ASA 201

So, in order to help Lisa with SailTime, I had to get my ASA 201 certification, which lets me teach ASA 101 Basic Keelboat. Lisa and I both signed up for a class with Capt. Mary. The first night, we graded our 101 and 103 tests that we took prior to the class. Friday, we did presentations on various topics. Mine was Figure 8 Crew Overboard drill. Everybody got shredded. Friday afternoon, we had to singlehand an old Ranger 26, a boat most of us had never been on before. We had to do an obstacle course where we had to tack between bouys, jibe, wing on wing, heave to, reef, and the man overboard thing. Because Capt. Mary was so negative and hypercritical, we were all on pins and needles and making silly mistakes. I did pretty well considering, but she still was overly critical of my tacking. Anyhoo, we did a post-mortem Friday night and got out of there after 9pm. Saturday, we finished our presentations (I had to do mine again because she made me so nervous). We then took a watered-down version of the Coast Guard exam. I had an unfair advantage as I just took that class a couple weeks ago. We then headed back out to the boats to perform as teachers with a class. All six of us crammed onto the Ranger 26 and Capt. Mary was so critical of us, I almost told her to do it. She criticized my tacking, but I couldn't swing the tiller because there were people in the cockpit. We were out there until sunset, and headed home after everybody got a turn being the instructor. I was starting to be a little punchy with the tension release, since we were almost done. When we got back, we graded the tests. I got a 95% and got out of there ASAP. As we were leaving, Capt. Mary signed our ASA log books, and she also qualified me for ASA 103, which means I can take 203 ASAP. Poor Lisa had another class to take the next day, and I had to work at West Marine. Kim had some friends over for a dinner party, and when I got there, they were watching bad 80's videos on YouTube. All in all, a negative experience with the class. I'm deciding whether to write ASA a letter about Capt. Mary's teaching technique.

My First Attempt at a Diagram
(Capt. Mary tore it apart)