Points of sail for the spatially challenged

posted in: Highlights, Sailing 1

Mel is trying to refresh her sailing knowledge over the Winter, since it has already started EVEN THOUGH IT IS STILL FALL.  One thing she struggled with learning was the “Points of Sail”, which is a diagram that demonstrates the different angles that the boat can take to the wind.  You do slightly different things at each angle.  This diagram normally looks something like this:

I pulled this off the internet somewhere.
I pulled this off the internet somewhere.

This is a nice, organized diagram that Mel has found to be COMPLETELY USELESS.  Why?  Because this diagram is “wind-centered.”  But Mel is “self-centered.”  And so having to orient her mind to the wind, figure out the reach, and then extrapolate back again to her visual field so she can answer the question, “If I want to turn that way, will I have to tack?” was way too confusing for her.  She is spatially not the sharpest.  It took her 15 minutes to make it from the 7th floor of St. Mary’s to the 8th floor once.  Luckily the patient she was trying to get to was already dead.

So Mel once again made a “Rosetta Stone” that she uses to translate a perfectly good diagram into a language her screwy brain can understand.  It’s the main image in this post.  She is going to put it by the sink and stare at it while she brushes her teeth.  Now all she has to figure out is how to remove the conditioned learning part, so she doesn’t have to brush her teeth while sailing in order to know what reach she is on.  Because that would be weird.

  1. Robert
    | Reply

    It could be worse. She could have put this diagram on the wall in front of the toilet. Try to remove that ‘conditioned learning’ while sailing. You might have to put the head on the deck.

Leave a Reply to Robert Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *