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)

Captain's Class

So, since I told you about the interviews, I thought I'd tell you a bit about the classes I've been taking. The first class was the 100 Ton Master's Near Coastal with Towing & Sailing endorsements. This was a two week class class that culminates with a rather tough standardized test. Kim and Jon ponied up the cash for the class, for which I will be forever grateful, from BigMop proceeds to invest in my education. This gave me a great incentive to give it everything I had. I even stopped drinking in the evenings because I had so much homework.

Anyhoo, Arnstein Mustad, a sailing bigwig out here, taught the class at OCSC, just down the road near the marina in Berkeley. I was a little nervous going in, but the material was presented in a straightforward way, and the class built on itself. We had daily quizzes over the previous night's assignment, so you could really gauge your progress. We covered Rules of the Road, directly from the COLREGS, we covered safety, fire fighting, deck and boat handling, seamanship, weather, aids to navigation, charting, etc. I of course loved anything to do with the charts and math. We covered dead reckoning, set and drift of tidal current, three line of position fix, running fix, etc.

At the end of the first week, I felt things were going along nicely, although I was overwhelmed with the volume of material we were being held responsible for. I was looking forward to a break over the weekend to decompress. That's when he gave us homework for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! I also had to work at West Marine on Sunday, so I did my Friday homework Friday night, and took nine hours on Saturday to do the other two day's worth. Whew! Friday's class was also Hawaiian shirt day, so I pulled out my most obnoxious Parrothead shirt and shamed the whole class and got a Maritime Institute hat for my trouble.

Monday we hit it hard again, and Friday's test started to loom. We covered another week's worth of stuff and the test finally came around. Thursday night, he suggested we not study. There was no homework. If you didn't know it now, it was too late. I did just a little bit of memory work to keep sharp, and we relaxed. I felt in good shape for the test because my daily quizzes hat hit 100%. I took my time during the test, and felt very prepared for the material. I was actually the last guy in the class to finish. Nice and slow, since it wasn't a timed test. It felt like forever for him to grade it, but he finally said, "Congratulations Captain Larsen." Whew. I actually got the hightest cumulative grade in the class, with 100% on Rules of the Road and Charting, 93% on another section, and 96% on the other.

I can't tell you how happy and proud I am of having had this opportunity. It had been a goal of mine for many years to accomplish before I turned 40. It has also opened a lot of doors for me in the sailing community out here and has prequalified me for several job opportunities. I'm looking forward to getting all of the paperwork finished and taking down to the Oakland USCG Regional Exam Center. I just received my drug screening, I've got all of my letters of recommendation and sea service documentd. The only thing left is the American Red Cross Adult CPR and First Aid classes, which I'm currently working on registering for. Once I get my ticket, I'll start at Club Nautique. I'm actually certified to skipper a boat that can have up to 320 passengers. Scary, huh? Thanks for all the support from everyone!

What To Do Now...

So, in order to make use of the rather expensive captain's license, I've been diligently looking for work in the sailing milieu out here.

All last week, I'd been trying to get an "interview" with OCSC, the school where I took the captain's class. It looked like a top notch organization, so I wrote up a resume and cover letter and sent it in. The CEO e-mailed me back and said he'd like to get together for a test sail when the weather was conducive (meaning 15+ knots). I was basically on-call for the entire week, constantly checking in to see what the wind was like in Berkeley, and constantly waiting for the CEO to call me back. In the mean time, I built shelves for the garage to free up space for the shop. Of course, the CEO wanted to get together on Thursday afternoon, but I already had a job interview at Club Nautique scheduled.

Thursday afternoon came around, so I headed over to Club Nautique, a US Sailing school on Alameda. I got dressed up in my California interview clothes, which consisted of a Tommy Bahama shirt and dress slacks, and went to their office. We had a nice chat and he asked if I had time for a sail. Since I'd had such a hassle with OCSC, I said, "Sure", donned a moldy orange life jacket, and we headed out to a Colgate 26, a boat I've never sailed before. He told me I was to act like I was the instructor and he was the student. I pretty much nailed everything but forgetting to bring the fenders in. There were some interesting philosophical and terminology differences between my experience and a US Sailing school, but they just provided fodder for discussion. I also nailed a fender overboard drill first time, using the Figure Eight method, so I was pretty happy about that. Once he put me through my paces, he shook my hand and said, "You know your shit." Then he reiterated that as soon as I get my license in hand, they'll get me on the water. We had a nice sail back into Ballena Bay Marina, and I drove home slightly mussed and sunburned, but feeling very positive about the experience and Club Nautique.

Friday, the CEO was finally able to fit me into his schedule. I ran over there in the afternoon. He told me to check out a boat and set it up, he'd be down there in a bit. It was a J24, another boat I'd never been on before, so I did my best. He kept me waiting for almost an hour after I had the boat as ready to go as possible. When he did finally show up, he had on over $1000 worth of foul weather gear on, compared to my shorts, jacket and PFD. We looked at each other and I knew we were philosophically very different sailors. Then we discussed how I'd rigged the boat wrong. Come to find out, the jib halyard had been pulled to the top of the mast, so I could only use the spinnaker halyard to rig the jib. We sailed out of the slip and he put me through some serious maneuvers (i.e. tacking every five seconds until he said stop). I think I did rather well on a boat that is considerably more performance oriented than anything I'd ever sailed before. He said that I was knowledgeable, but I wasn't ready for a J24. I thanked him for his time and we sailed back in. He let me put the boat away too. I did my best, considering it a test of my character, thanked him on my way out and drove home feeling like I'd just failed an Olympic tryout on a boat I'd never sailed before. I vented for a while when I got home, and we decided I didn't want to work at a place like that anyway, we're cruisers not racers. He should've spared us both by determining I had no racing experience on a J24, which is all they evidently care about, not about my ability to teach sailing. I'm glad I had the previous experience with Club Nautique, or I would've been pretty dejected.

