Should ASA Instructors (and Skippers in General) Be Good Swimmers?

By: Instructors, Learn To Sail, Sailing Tips

Should You Know How to Swim to Learn to Sail? For sailors who grew up perpetually wet from ages 5 to 25, having fun righting capsized dinghies, less fun while righting turtled ones, and trapeze sailing small boats competitively in school and college, this question might seem to be axiomatic. Yet, there have been some very accomplished sailing skippers who cannot swim. Three-time America’s Cup winner, two-time Star Class World Champion, and Olympic Bronze Medalist Tempest Class sailor Dennis Conner cannot swim. British Royal Navy explorer, navigator, and cartographer Captain James Cook, who sailed thousands of miles across uncharted areas …

Tips From The Text: The Lookout Rule

By: Sailing Tips

“Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well as by all means available appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.”  – Rule 5 from the Navigation Rules (International-Inland) from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security United States Coast Guard The Navigation Rules apply equally to every vessel on the water. While they differ slightly in inland waters from international waters, and even to some degree under local jurisdictions, The Lookout Rule applies everywhere and you can …

plastic free food

Plastic-Free Provisioning

By: Cruising Tips, Environmental, Sailing Tips

ASA’s Plastic Pollution Purge campaign asked our fellow sailors to “bring back more plastic than you take to your boat”, and to have fun practicing your crew overboard drills as you recover trash on the water. But to break the vicious cycle of plastic pollution in the water we must prevent it from getting to the ocean in the first place. An analysis of our results from the Landfill Challenge showed us that most of the plastic waste we create in our day-to-day lives comes from the way we eat and drink. Since we usually do this 3 times daily, …