There are no stupid questions. Just ones you don't ask.

Might be an idea to get a bit of a ride in a dinghy with someone experienced, and

ask as you go. Then you can see the practical application.

It sounds to me that it is a confidence issue.

Probably others on the course are thinking, "Oh thank god she asked that",

because they didn't have the guts to ask themselves.

People do yell on the water for all the reasons JimC said, and the terminology can be

confusing, so 

a) try to become more familiar the terms used

b) if it is impatient and patronising shouting, tell them to wind their neck in,

and point out that you have paid for the course and are the CUSTOMER and expect

the service you paid for.

c) Send a PM to Nessa on here... she does a lot of instructing and it will distract her from buying more boats on ebay.

Good Luck

From a cursory flick through the accessible pages online, this book looks fairly straight forward:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Sail-Simplest-Start-Sailing/dp/111995276X/

Good luck - it's a great sport and pastime, it would be a damn shame to miss all of what's ahead of you just because you didn't get on well with an instructor on some course somewhere.  That said, I'd finish your Level 2- especially if you've already paid for it - but do take it for what it is, an introduction - nothing more, nothing less.  Your own experiences from that point onward will define what you actually get out of sailing and what you want from it.    

Yes sailing blokes can tend to be a wee bit up themselves. Sid the sexist rules on quite a few boats, along with Captain Bligh delusions of grandeur. He had done a lot of long distance sailing and was a sh*t hot navigator. Sadly, his interpersonal and man management skills weren't quite up to the job.

Irony, standing your ground and asking questions is the way ahead. It is team work on a yacht that makes it go well and gives everyone time to do things smoothly and well.

Oh, and hopefully there will be a feed-back form to fill in at the end of the course. It might help them 

Good luck and stick with it

I think that there are 2 distinct types of learning. Those who learn by imitating the instructors- kids predominantly learn like this ( if you have ever seen little kids on the ski slopes with their instructer its all follow my leader style ). This can be very effective at teaching even complex routines. Adults arent so good at this,often they learn by analysing the prolem and trying to understand the key bits to get it to work. It sounds like you are definitely in this camp. Once you have it explained you can practice it and master it. The problem is that if your teacher has learned the skill by the first route he may never be able to break it down in a form that you can use, as he may have no idea of how he does it. That is one reason why teaching sailing can improve your grasp of sailing as you have to be able to analyse in detail all the things that you have doen naturally for years to be able to get it across to the pupil.

he's just pleased that he now knows where to head when he's next in NZ.... those roaming charges on the Grindr app are killing his phone bill.

The better course of action might be to finish the course, accepting it (and the instructor for his/her limitations) and then go and get some recreational sailing real experience without getting yourself branded, rather unfairly, as a 'trouble maker'.  Sailing's a small community and whilst that has its charms and positive attributes, a newbie 'questioning things' might rub some of the 'old t**ser types' up the wrong way.

But Late Starter and Mr Sparrow are right... it's the instructor with the problem, just don't expect him (or anyone he works with) appreciating you pointing it out.

my brief experiences of using my £350 RYA Instructor qualification was completely the other way around.  I actually only liked teaching the adults, sadly the majority of course participants were kids being dumped during school holidays at a 'cheap creche'.  I found the adults listened, and asked questions... 

However the adult courses were short lived, so I soon returned to shop and bar work for pre-Uni beer money as I couldn't stand the brats (or their parents) any longer.  The odd kid who actually seemed to like sailing was lost in the melee of little sh*tes who just wanted to water fight, and then surprise, surprise, moan a lot that they were cold.    

Secondly, the thought of spending those long uni summer vacations 'losing money' as a sailing instructor abroad was frankly inconceivable.  I think it's different now, they send some of your salary home so you can't drink it, and of course, there's minimum wage now.  But back then a lot would come back worse off financially, albeit with a nice tan and bad experiences with 'sun in' on their curtains.

 

The guys keep jumping in to do stuff and take over and Ii have not yet been able to rig the yacht for example. There are no all women courses, which may or may not make a difference. One more week of the course. There is another club nearby that is supposed to have nicer people and they use 2-person dingys for learn to sail rather than keel boats and that might work, but am getting pretty down about it. Talked to a friend yesterday, another woman, same age as me, who had also done the course at the club I am doing mine at, and she found the same thing, so there you go. I see there are some clubs in the country that are accredited to the RYA courses so I might contact one of those and see if they can help - I jsut want to become competent and feel reasonably competent. It seems to be such a struggle to get some decent training that works for me, as gauging from what my friend said, I may not be alone. I have been reading the website I mentioned earlier and have picked up really useful things such as "when sailing close to the wind, pull the sails in. When sailing away from the woind, let them out". It is things like that that really help and seem so simple to pass on, but that isn't happening in my course.

 

Please, only helpful comments as my confidence is really at a low here. Thanks :)

That sounds like progress then. At least they have bothered to listen

and take some action.

Let's hope there is an improvement from the instructor

and that you get to make some progress.

Good luck

Not least because he did not immediately heave too/take the pace off the boat once you were over the side.  That is a shockingly bad drill.

So please do not give up on our beautiful sport....as Daryll says perhaps a dinghy course first.

Now if it were F9-10 and you weren't harnessed then don't go with these people again!

It isn't worth the saving, especially as by your experience so far you are sending good personal time after bad as well as money!

 

I just got another emailed letter from the instructor and he has become defensive in reponse to my being surprised that after we returned another instructor went out in the same winds and it got worse. It is really not worth bothering with them any more 

 

You never know they may just have a file already on these people and are already monitoring them to see if there is a trend in their behaviour. That is what happened with the sailing school in England that was shut down. The Coastguard agency were also involved.

From what you have said this sounds serious enough to at least write a letter giving your view of things.

Don't give up on the sailing just find somewhere calmer to enjoy it.

You should NOT be out there in that wind, whatever level of experience there is aboard.  It is one thing competing in an Ocean Race and encountering such extreme conditions, it's totally different to knowing go afloat in it, especially with a novice crew.  

The added fact that your were under-equipped and not wearing harnesses is frankly a joke.... s/he may never had had a man overboard in 25 years until they met you, but that instructor is A LIABILITY, don't make yourself another one of their statistics to recount at 'the bar' (legal or alcoholic however it may turn out for them).

Report them- trade bodies, yachting NZ, local press, whoever will listen... the first duty of care as a sailor is to look after our own.  You may as well learn this, if nothing else from the course.  Unfortunately that starts now, and is something you really ought to do given your most recent experience.  

For the benefit of whomever you report it to, write down the date, approximate time and location of the Man Overboard situation.  They will then be able to look at local weather stations, and pre-sailing forecasts, to assess whether it was safe to go afloat.  Also provide them with the ratio of students to instructor, the level of the students (hours sailing by best estimate) and detail the safety gear and offshore clothing provided and instructed to wear.