Learn to Sail

All necessary topics are covered, including boarding the boat, terminology, setting the sails, a few knots, points of sail, maneuvers (i.e. tacking and gibing) and rescuing a crew member overboard -- to name but a few. The presentation is concise and easy to understand.

The footage is culled from a week long course, so there are one or two scenes that touch from each principle area of Steve's instruction. The participants are clearly actually learning to sail. The errors they make are not edited out, so you can see the result of making them. Near the end, Steve states that the course MUST be taken while getting some practical experience as well. This is very important. View the presentation a few times prior to going out, then review it again between sails, and you'll get the maximum benefit. Repeat as needed.

Drawbacks:

The conversion to DVD apparently had a few minor problems -- i.e.: when the highlight is on 'PLAY' and you push your select button, the CHAPTER menu is presented. Conversely, if 'CHAPTER' is highlighted and you press select, the DVD plays from the beginning. If you use the CHAPTER menu, the very first chapter is not an available choice for some reason. If on the other hand you simply play the DVD, you will see the mysterious first chapter -- explaining a bit about the Soling.

The program is also a bit dated. For example, if you were born after 1965, you won't recognize these actors; the term 'Man overboard' is used instead of the politically correct 'Crew Overboard'; and the music score is kind of hokey -- but the skills required for sailing haven't changed, so who cares? I don't...

Overall I rate this 4-stars, since the required skills are covered well, and the drawbacks mentioned above are aesthetic or mechanical and do not affect the content. If you are a newbie sailor, and you are learning the sport on your own, this is a must have DVD.


Sail Away, Far Away   August 20, 2006
Traveller (High Mountains of Northern Arizona)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Steve Colgate is probably the best know sailing instructor in the US. This video let's him down.

The professional actors in the video are useless, other than the blonde adding a little color. Steve would have been better off standing there by himself, teaching the viewer. In parts of the video, there is clearly noisy shipyard work in the background. It's hard to hear Steve speak.

You may pick up some of the basic vocabulary, but that's it.

I highly recommend Bud Foulke's "Sailing With Confidence video." I bought both on Amazon.