DI course 14-18 April

Sailing and teaching in a wayfarer is fairly straight forward, everything happens slowly and there is so much space for 3-4 people. Teaching in one is a doddle compared to the Vision, Bahia.

Reefing is either slap or using reefing lines, we tend to slab reef as the sails stretch over time and the reefing lines dont always work.

Rudderless is fairly straight forward due to the shape of the hull.

On a side note, it is worth reading up on each point of the Teaching Flow chart. You may be asked to reconstruct the flow chart from the G14 (RYA Instructor Handbook)

A good racing sailor should have all the skills neded for the DI course and the pre entry test should make sure of that.  After that, and far more importantly, the course is all about how well you communicate your skills to others.  Clear concise briefings, and interesting, informative presentations that keep to the time limit and don't waffle on, are far more important than the handling characteristics of any dinghy.

I'm also lucky that I spent last weekend helping on an AI course, so got lots of practice teaching the Method under the eyes of 2 SI's. And this weekend I'm going on a instructor refresher course, too... odd to be doing it before the DI, but I've been teaching as an AI for the last 5 years. Very rarely to new beginners, though, as I've been race coaching, mainly, so that side of things still has me slightly nervous.

Note "kicker kicker kicker" is not a useful explanation for "we are going to gybe, grab the kicker and swing the boom across".  And that heading up and bearing away do not resemble anything in Plain English.

Course completed! Mind, just as an inland one, as I still need the odd bit to get the coastal side of things, as I need a coastal PB2, and more coastal knowledge (the RYA do an online course) to get it updated.

Nice place to go and do it, though the tides were a bit fierce at times! Got lucky with the weather, though... sunshine and force 2-4 all week.