Evaluation-

I chose to take part in the sailing activity at Oman Sail which was provided as an option by The Sultans
School. Before this time, I have never had sailing experience before, and to be quite honest, I didnt even
have much of a swimming and water experience before. I set myself four goals which were challenging
but easily measureable and they are listed below.
Goal 1 Commit to this activity for a period of 6 weeks, 3 hour sessions per week.
I committed myself to this activity and I achieved this, I started the activity on the 9th of January 2013
and finished on the 13th of February 2013. Although this activity was quite exhausting, and it was an
endeavour to complete it, I am quite pleased with the fact that I attended all the sessions, even those
where I felt slightly unwell and even when I needed the following weekend ache-free. The evidence of
this can be seen in my entries to ManageBac.
Goal 2 Achieve all the objectives and skills required in level 1 sailing provided by Oman Sail.
Oman Sail had various objectives as part of their level one certificate, which I was granted at the end of
this activity and hence I was successful in achieving this goal. The following is a list of some of the
objectives and how much of them I managed to achieve, and the evidence can be seen in one of the
pictures I uploaded to ManageBac.
Prepping up the boat- This included taking the boat out, plugging in the water safety, taking it
down to the dock, attaching the sail and boom, fixing the rudder, etc. We were able to do this by the end
and this was ticked off on our booklets.
Tacking: This means turning the direction of the sail boat, but it isnt that simple, and the process
actually involves lots of complicated physics, avoiding the no go zone wind direction, etc. We achieved
this with a figure of 8 turn and a three point triangle, even though the latter was level two. Hence this
objective was achieved.
Capsizing and recovery: I capsized a total of 3 times during my course. Initially it was such a
frightening experience due to me having such little water confidence and I literally felt paralyzed by all
the water. The next time around I was able to move and the third time I was able to pull myself up to the
boat. Progress!
Launching and recovery. This is taking the sailboat from the shore and bringing it back
respectively, and this was also a new skill but I was not as confident with this objective because we only
had one session doing this. It was planned to do other sessions but due to weather conditions we werent
able to. This was the one objective that wasnt ticked off at the end.

Goal 3 Work in collaboration with my friends and trainers to improve my skills and help others when
possible.
Sailing may seem like an activity entailing individual accomplishments but in reality a lot of teamwork
was involved. On our first day, we were two students in a boat each and I shared mine with Samaa. We
had our fair share of misfortune and (for others) comedy as can be seen in the first entry to ManageBac.
When we capsized, Samaa helped me to move about and helped me to calm down in such deep water. I
also helped others with prepping up their boats and especially bringing them down to the docks, because
they were usually heavy. I was also always attentive when the instructors and trainers were explaining
the days work in class or when they were giving us directions during our time afloat, so I achieved this
goal pretty well.
Goal 4 Improve my swimming skills and learn not to panic in the event of boat capsizing
Before the start of this activity, I had never taken swimming lessons, and the only experience with this
that I had was playing on the beach, etc. So the water depth required for sailing was actually
overwhelming. It wasnt as bad for me to call myself water-phobic but it was still pretty nerve wracking.
The first time my boat capsized, I literally started screaming that Im dying and I couldnt move and I felt
as if something was pulling me down, even though I had a life jacket on. The next time around I didnt
panic as much but I still was unable to put the boat back up. But on our final session all of us decided to
capsize for fun and it wasnt bad at all. I learnt a little bit of swimming technique but not enough to say
that Im a confident swimmer. Obviously it will require much more time and training for that to be true,
so I can say I somewhat achieved this goal.
In reference to the CAS learning outcomes I feel I have achieved all of these too.
Awareness of strengths and areas for growth - I gained a better understanding about my strengths and
areas for growth. Ive found out that Im good at listening to instructions, for instance I was able to steer
myself out of the no go zone (in the direction of the wind) when the instructors told me. I was also good
at prepping up the boat. Tacking took some practice to get right and sometimes the book would hit my
head, which was painful. And sometimes the boat wouldnt catch the wind and I had to fiddle with things
to keep moving, but once I was in the right direction, it was fine. The most amount of learning I had to do
was with launching and recovery because I feel like I didnt have enough practice with that.
Undertaking new challenges- So far I have discussed how all of it, even the swimming was basically a
first time experience for me so the whole thing was one massive challenge, but one that I loved
undertaking. It has made me have confidence in my abilities to cope and adapt with new environments
and believe in my strengths. Even with such little water confidence, I was able to complete the whole
level one course and Im quite proud of that.
Worked collaboratively with others As mentioned earlier, sailing involved an active participation by all
and involved helping others and listening to others. I helped my peers prep up their boats and take them
down to the docks, in turn, some assisted me when my boat had capsized. With some coordination, we
were also able to avert collisions between the boats and avoid going into the no go zone. Working
collaboratively enabled us to pool our skills.
Show perseverance and commitment Sailing sessions were very exhausting. Even after a month of this
activity, my body did not get used to it physically and my leg muscles would ache for the rest of the
weekends. It was 3 hours worth of working out once every week and for an unfit person such as myself,
it was a lot, but I still continued with the sessions. I didnt even give up one day when I was sick because
even though sailing was exhausting, going out in the sea had some kind of a therapeutic effect.
Developed new skills - I have discussed some of these skills before, tacking, launching and recovery,
prepping up, etc, and I am glad to say that I learnt all of these in my level one course. Even managing to
swim a little bit is a new skill for me. Sailing gave me the opportunity to challenge myself and learn as
much as I can and Im glad to have learnt the skills that I learnt for the future.
Reflection
Overall I feel I have really benefitted from this activity. Sailing was an experience for a lifetime and I will
definitely carry on with this sometime in the future. I didnt master it or anything, it was simply a level
one course but even then the skills I leant over this short period of time were quite valuable. Sometimes, I
was sleepy and tired from IB work so that probably affected my performance but I still did all the sessions
even though it was exhausting. In the future, I hope to have better bight sleep before going on a sailing
session and I hope that I dont panic at all in the case of capsizing and that I am able to bring the boat
back up.