Month: March 2021

NEW this year:  A more concrete way to track your child’s skill progression

US Sailing – “Skill Up” App

 

Starting the summer 0f 2021 PBCB will be enrolling approximately 110 students into the US Sailing “Skill Up” digital platform for instruction. With a mobile app for our instructors and students, and a website dashboard for our directors and leaders, Skill Up provides a paperless, touch-free connection for everyone at PBCB.

 

The Skill Up App brings US Sailing’s instructional resources to the fingertips of our instructors and students. Built to support US Sailing’s skill development curriculum, the Skill Up App provides US Sailing members with access to skill tracking, instructional videos, and teaching resources.

 

The new Skill Up Dashboard website gives program leaders a powerful administrative tool. PBCB’s Skill Up Dashboard connects to our instructors and students via the app.  This will give us the ability to organize and manage classes, send push notifications, and record important information such as student attendance, learning progress, and level of skill.

Skill Up App features

• Skill Tracking – As students learn different onshore and skills our instructors will record their new skills in the app. The student’s skill progress is saved by US Sailing, and accessible to students and parents through the app. When a student changes classes or starts at a new organization, their skill progress automatically stays with them.
• Instructional Resources – Our PBCB instructors will have access to a library of drills, games, activities, sample lesson plans, and a lesson builder tool.
• Attendance – Instructors will be able record attendance on the app. No more paper attendance sheets!

Skill Up Dashboard features

• The dashboard will connect program leaders to the learning environment in a new way, helping us manage students and staff more efficiently,
• It will also allow us to create “sessions” and “classes” to fit our program structure, and view skill progress and attendance for each class.
• Send push notifications and bulk emails to students and/or instructors, allowing for quick, direct communication.

The goal of the “Skill Up” model is to promote lifelong sailing in a variety of sailing disciplines, from first time sailors to experienced racers, and provide a skill development path for every participant

 

US Sailing recommends that sailors have the opportunity to try different boat types and sailing disciplines. By gaining experience and building confidence in a variety of watercraft, young sailors are better prepared to take advantage of new sailing opportunities in the future.

Speaker Series coming to PBCB

 

PBCB is pleased to host the first ever Catboat Speaker Series this spring featuring four fabulous guests, introduced below.  As you read their bios, please think of a question (or two or ten) that you have for them and submit to Suzanne at sleahy@gmail.com.  Topics include history, boat building and weather, so get excited and curious, and join the conversation.

These talks will be offered over zoom for everyone’s convenience for the time being.  Dates TBD.  Thanks to Suzanne Leahy for organizing!

• Cape Cod Catboats with Stan Grayson, author.

Stan is widely known for his books and articles about American yachting and small-craft history, and the American automobile and marine engine industries. Stan has had a career that has included stints as a newspaper reporter, photographer, and automotive industry consultant, but most notably as a writer.

He is the author of many articles and books. Prior to A Man for All Oceans, Stan completed a biography of famed yacht designer and racer Raymond Hunt. His work has appeared in Automobile Quarterly, Nautical Quarterly, and Wooden Boat magazine, among other publications.

Among his best-known works are Cape Cod Catboats, The Wianno Senior Story, a Century on Nantucket Sound, Ferrari, the Man, the Machines, Beautiful Engines, treasures of the internal combustion century; and the Wooden Boat article, “The Musketaquid Mystery: In Search of Thoreau’s Boat.”

 

• Building the Cape Cod Catboat with Geoff Marshall.

Geoff is the owner of Marshall Marine located in South Dartmouth and builds the 18-foot Sanderling, Marshall 22 and the 15-foot Sandpiper which many of you have become familiar with here at PBCB. The Marshall family has a long history revitalizing the popularity of the catboat and revolutionizing its production. The sheer number of boats built by Marshall Marine is a testament to their success. Geoff will talk about boat handling and boat building.

Q&A format will be used here too. Stand by for further details!

 

• Weather on Pleasant Bay with William Ryan.

Bill is an Affiliate Assistant Research Professor at Penn State University and has been a leader in air quality forecasting in the mid-Atlantic for many years. He developed the first operational ozone forecast models for the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan areas in 1993, extending to Philadelphia in 1996. He has been an operational air quality forecaster in the mid-Atlantic, for both ozone and fine particles, since 1995. He has also provided technical analysis and advice to the State of Maryland on subjects ranging from photochemical modeling to data trend analysis in support of State Implementation Plan (SIP) development. He is a member of the Air Quality Forecasters Focus Group that provides technical feedback to the developers of the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) and, in 2010, was named the EPA AIRNow “Partner of the Year” at the EPA National Air Quality Conference.

 

This will be a Q&A format. As we get closer to the date, look for an invitation to send in your weather questions for a lively discussion. Now is your chance to ask an expert!