Basic Keelboat Sailing

In April, 2007, I took a BKS class at Spinnaker Sailing in Redwood City, CA. We sailed 22' Santanas on Saturday and Sunday of two weekends in a row. Mornings were spent in the classroom, and afternoons out on the water. We stayed in the channel the whole time, so the winds were relatively light, and the water was flat.

The on-the-water part was much harder than I thought. I've been working out with a trainer at the gym for almost 5 years and have pretty good upper-body strength. But 3-4 hours of pulling ropes was more than I was used to. I went home after each class sore and tired, thinking I wouldn't go back.

Leslie Waters was my instructor, and he's very tough. He teaches more than the class level requires and makes you get it right. I now realize I learned a tremendous amount from Leslie, but it was tough going during the classes.

On the third day (the Saturday of the second weekend), I was exhausted and driving home when I checked my phone messages and discovered that my sister was in the hospital with a compression fracture in her spine. Needless to say, I missed the test the next day and didn't get certified.

After spending the next two weeks with family and getting my sister through surgery and finally back home, I went back and took the BKS test with Doug, another instructor at Spinnaker, and passed with flying colors.

I decided I needed to get some experience before taking the next level class, so I joined the sailing club at Spinnaker, got on some sailing crew lists, and let people know that I'm available to crew any weekend. I actually got some invitations right away and started crewing on Merit 25s with more experienced folks. That got me started with recreational sailing, and I discovered that it's much easier to just go out and sail than anything I ever did in my class. That class prepared me very well, and I was really starting to enjoy sailing.