Point of Sail
I love sailing. I haven’t sailed in years though. My dad taught me how to navigate Highland Lake in Bridgton, Maine when I was just a young lad. We had a little red Sunfish sailboat made of fiberglass. It was small, flat, and was decked out with a little cockpit in the center with a tiny plug in the floor to let out the water that sloshed around at our feet. The drain plug only worked when you were making some headway so you learned quickly when to open it and when to keep it tight. The daggerboard was raised and lowered by hand. Just a piece of 1×12 curved at the bottom. The boat as a whole was really quite simple to sail and it was fun.
When we were young, the art of the capsize was king. We would purposely turtle that little boat to see if we could right her again. We’d put all of our might into pulling on the dagger board by standing on the hull while the water held the sail beneath the surface. Finally, it would give way and the sail would come soaring out of the water shaking itself free and raining down on us as we jumped out of the way.
I learned a lot while sailing. One of the most important aspects to understand about skippering a sailboat was how the wind and the sail fought eachother for control. I remember asking why we would aim toward the wind, and then, as if by magic, the boat would move in that general direction. Amazing. In sailing this is referred to as tacking into the wind. The boat moves forward with the same motive force in play as that of an airplane wing lifts the plane at takeoff. Baffling really, but somehow possible. The idea is to go as close to head-on into the wind to the point at which the sail begins to take on wind on the opposite side and flutter. This requires constant adjustment of the rudder and the reach of the sail, which helps to maintain the position of the boat relative to the wind. Through it all, a keen sailor fixes his eye on a point across the shore and lets the “feel” of the boat be his mentor. It is an awesome experience to be at that point where you’ve found the “pocket” (a bass player term, sorry) and you begin to realize the power of the wind as it’s harnessed and you literally fly across the water.
I suppose navigating life requires some of these tactics. You fix your eye to the target. You become aware of your surroundings. You begin to understand the forces that exist in nature and learn who controls them. You hold just tight enough to not let go. You never look behind you, always looking ahead.
Careful… the minute you let go of the sail (the very device whose purpose is to harness your power source), you run the risk of losing your direction or getting banged in the head by an angry and out of control boom (that’s the bottom most horizontal beam). When this occurs you’ll usually end up going opposite of where you were heading or stuck “in irons” where you actually are being pushed backwards by the wind. A frustrating place to be. And a headache too.
So keep the mainsail full, position the rudder well, and keep your eye on the opposite shore. You’ll experience the most fun you can know.
I hope you enjoyed this Watercooler Wednesday treat.
Welcome to my new and improved Icon Tact blog. This is really a source for all that I’m doing now. It’s a work in progress as I’ve had to migrate all of my settings from the original site to this one. This site runs on Wordpress now instead of Movable Type and Typepad. Is so much easier to work with from plugins to widgets to just general maintenance. Oh, and it’s free with my hosting plan. So I get the domain name, email addresses, my own server space, and more for under $10 a month. Can’t beat that. Please adjust your bookmarks.
I just watched my friend John Scott Evans on CBS playing with George Takei. It was Secret Talents of the Stars or something like that. Guitar was really good. Singing, not so good. Just the same, it was a lot of fun to see.
