Free Sailing Course - Basic Sail Trim

By: Captain Grant Headifen (United States Coast Guard 50 Ton Master)
Director of Education For NauticEd Sailing School (and pretty decent sailor)

Foreword by Captain Grant Headifen

(Skip my rant and go directly to The free Basic Sail Trim course)

Free Sailing Course by Grant HeadifenHi, the NauticEd FREE Sailing Course on Basic Sail Trim is, well... FREE. The material is extracted from our full sail trim clinic and is a representation of our other NauticEd sailing courses. PLUS we've added a bonus Module 5 to discuss the highly relevant America's Cup Winged Sail configuration and its advantages with reduced drag and improved angle of attack using diagrams to help understand the force vectors.

Whether you're learning to sail, or you're an advanced sailor, take this free mini course now - it will take you about 30 minutes to get through the material, I guarantee you'll learn something. The basic concepts of sail trim are explained using multimedia interactive html5 animation technology, meaning you'll have various trim controls at your mouse tip and you'll be watching wind effects right in front of your eyes on your computer screen.

It's the 21st century way of learning to sail. You'll fully grasp the concepts here using e-learning technology, then we encourage you to get out on the water with one of our professional affiliated sailing schools and practice with a proper understanding. You'll then save time with the sailing instructor on these basics and be able to concentrate on the more advanced sailing techniques.

Using the interactive controls and animations, you'll be blown away (sorry for the pun) by your new understanding of this sail trim material and you'll no longer get frustrated when trying to explain the concept to others. If a picture is worth 1000 words then an interactive animation is worth infinity.

And finally, if you skipper your own sailboat, you're probably pretty versed with the material here and ready for the most advanced NauticEd sailing school courses. But we suggest, at the very least,  send your crew to take the FREE Sailing Course. Then next time you go sailing, watch them make your sailboat go a knot or two faster. There is no other sailing course in the world that explains sail trim using such hi-tech e-learning methods.

So grab a cappuccino sit back and watch sail trim unfold in front of your eyes. Then, once you've figured out that we're the best at explaining this stuff you might try some of our other sailing courses and start to build your globally recognized sailing certification.

Fair winds,

Grant Headifen
Director of Education
NauticEd International Sailing School

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Go now to the NauticEd FREE Basic SailTrim course. The course is extensive and has many animations that will help you understand dozens of sailtrim concepts. The course has nearly 20,000 reviews and has an average rating of 4.95 star.

Check out the full NauticEd FREE Basic SailTrim course now!


Table Of Contents

Module 1 - The Easy Stuff
1.1 Nomenclature
1.2 True Wind vs Apparent Wind
1.3 Understanding How Airflow creates lift
1.3.1 The Need for Smooth Airflow
1.3.2 When Turbulent Flow Happens
1.3.3 Air Flow Over Sails
1.3.4 Best angle to the wind
Module 1 Test

Module 2 - Sails and Forces
2.1 Boat Heading vs Sail Set and Forces on the Sail.
2.1.1 Going Downwind
2.1.2 Going Upwind
2.1.3 Plywood vs Wing
2.2 NED - The Sailing Instructor
2.3 Luffing and Back Winding
2.4 Lifts and Knocks
2.5 Telltales
2.6 The Job as a Sail Trimmer
2.7 Keeping the Telltales Flying Steady
2.7.1 Steering the boat with the sails held constant
2.7.2 Holding a constant heading but adjusting the sails
Module 2 Test

Module 3 Basic Telltale Control
3.1 Basic Telltale Control
3.1.1 Controlling the telltales by trimming the sail.
3.1.2 Controlling the telltales by making course adjustments
Module 3 Test

Module 4 - Advanced controls
4.1 Twist
4.2 More Twist
4.3 High Wing and Gust Management
4.4 An Apparent Wind Exercise
Module 4 Test

Module 5 Bonus Module
5.1 Sail and Winged Sail Wind Force Vector Diagrams
Module 5 Test

 

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