Wouldn’t it be wonderful!  If in planning a class sailing instructors could beseech a sprit of teaching and or of boating to make each class session as ideal as Saturday, August 26.  On that day thirteen smart and enthusiastic OU Naval ROTC midshipmen and officer candidates finished their beginning sailing class.  Wind was 5 to 10 mph, the temperature was on the warm side but not sweltering and small cumulus clouds were lofting about. With the able and equally enthusiastic help of ten ‘BoatHousers, sailing skills were taught and learned smoothly and quickly.  The session ended with a fun race around the buoys.  An additional plus was the front page story about the class in the Norman Transcript the very next day.
 Contrast this to the first three class sessions (evenings of August 14, 15 and 17) when thunderstorms prevented on-the-water work and or calm winds meant sailors were lucky to reach the innermost harbor buoy and usually had to scull or ‘swim-tow’ their boats.  Thankfully, competent and imaginative instructors adapted the schedule to do ashore topics and otherwise make use of class time.

 
 The class with some of the Saturday volunteers are, left to right, Lee Smith, myself, Glede Holman, Don Auradou, David Banowsky, Paul Reynolds (seated) Vince Provenzano, Alan Hall, Arthur Harper, Kerry Knowles, Josh Teeman, Shannon Willis,  Erica Rusco, Ian Hoffman, Jerry Lojka, Chritiana Kivlehen, Ray Short, Slyvia Stehman, Eric Hamilton, David Brooks and Te Woei Poon.
 A great BoatHouse crew instructed and mentored.  Operations was shared by Mike Klatt and Kerry Knowles; Business by Chad Cox, Barbara Schindler and David Karoly.  I was Principal Instructor.  Other instructors and volunteers were: Andrew Brett, David Brooks, Les Cummings, Roger Elliott, David Hendricks, Glede Holman, Dave Karoly, Jerry Lojka, Te Woei Poon, Paul Reynolds, Lee Smith and Karen Thurston.   BoatHouse organizations represented were TSC, Sooner Sail Club, Ship 5790, OU NROTC, and Flotilla 16-6.  Any more, what with the low water and high temperatures, helping with a class has a new dimension – pure and simple physical stamina!  Besides plaudits for delivering a fine class these folks need an extra dose of gratitude, and probably sore back medicine, for all their hard work.
 

The Norman Transcript was there for the Saturday session and filed the following story that appeared in the Sunday issue.

Schooner Sooners
The Norman Transcript
By Althea Peterson, Transcript Staff Writer

When you think of the United States Navy, you may picture large submarines or aircraft carriers out at sea. But these sailors are starting a bit smaller. The University of Oklahoma’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program spent Saturday teaching 13 midshipmen and officer candidates the basics of sailing at the north side of Lake Thunderbird.

Howard Haines, principal instructor for the class, said the slight wind is ideal for teaching how to deal with capsizing, how to turn and practice tacking and jiving techniques. "It’s an actual requirement of the NROTC program," Haines said. "It’s not as easy as it looks. The boats are all so different."

Maneuvering around to simulate picking up a "man overboard," which was a black buoy, caused some of the beginning sailors to lose their boat’s balance, especially while trying to turn. Shannon Willis, platoon sergeant for the NROTC freshmen and aerospace engineering sophomore, said she joined so she could carry on her dad’s military legacy and for the experience. Sailing was a new experience for her. "This is the first time I’m sailing by myself," Willis said. "The more wind you get, the more exciting it is. You can tip over easier, which is good on a hot day like this."

Instructors from Lake Thunderbird’s Boathouse join the beginning sailors out in the lake to give them helpful tips on using the sail and keeping balance. They also can assist should one of the boats tip over, or if the boats drift off course. One of these instructors, Jerry Lojka, said with so many factors affecting sailing, it is something that cannot simply be taught in a textbook.

"All students face the same basic challenges," Lojka said. "There are certain things you have to understand with wind and how the sail works. They don’t really get it until they do it. Once the students understand how a boat operates, it just clicks."

This is a fairly new program for OU’s NROTC. Up until a few years ago, they would go up to Annapolis and not know how to sail," Lojka said. "This better prepares them for their future careers in the Navy."

Vincent Provenzano, midshipmen and political science freshman, said he finds the new sailing experience fun and exciting. "I didn’t know anything about sailing before," Provenzano said. "They taught us how to sail, but everything just came together through trial and error." Provenzano said while he paid attention to the classes on how to sail, it did not really make sense until the class actually went to the lake and tried it out. "Everything they taught has come back," Provenzano said. "It just clicked".