THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406160188
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: DUCK
Tearing across 3-foot-deep water at top speeds equivalent to about 7 miles per hour on land, you don't exactly feel like Robinson Crusoe.
{REST} But by the end of the lesson, you either love it or you don't. And if you're hooked, you spend the money on the lessons, books and, eventually, the boat.
It's like the move from Putt-Putt to the PGA tour, Phillies to Partegas, and white zin to Dom Perignon. You should know what you're doing before you drop the cash.
There are several places on the Outer Banks where you can find out if sailing is for you.
At North Beach Sailing at the Barrier Island Sailing Center in Duck, a two-hour lesson costs $49. Instructors like Daryl Law teach the basics, from knot tying and identification of boat parts to wind theory.
``What you're going to learn is enough to come out here and rent one of the smaller boats,'' Law explained. ``You're not going to learn everything.''
Lifejackets were strapped on, and students and instructors reached the deck by wriggling themselves over the slippery edge of the craft, an 18-foot-long Flying Scot, which can hold six comfortably.
A breeze of 7 to 10 miles per hour on the Currituck Sound provided ``ideal conditions for learning,'' said Law, who began sailing 12 years ago, and has been an instructor at the Barrier Island center for three summers.
Aided by instructor-in-training Ginger Crawford, Law let each of his students try a hand at each of the tasks, telling how to change direction, how hard to push the tiller, when to ease up on the mainsheet, how to control speed, and how to determine wind direction using flags and sails.
Students also learn how to right a capsized boat and how to turn the vessel around and retrieve a sailor who has fallen overboard.
Manuevering the boat necessitated teamwork. And that bred conversation and closeness between vacationers who, like John Stubbs and John Schranghamer, were strangers when they boarded. As fair winds tilted the boat from one side to another, students and instructors released ``ooohs'' and ``aaahs'' in unison, laughing, straining with lines in hand and ducking the boom.
The lessons are not for first-timers alone. Although Stubbs and Schranghamer had been sailing before, both said they sought a better understanding of the techniques involved in the sport.
``I learned how to work with the wind, which is really why I came here,'' said Stubbs, an English professor at Virginia Tech.
According to Law, people who have sailed on friends' boats and want to purchase their own will take the beginner class ``so they'll feel more comfortable going throught the ordeal of buying a boat.''
Schranghamer, a fan of sailing movies and competitions such as the America's Cup said, ``I've been out with people I knew and they don't teach you anything.'' Although he had sailed with friends a few times, he had never steered until his lesson with Law.
But the vacationer from Pittsburgh, Pa., can hardly wait to purchase a sailboat. ``I already bought the truck to tow it,'' he said.
by CNB