I
want to start...
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Video! Take
a ride around our Obstacle Course. A class does a lap around,
performing the four major sailing maneuvers. Other typical Obstacle
Coursesm scenes follow.
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| At New York Sailing Center, we don't just
put you in a classroom for awhile (and put you to sleep), and then put
you on a boat and sail around for awhile. We keep things structured,
effective and entertaining! (Of
course, there are the occasional breaks to simply absorb and enjoy.)
Our teaching aids are unmatched in the
region, if not the industry in general. Our two best examples are
the Obstacle Coursesm
and our gigantic Model Sloop.
The Obstacle Coursesm is an on-water teaching
and practice aid that makes learning much more fun and efficient.
It's also an apparent NY Sailing Center exclusive.
Some other schools occasionally employ
a model boat, but we have yet to see any others that are large enough,
can roll around a classroom floor to simulate maneuvers, or have real sails
and marine hardware. Ours has all that. |
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Why is this woman smiling? We'll show you
shortly...
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Whether it's light winds
or a blow, nothing is more
effective and fun than our
Obstacle Course.sm
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| We adapted this concept
from skiing decades ago: set some markers in the water and have the students
sail around from time to time during the course to test and sharpen their
skills.
Nothing teaches you more
quickly or effectively, and it's fun as well.
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Rick Tucker, instructor.
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... she's smiling because she just singlehanded
around our Obstacle Course!SM
You can too.
Essential skills don’t rub off on you by
just sailing around. Amazingly, however, we seem to be the only school
actually using this method,* which is now even advocated by the
American Sailing Association. Of course, our location lends itself
to this practice. Most other schools would have a hard time trying
to set marker buoys each day without running afoul of commercial traffic
or their local harbor police! |
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| Each turn around our Obstacle Coursesm
requires students to perform at least one of each basic manuever in sailing:
heading up, bearing away, tacking & jibing. Almost more importantly,
it makes them do it "now." Each student sails to buoy A, has to
perform some maneuver, then on to B where a different maneuver is required,
and so on.
Sailing around the course also gives students
strong confidence in passing close to other objects, which is critical
to maneuvering around docks, crowded anchorages, and on busy summer days
with lots of boat traffic. And while no sailing school is deliberately
trying to cheat you by allowing you to simply sail in a straight line,
it's just too easy to fall into that trap without a regimen.
One of our competitors, a large school,
claims that they give more "quality time" than any other sailing school
- a very bold claim (and how exactly did they arrive at that conclusion?
C'mon - there are over 400 sailing schools in the US alone!). Our
Obstacle Coursesm is one of the ways
we deliver on our promise - to give you MORE of what you go to sailing
school for! |
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