NIC sailing class booming again

Watching Jon Totten at work is like watching a shepherd herd sheep. Skimming across the white-capped waves of Lake Coeur d’Alene in his boat, Totten attends to several wind-powered catamarans scattered near the North Idaho College beach as the skippers attempt to lap a pair of bobbing red buoys set several hundred yards apart.

For Totten, an assistant coordinator of NIC’s outdoor pursuits program and an ardent sailor for five years, his flock is a group of 12 beginning sailors in a college physical education course – a nontraditional, one-credit offering where students and nonstudents alike can skip the classroom and get hands-on experience on the open water.

“It’s a fantastic place to learn,” said Totten, the 26-year-old instructor of the popular sailing class. “The demand is outrageous.”

That hasn’t always been the case at NIC. The school’s sailing program began to dwindle several years ago when the seasoned sailing staff at the time left the college. But in five years,

the program has seen a resurgence in

status, Totten said. This year, there were

enough interested people to fill almost two sections, he said.

“It’s been a main goal of the pursuits program to get the sailing back,” he said. “The program’s biggest asset is the lake.”

With a fleet of four catamarans, two vanguards – smaller, more nimble sailboats – and several residents’ rented vessels, the staff of the outdoor program hosts the beginning sailing course four hours every Tuesday and Thursday morning.

It has brought together sailing aficionados of all ages, including 76-year-old Ruby Corbin, who lives by the lake and is learning to sail “just for the fun of it,” she said.

“It’s a hodgepodge of people,” said Jim Volke, 49, owner of a lighting production company in Coeur d’Alene and a novice sailor.

“It’s something I always wanted to do,” Volke said. “My goal was to be sailing before I turned 50, and I’m doing it.”

But the college course, which costs $25 on top of the $117 summer session fee, isn’t the only option for sailing enthusiasts in the area. Every Tuesday evening in June, July and August, experienced and inexperienced sailors meet to practice their craft in four classes that cost $80 a person.

Those sessions filled up as well, Totten said. “I wish I could fit in more people, but physically I just can’t do it,” he said.

If the weather doesn’t support sailing conditions, students head into the classroom to watch videos on nautical procedures. That was not the case Tuesday morning as the group gathered on the warm, wind-swept beach by the college.

After a brief lecture, the students gathered into three-person teams, climbed aboard four 14-foot Hobie Cat catamarans and set sail. A sudden splash of lake water down Meegan Corcoran’s back was enough to jolt her alert.

“Who needs coffee when you’ve got sailing?” Corcoran said.

After almost an hour of practicing laps, the students and their instructor came ashore to discuss tactics and prepare for the next lesson, a rescue procedure called “the figure 8” for the route sailors should make to rescue a person overboard. The victim for this lesson was a red life jacket discarded and retrieved time after time by the students.

“It’s a really good test of how well you know the wind,” Totten said. “It’s all about timing.”

Jacquie Larsen, an NIC anthropology student, was one of two sailors on a catamaran. She and her mate tossed the life jacket overboard and began to guide their vessel into the beam reach position, in which the boat moves neither upwind or downwind in relation to the water-bound object.

“You really want to gain some speed before you turn into the irons,” Larsen said as she held on to the tiller and guided the boat away from the practice victim.

After maintaining this position for a short distance, the two sailors tacked, or moved, into the wind, and the two quickly ducked under the main sail to avoid catching a boom, or bottom of the sail, in the face as the sail caught the wind and turned the boat around. They switched positions from port side to starboard to keep their jobs: one steering, the other manning the main sheet, or line from the single sail.

“Oh, that was so not how we were supposed to do that,” Larsen’s mate said after regaining her hold on the line.

The boat came alongside the rescue victim and they retrieved the lost jacket – the third successful rescue of their outing.

“If you can do that maneuver you’re money,” Totten said to the students after they docked and congregated on the beach. Halfway through the course the students already “know more than the vast majority of the people we rent to,” he added.

With that lesson, the class was concluded and the students dismissed.

“I love it. I love it,” Volke said with a grin. “The corners of your mouth just keep pointing up.”