A few years ago, son Nick retired from the Navy after 3+ four-year tours.

But this story is about the sailing class he took when he was about 13 years-old.

We had been sailing out of Marina Del Rey for many years on my sister’s Catalina 30 sailboat. In order to keep sailing after she sold her interest in the boat, I needed to satisfy the charter company that I knew how to sail before they would rent me a boat. It was a half day hands on session where each student had to get the boat out of the slip, motor past the breakwater, set the sail, perform some basic maneuvers, and return to the slip.  You could get some help raising and lowering the sail, but everything else had to be done alone.

I signed us both up for the class.  Even though Nick wouldn’t be old enough to rent his own boat, I thought he would enjoy getting the certificate.

There were three or four other people in the class that day.  It turned out that the most difficult part of the exam was getting the boat out of the slip.

This was to be done manually.

You get on board with the boat docked and start the engine, but leave it in neutral.

Get off the boat and untie the mooring lines.

Push the boat out of the slip slowly by hand, angling it away from the main channel as it clears the end of the slip.

Then the tricky part.  You have to climb into the moving boat, get to the helm and put the motor in gear before the boat hits any of the other nearby boats.

One of the instructors stayed on the boat in case anything went wrong.  Which it did repeatedly.

Three people were unable to complete the class as they were never able, after numerous time-consuming attempts, to climb onto the moving boat.  This was in spite of the instructors wanting them to pass the test so they could pay money to rent boats.  This was in spite of them adding a little portable step on the dock to make it easier to board.

Next up was Nick.  I know some were looking at this slender kid thinking that if the adults couldn’t do it, chances are he couldn’t either.  Not only did he nail it on his first try, he didn’t actually climb, he launched himself up and over the boat rail in one move, calmly walked to the helm, put the engine in gear and we were on our way.  The rest of the exam was routine as Nick had been sailing regularly with us since he was five.

We both got our certificates.