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Those of you that have read 'Tales of the Riverbank', might believe that there's "nothing but nothing so absolutely wonderful as messing about in boats", but I'm pretty sure Badger and Ratty hadn't been on the weather rail all night, downwind of a projectile-vomiting Toad.
'Mal de mer' as the French would say, is basically motion sickness; the disconnect between what your eyes are seeing and what your balance receptors are telling your brain. It causes the body to react and it makes you feel nauseous - and sometimes vomit; sometimes spectacularly. In itself this is nothing but unpleasant, although in severe and prolonged cases it can cause dehydration and therefore result in further complications. It is therefore imperative that you keep an eye on a sufferer and encourage them (without nagging) to keep sipping water even if they are feeling very ill. Remember too, if you are taking medication, including the contraceptive pill, you are in danger of losing its beneficial effects after a bout of vomiting - even once home. If you suffer in cars or on flights, it is more likely that you will need to medicate when at sea in rough weather. Common sense would suggest that if you already know that you suffer, be prepared. The key is to medicate early (12 hours before you sail) if the remedies are to have a chance to work.
SUGGESTED PACKING FOR LEVEL 1 (THIS IS PRETTY EXCESSIVE)
Base Layers (keeps you 'un moist' - wicks away moisture)
The boat must come first. That means putting together a full list of things to do and allocating crew to each task. You may have a long list of things to see and do, but there is a real possibility that a lot of them will have to be cancelled if the boat needs work. I say this now because, in my experience of two races, this becomes a real gripe amongst some crew.
The fact is, even with the excellent support offered by the small team of shore crew, you will be busy during the stopover and you will be required to give time to the boat in one way or another. Part of the fun of circumnavigating is (or at least it was for me) being part of the circus that travels around the World every other year. Some ports are bigger than others and each one has its own charms. I will promise you one thing. After 3 or 4 weeks racing across an ocean, making landfall is a very pleasant experience! But when you get to the finish it's not all parties and story-swapping. There is work to be done - and sometimes lots of it. Also, if you happen to have had a bad race and finished late, you have less time in which to do this work. Simply put, no - you can be a complete sailing-virgin. You don't need to have sailed before in order to do the Clipper Training - but you most certainly must do the training. In fact, if you've done no sailing whatsoever, it might actually help a bit during L1 training. Why?
Well, those that have done 'a little sailing' tend to have picked up bad habits; habits that they might have been able to get away with on a smaller boat but habits that cannot be tolerated on bigger boats.
BEFORE LEVEL 1 TRAINING
The RYA Syllabus has a logbook in the back which most sailors use for logging their miles and qualifications. If you intend to continue sailing, buy a logbook and get your skipper to sign it at the end of the course - at the debriefing. You need to decide what is useful to you. If you're a non-sailor just buy the Competent Crew book and knots book (or an app). Day Skipper is a bit too advanced. Before L2, reading the easy-to-read books on sail trim would be a great idea.
Before Level 2 TrainingLevel 2 is spent largely at sea. After building on level 1 training, you'll be off to experience spending time in a watch system. An ideal opportunity to put into practice sail trim and 'tweaking'. Go play! That's what you are at sea for after all. Team Spirit is just an interesting read.
Before Level 3 and 4 TrainingLevel 3 concentrates on spinnaker work and race tactics. By now, learning about the weather is also a good idea. There are books produced by the RYA which cover Northern and Southern hemisphere. Dependent on which leg you are racing, consider buying and reading one. They are well illustrated and easy to read.
First - During my time as a Training Skipper for Clipper - and for other schools - there have always been two things that could sometimes cause confusion. Neither is complicated, but it's easy to over-think them.
One is the process of reefing and throwing out reefs - the other is the proper use of back stays when tacking. In fact, someone asked me about back stays just the other day, so I will try and address the issue in detail here; 1. What are back stays for? The basic role of the back stay is to help brace the mast when underway, more particularly (but not exclusively) when the stay sail is set. The line that makes up the back stay is effectively part of the rig in the same way as the shrouds, fore stay and back stay, although unlike this 'standing rigging', the back stays can be set or not set. They are effectively, 'running' rigging for this reason. The decision on whether the back stays are set or not is something that your skipper and watch leaders will make, but in every case I can think of, when the stay sail is up and working, one back stay should always be working. The reason for this is obvious when you stand back and look at where the windward back stay goes to on the mast. It offers additional bracing to the mast to counteract pressure from the inner stay, upon which the stay sail is affixed. The windward back stay (on the high side) is the 'working' back stay and this is structural. The leeward back stay is 'lazy' and whilst it is lazy it is not structural. However, during the tack, we also use the lazy back stay and tricing line for another purpose (namely to protect crew that are located midships from flogging yankee sheets). I will go into this later. When the stay sail is down (for example when going down wind) we might still set the windward running backstay, to help brace the mast. 2. Why do we want 'back stays back' before a tack? When you sit down and think about it, this too is obvious.
I recently came across a post on a #ClipperCrew what's app group. Thanks Keith for the tip! You can buy a vacuum pump and various bags for just over a tenner on Amazon and the result is that packing your Ocean Sleepwear bag just got a whole lot more manageable!
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