[Tamaroa]

Top ten items learned in sailing instruction

(10) The boom gets its name from the sound you hear when it hits your head.

(9) You can secure pretty much anything with a bowline knot.

(8) When the opposite rail goes under the water, you are about to capsize, and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it.

(7) It is much easier to right a capsized boat when you remembered to put the center-board down. (Because you can pull, then sit, on it.)

(6) When re-boarding after a capsize, climb in at the STERN. Anything else is asking for a repeat capsize.

(5) Tacking is much easier than jibing. In fact, jibing should probably be banned by federal law.

(4) If you doubt the modern physical theory that space has six extra "hidden" dimensions, meet the TILLER EXTENSION.

(3) Sheets, halyards, stays and shrouds are all different things. None of them is the same as the other. They just LOOK the same.

(2) It is much harder than you would think to know where the wind is coming from. And when you have finally figured it out and got the boat moving, by the law of vector addition, the wind is now coming from a DIFFERENT place.

(1) You can't do ANYTHING with a sail boat if it isn't moving.