Finally splashed and in a slip
of online and traditional classroom resources can help acquire knowledge about a new boat and increase your boating skills in a structured and safe manner. Listening intently during the Art of Anchoring presentation at our local
boat show, I agreed that most of it made sense, but nothing improved our anchoring technique as much as the repetitive practice of dropping and setting the hook from our own bow. Sometimes consulting others with a similar type of boat yields fresh tactics
To find a boat perfectly suited for our cruising plans was thrilling, but even before the celebratory cham- pagne bubbles had a chance to tickle my nose, I knew I wanted my introduction to the trawler life to be a bit more methodical than my first impetuous ocean crossing. My mind began turning over a couple of very serious questions: • How do we gain the basic knowledge of operating and maintaining the mechanical and electrical systems of our new boat? • How do we learn to maneuver safely to and from the dock and feel confident exploring beyond the breakwater? When we bought our first boat, we gravitated toward the “learn by doing” method of mostly figuring out things on our own, which didn’t always work out as planned. Fortunately, nowadays a multitude
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WINTER 2022
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