[audio:https://www.jonathannation.com/jon0010two-new-sailors.mp3]
[download MP3 – 6:00]
Today most of my family went out to a lake. It was great weather, but the best thing was the people who had not been sailing before.
The first new people in a boat were my babies. One seemed to do well & went off with one of my sisters. She wanted to stand up in the boat, but took the idea of sitting pretty well. The other went out with me and was upset before we even got into a boat. I’m not sure what it was, but when our two boats got close enough both babies ended up crying. They might not be sailors for life at this point, but at under the age of two there is still time.
Then the highlight for me — two new sailing people. Because of the light wind, and we really wanted stable boats, we decided to use some of the club Optimist’s (or Opti) which has basically two parts & is very hard to overturn. They enjoyed it. 
That’s two new sailors for me. I think I’m going to see how many people I can get to sail a boat on their own this year. If you love sailing, I challenge you to do the same.
When introducing people to sailing, I like little boats. Boats that are simple where the individual can focus on two things:
– steering
– main sail
The opti is a good boat for this, and so is the Laser, my favorite boat. The instant feedback of adjusting the rudder, tiller, tiller extender, or mainsheet is great for picking up how sailing works. Then if you want to move to larger boats, you can learn about jibs, blocks, cranks, etc.
How many people do you expect to get sailing a boat on their own this year?
