Miami Snipe Fleet

I have come up with a group of exercises on the water for the purpose of training a new crew that may be interesting:

 Departing from a mark that you can drop or a selected channel marker if there is one without heavy traffic (from now on the “leeward” mark).  Go upwind tacking and tacking for a couple of minutes or more until  you are about a 100 or 150 yards to weather of the “leeward” mark, then turn downwind pretending you are rounding an imaginary “weather” mark. Round the “weather” mark and set pole. The next time around, round the “weather” mark, instead of a set,  first jibe and then set pole out.

Go downwind  jibing a few times and round the “leeward” mark approaching on starboard tack to round to port, or in the next roundings, approaching on port to round to port and also the same two approaches but rounding the mark to starboard.  On the approach to rounding the “leeward” mark go through the exercise of preparation to round the mark: outhaul, jib cloth, let pole in 6″ (to be able to trim the jib halyard all the way in), centerboard down, pole in and anything else you need to do to round the “leeward” mark.

After rounding go upwind again, tacking and tacking for about a minute or two, then turn the imaginary weather mark again, on a set or a jibe (alternating) and go downind again jibing and jibing and round that “leeward” mark again on a different approach as the previous one.

This will nicely tie in after our Snipe Clinic. Please, check this out. Let me know if you like it or if you can see any improvements to the procedure.

Thanks,   Gonzalo Diaz, Sr., Fleet Captain

The things I would add are – strength exercises (iron chair and upper
body strength), weight position in the boat,
compass reading, understanding skipper body language, observing other
boats – particularly on port tack, checking for weeds,
and obstructions in the water, taking notice of the working mechanisms
of the boat (lines, cleats, blocks, etc.) to be sure there are
no broken parts and everything is trimmed properly, looking for
wind-lines and puffs – particularly downwind. The only other
thing I can think of now is the starting line – but that comes with a
race.

Hope this helps – all best, Greg