Handy Hints for Teaching Dinghy sessions:

A guide to running practical dinghy sessions:

What to include in a dinghy session briefing?

Top tips when using powerboats in a dinghy training environment:

Always wear the killcord.
Propellor awareness.
Positioning within the fleet.
Head count first before recovery.
Always stop the engine on arrival if there is someone in the water.
Stop the engine when communicating.
Ask the student to 'lie-to' before coming alongside.

When coaching from a powerboat, always drive on the windward side (for better visability/safety etc), check your students can hear you, then ask your student to continue on the course they were travelling and to continue looking where they are going! (All too often your student will look round at you and therefore veer into wind and often into your safety boat..). Once your position is established, you have a great vantage point to observe what is happening within the boat and also to coach on your students techniques.

Consider completing the RYA Safety boat course.

Sailing Area:

Careful planning or advice from your Senior Instructor is required here. Both you and your students knowing exactly where the sailing area is and it's outer limits is key to save hassle / stress during the session.

Where possible always use marker buoys as a guide and/or to mark the outer areas of your sailing area. In a perfect world the marker buoys would be different colours so you can direct your student/s to a specific area.

The last thing you want to experience is the starburst effect, this is when all your student dinghies end up going in different directions as you have not made it clear where you would like them to be.. so ensure you carrying out a clear briefing and check student understanding by asking open questions before they set off - ideas on how to achieve this can be seen at this link.