The first principle is that no boat can sail directly into the wind. Every boat can sail down wind. So, the best angle is 45 degrees to the wind. My teaching analogy is a huge clock on the surface of the water and if the wind is always blowing from 12 the highest you can sail is either 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock. You will learn to sail on a zigzag course upwind, but sailing from the 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock, those are all your reaches. They are very, very easy to run at 6 o'clock and it is just a matter of learning at any given angle to the wind regardless of what kind of boat it is. There is one correct way to position your sail and that is what it is all about. I am not a diehard sailor in the sense that I prefer sailboats over powerboats.
When people ask if I like sailing more than motorboats, I tell them that I like the thrills that boats provide. Sailors don't figure out sailing intuitively. If you came down to run a boat and you have no idea of how to sail, you are not going to figure it out. Sailing is something that has to be taught. We teach it within ten hours of hands on training and some people pick it up in 4-5 hours. Others will take the full ten hours and some additional time until they have got it. People can go and buy a 21 foot ski boat and it has got a key and it has got a throttle and is has got a battery and car motor inside and that's it. They back down the trailer into the water and they fire it up and off they go. They can handle it without training. I don't recommend it. I think if you have nothing else you can go to the US coast guard and take some of the free sail boating courses. I see people all the time launch from our ramp and they go straight up the river towards the Wilson Bridge. In fact, that real shallow water. They haven't learned that they have to have the blower on for four minutes before they fire up a motor for basic safety. We find people who are interested in sailing are willing to pay to learn so they don't go through the school of hard knocks. I don't see the same in the powerboat community. Hopefully they will get some sort of training from the dealer where they bought the boat.
