash, and/or a full-on anxiety attack. If you can learn how to leave a dock your ability to successfully become a cruiser increase drastically. It’s an important sailing, maneuvering & was mooring topic to learn!
Anchoring In Poor Holding Anchorages
From time to time you’ll come upon an anchorage where it seems impossible to get your anchor to dig in. Anchoring in poor holding anchorages is not fun. But let’s step back and start at the beginning.
Anchoring In Poor Holding Anchorages
Q&A – Anchoring In Storms
So, what do you do if a storm is on its way and you’re anchored in a harbor? Anchoring in a storm or in high winds is part of the sailing lifestyle. Many storms arrive unannounced and others, although predicted, can turn out to be worse than expected. Storms are a big sailing, maneuvering & mooring topic!
Sailing Through A Storm
Since 2013 we’ve experienced sailing through a storm on four occasions. One of our worst was crossing the Bermuda Triangle. I managed to capture some of our worst trip ever on video. The first is our preparations and the lead up to leaving Bermuda and the second video includes over 15 horrifying squalls, how we coped with a knock-down, 60+ knots of wind, what we broke and how we felt after the troublesome trip.
Anchoring Complications – What To Do When You Pull Up Someone Else’s Anchor?
As a cruiser, there are a variety of anchoring complications you can run into. One of the major issues is when you pull up someone else’s anchor while pulling your own anchor up. So…what do you when this happens?
Anchoring Complications – Picking Up Someone Else’s Anchor
Sailing In Storms
What’s it like sailing in storms? How can you prepare? What do you do when a storm hits you when anchored? What about unexpected storms and squalls? Watch this video and you’ll gain answers to these questions and more… Read more about this sailing, maneuvering & was mooring topic here:
How to Pole Out the Jib – Downwind Sailing
Have you ever wondered how to pole out the jib? Or perhaps you’ve heard the term downwind sailing and wondered what it means and how you do it?! Read more and all will be revealed and check out the video at the bottom of this article for a demonstration.
How To Pole Out Your Jib Downwind Sailing
Sailing with a Gennaker
A gennaker is typically a colored sail used when the wind is coming from one of the back corners of the sailboat, blowing the boat forward, and works great in light winds. In this article, you’ll find a video about sailing with a gennaker and the steps necessary to set the sail up.
Rigging, Sails and Reefing Our Sailboat
Before purchasing our sailboat I never realized the variety of rigging options available. In fact, I’m not even sure I understood exactly what the rigging was! Rigging consists of the mast and all the wires attached to it. Not only does the rigging hold the mast in place – but it also determines the sails you can use and how you use them.
From a practical perspective, the boat rigging options and sail configurations can make life harder or easier for a cruiser. It’s an important sailing, maneuvering & was mooring topic to learn so you know what you want and why you want it.
Rigging, Sails & Reefing On A Sailboat
Sailing Pre-passage Checklist
Here you will find a sailing pre-passage checklist to use before you go for a sailing journey. On Britican we live by checklists! Everywhere I look there’s a checklist for one thing or another but by having them in place it really helps to remember important things that can often be forgotten.
Sailing After Passage Checklist
We have laminated checklists to help our guests learn the ropes. One of our shorter yet still valuable checklist’s is the After Passage Checklist. This checklist helps our guests have a role and know where to help out. We also use other checklists including Below Deck Pre Passage, Saftey Pre Passage, Above Deck Pre Passage and Systems On Pre Passage checklists when heading out to sea. Check out this checklist here…
Sailing After Passage Checklist
Advanced Anchoring Techniques
In preparation for a hurricane that struck North America, we motored our sailboat up a river and used advanced anchoring techniques. More specifically we usee two anchors instead of one. Unfortunately, our attempts at preventing anchor drag didn’t work. In reflection, we think we made a few mistakes so here are some lessons learned so you learn from us rather than repeat our mistakes.
Learn some of these Sailing, Maneuvering & Mooring Skills With Us!
Join us on Britican for a week to 10-day sailing experience. More information can be found here: Britican Experience.