Difference between revisions of "Offshore2026"

Revision as of 13:01, 23 January 2026

2026 Bluewater IAP Shore School

Bluewater Winter Sessions are a chance to dive deeper into sailing topics than we're often able to do on the water, and to get to know the program if you're new. The slides from certain sessions are below.

Tue Jan 6: Intro to Bluewater Sailing - Teresa Augustin, Scott Dynes

Bluewater Winter Sessions are a chance to dive deeper into sailing topics than we're often able to do on the water, and to get to know the program if you're new.

This session is specifically for sailors new to MIT Bluewater. It's a conversation and Q&A: learn more about how to expand your MIT sailing onto Boston Harbor and beyond.

Note: all Bluewater Winter Sessions will meet in classroom 2-131. For this intro session, just drop in. No sign-up necessary.

Slides from this session: File:MIT IAP 2026 Intro to BW 002a presented.pdf

Tue Jan 20: Navigation 2 - Electronic Navigation - Scott Dynes, Sandy Wells, Frances Hartwell, Libby Meier

In this session we will build on the foundation of the previous session, covering the use of electronic navigation (using OpenCPN on e.g. laptops) and chartplotters (e.g. the B&G system on Mashnee). Please bring a laptop to this session with OpenCPN installed and ENC charts for Region 2 (Block Is. to the Canadian border).

In this session we will be going over:

The basics of how to get around OpenCPN

• Using OpenCPN to plan a local and longer trip - tides, currents

• Importing external weather/current information (gribs)

• Exporting routes developed in OpenCPN

• The basics of how to get around the B&G chartplotter

• Important B&G charts and information

• Importing routes developed in OpenCPN

We will practice these skills with a set of in-class exercises.

If you are going to attend this session we urge you to install OpenCPN on your laptop with the ENC charts from Region 2 (Block Is. to the Canadian border) loaded. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFrByYYN7Is.)

Slides from this session: File:IAP 2026 Nav II as presented.pdf

Thu 22: Sail Trim and sailing apps - Teresa Augustin & Sandy Wells

Sail trim:

• General trim

• Physics behind sailing

• Tell tales

• Changing sail shape of jib and main (vang, outhaul, hallyard, cunningham, jib car position, traveler, luff tension)

• Depowering options

• Sails: Main, jib, spinnaker

Sailing apps:

• Weather, radar, thunderstorm

• Navigation

• Moorings and marinas

• Sailing community apps

Slides: