ILYA Sailing Instructor Safety Course - 6/11/21 - Pewaukee Yacht Club

 

ILYA Sailing Counselor Course - 5/1/21 - Pewaukee Yacht Club

Seventeen of our newest, youngest coaches met May 1^st at Pewaukee for instruction and discussion on safety, class management, and professional approach to the responsibilities facing coaches. Emlie Barkow Veinot led the group with the able assistance of Jeff Baker. Tips of the trade were shared – for example, place names on the back of lifejackets so you can see who “is running away”. That brought a few giggles as though each coach remembered their young days in sailing school.

The instructors learned land exercises, on the water skills, and reviewed the US Sailing materials designed for this level of coach. Emlie began with icebreakers she uses to teach the students to meet each other.

Pewaukee was astir inside with our coaches and outside with dads of sailing school students preparing the PLSS boats with safety equipment which is becoming the standard. All coach boats should now be outfitted with “kill switches” – the old red coils which disengage the motor when not near the steering console. Here’s the Pewaukee trick – wear the “collar” around your leg to keep it out of the throttle mechanism while driving. It keeps your hands free for driving.

The dads were busy installing prop guards. Below are Dr. Beres and Dr. Lieber on the clock. Greg and Fritz Simon were engaged installing red and blue prop guards. It is an attractive site seeing coach boats lined up in colorful array with the newly-placed guards.  The coaches were informed to ALWAYS shut off the motor when near a boat or child in water.

Mark placement, anchoring, position of extra personnel on the coach boat, and capsize recovery were all on the agenda for the day-long course. Below, Jeff Baker, high school sailing coach or retiree who loves sailing, demonstrates skills required when on a boat. Who would believe the capacity of this boat was eight! Not an inch left over AND. . .  no stepping on tubes or sitting on the side while motor is engaged. Procedures seem to have changed a bit, unfortunately, due to incidents of injury in the last several years. The federal government has mandated, for instance, the use of ECOS (engine cut off switch) in federal waters as of April 1, 2021. Look for the Chicago coaches to lead the way as they are situated on the Great Lakes or waters leading from those lakes. The ILYA is proactively reacting to that initiative.

Covid precautions were not discussed at this clinic but Dr. Bill Lieber will be addressing this issue and other safety issues at the next Coaches Clinic in June. Register here. Dr. Bill is an emergency room physician and also serves on the Board of USODA. He has his ear to the ground and shares his knowledge freely to assure our programs and sailors are constantly aware of safety as our first priority – when teaching and when racing.

Lastly, actual resources were discussed after safety and fun were given higher priority. What to do with that aging boat? Here is an idea. Pewaukee has a rolling Opti – hull is affixed to wheels (hence, the wood in the upper right corner)- which is used for “name that part”, “how to rig” and teaching sail trim.

Thanks to the ILYA Foundation for so generously funding a good portion of this clinic. The Foundation will be underwriting some of the next clinic’s expenses as well.  Register here for the ILYA Instructors Clinic in June. Begin your year right with instruction but also a sharing of ideas amongst our coaches. This June 11^th course is designed for ALL levels of coaches. Speakers will be Emlie Veinot, Rick Roy, Ed Eckert, and Dr. Bill Lieber --- among others in the audience with experience. The students at this weekend’s course received Wetnote notebooks, a drybag with first aid equipment and the US Sailing instructional manual for entry level coaches. Next course’s inclusion will be wirecutters to add to the required arsenal of safety equipment for the prepared coach.  Thanks to Toad Hollow for securing and branding the gifts to our coaches. The items were selected with safety in mind.

These seventeen individuals are our future coaches. They learned the steps to achieve more knowledge about learning how to teach with prospective courses to attend. Sailing Schools, please plan to enable continuing education in this area. Most impressive was the attentiveness, the respectful appreciation of the task before them. Our future is in good hands indeed.

Participants:

Register here for the ILYA Coaches Clinic June 11. Fee is $40 which will cover lunch and snacks. The ILYA Foundation supports this as part of the Safety and Education Committee’s endeavors for 2021.