Most are not on the water right now, but Blockheads are a creative bunch who absolutely love sailing. There’s no stopping them. We’re getting reports of the many different ways Blockheads are staying active in sailing – Optis & Lasers in pools, at-home workouts, eSailing, Zoom calls with coaches, learning new skills on YouTube (and harkenblockheads.com!), and more.
Here are two of our favorites!
Blockhead Alden Durrell has been homeschooling since his school closed. His first lesson was Sailing and Geometry 101. With the idea from the US Sailing STEM teaching handbook, Alden’s dad Robert taught optimal upwind sailing angles, headers and lifts to the weather mark and upwind strategies including when to tack, press on for headers, and how to dial in for a lift. He found and made a wind indicator with materials found on the beach – a soda can, a feather, and a straw for tracking wind shifts. He used the reef marker about 50 yards off the beach (not shown) as the weather mark.
Skip & Max Dieball flexed their rigging skills & creativity by making a zipline. The look on Max’s face says it all:
The Harken blocks in here have not been certified for human suspension. As a company, we can’t recommend this. It might even be dangerous. But we admit that it does look like fun.
Even better, add a winch! Elevated Safety, a Harken Industrial company, shows us how…
#HARKENBLOCKHEADS