Saturday, we stood in line all day at the Oakland Parks & Recreaction Job Fair. It was rather obvious from the demographics that not many were there to apply for the sailing instructor position with Lake Merritt Boating Center. Unfortunately, we all had to stand in the same line. For the same reason, it wasn't difficult to deduce who the other sailing candidates were, so we ended up getting grouped together and chatting. During the conversation, it came up that one guy had taught at Lake Merritt before, one guy was an Eagle Scout, one guy had sailed on the Chesapeake, and I had my captain's license. Once I said that, Mr. Chesapeake said, "I guess you'll get the job then" and promptly stopped talking to me. Finally, four hours later, I got to my interview with Captain Sarah, the lady with whom I'd been e-mailing with about the CraigsList ad. She apologized, saying this is the worst she'd ever seen it. I thought to myself, "Oakland has 11% unemployment, what did you expect?" I told her the last job fair I was in was 1986, and I just walked up to the booth for the job I was applying for, a much more efficient method than what I'd just experienced. Anyway, she was very cool. I told her about my licensing experience, that I was getting ASA 101 Instructor certified this week, and that I had a job waiting for me at Club Nautique where I'll get US Sailing Instructor certified. I mentioned that I was interested in their "Science of the Bay" daysail offering. She asked if I had a science background. I promptly replied, "I'm a Mechanical Engineer from the Missouri Institute of Science & Technology, I'm all about the science." I also inquired about the overnight trip to Angel Island, which I thought sounded like a fun thing to do with a boatload of munchkins. We shook hands, and she said it would take them a couple of weeks to make their call list.

Yesterday, I took my whiz quiz for my captain's license, which was quite an adventure. The "clinic" was a hole in the wall in downtown Oakland. When I gave the doctor my "sample", he spilled it all over his desk while pouring it into the "go-cups" (pun intended) that are sent off to the lab. He didn't seem perturbed about this. I neglected to shake his hand upon exiting the clinic. Also, they only took cash.

I then ran over to Club Nautique to take the US Sailing exam, which is part of their hiring procedure. I got a 99%, and was miffed that the one I missed, I had waffled on. They congratulated me on my score and said they wished I had my license, as they needed me to work this weekend. I assured them that I am diligently working on my checklist for the license. I forgot to mention that the other day, when the CN guy saw my resume, he wanted to get me on the fast-track to instructing as advanced classes as I could handle (their pay scale is commensurate). I assured him that I was interested in advancing as far as I could and I told him I was currently working on an online Intro to Celestial Navigation class. He mentioned that they're developing their own online school. I promptly mentioned that Kim does large websites. Club Nautique takes several boatloads of their students out to the Farrallone's and down to Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay for multi-day offshore classes.

Today, I'm finishing up my preparations for my ASA 201 class tonight with Lisa Chapin. She's doing 201 and 203 so she can open up a school and we can certify SailTime members. I'll eventually move up the ranks in ASA, just like I plan on doing with US Sailing at Club Nautique.

Last night, we had some excitement. Kim hired a new cleaning lady, so they went through the place yesterday pretty thoroughly. After Kim had gone to band, I went to work on my captain's license stuff, but my folder was gone. They had inadvertently thrown it away because I set it on top of my trashcan. So I got to spend a half an hour digging through our dumpster. Today is trash day, so if I hadn't noticed the missing paperwork, it could be at the dump by now. Whew!

Next week, it's finding an American Red Cross approved Adult CPR and First Aid class, my California driver's license, and helping Lisa get ready for the Strictly Sail boat show. Other than that, not much going on out here...

Who's Your Captain Now?

So, after two weeks of HELL, I passed my Master's 100 Ton Near Coastal US Coast Guard test yesterday. I actually got the highest score in the class. It was pretty difficult, but well worth it. I can now skipper a vessel with 320 passengers or up to 100 gross tons of displacement (Length x Beam x Draft x 0.5)/100. I also got the Sailing and Towing endorsements, so I can do that for money too.

In CA, you need a captain's license to teach sailing. I've already talked to Club Nautique, OCSC, and Lake Merritt Boating Center about teaching positions. Captain Lisa, Miss SailTime - San Francisco, is probably going to have me do some teaching for her members, once I get ASA certified as an instructor.

We've also talked about having me skipper a 41 footer for daysail charters on SF's Pier 39 for tourists during the week. That would be a pretty cool gig if it works out.

The Captain, Arnstein Mustad, who taught the class does a lot of yacht deliveries, so I'm now on his list to crew for him. He's a big wig out here in the sailing community and starting one of the popular lists. I found out that I can also teach the OUPV class now that I'm licensed. The down side is that getting a DWI in a car will cause you to lose your captain's license, as well as a 0.04 while on the water, so it's a big responsibility.

In addition to the ASA certification for SailTime, I need to get US Sailing certified also to teach in some of the schools mentioned above. The ASA class in later this month, so I'll be back in the classroom. Fortunately, it should be a cake walk after what I just went through. Also, much cheaper.

Anyhoo, sorry for the lack of blogging. Once I got my hand working again, we've been REALLY busy. The next blog will be about the new place we just moved into in the Oakland Hills.