Monday, April 27, 2015

Mentors

Mentor in Greek mythology, was the friend of Odysseus and tutor of Telemachus.

You knew that, didn't you?


Nowadays, of course, a mentor is a more experienced or more knowledgeable person who helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger, but have a certain area of expertise. It is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn. I copied all that from the Wikipedia so it must be true.



It occurred to me recently that there are a few bloggers whom I look to as my mentors, as sources of knowledge and experience which I can use to become a better sailor. Don't laugh! I can count on these people to inspire me, to guide me, to teach me. They have become - whether they like it or not - my webby, bloggy mentors.



So I have picked out four blogs which I have found to be most useful in this regard and put them at the head of my blogroll over there, on the right, in my sidebar.

Here they are...

Take the Tiller
Deborah sails a 100-year-old boat and writes on such diverse subjects as what makes a great sailor, cellos, marathons, the perfect little hat and one-buttock sailing. I'm learning a lot from her and she is threatening to learn to sail a Laser. Scary!

Improper Course
Doug is an old guy who has had some sailing success and /Pam is a (not as old) girl who is still learning how to sail. Doug writes posts full of ideas on how to be a better Laser sailor. Recently /Pam has been tenaciously pursuing some Racing Rules questions and reporting on the Bruce Kirby lawsuits debacle. All good stuff!

The Final Beat
Damian lives in Ireland and his aim is to help dinghy sailors get better, quicker. Recently he has been writing about what to do before you get up in the morning, morals, obsession, leeward mark roundings and racing Iain Percy in an Optimist. It says on his blog that he is "at various times thoughtful, inspirational, provocative, humorous and touching." No wait. I said that!

Center of Effort
Judy was the coach at the Laser Center of Cabarete this last winter so she knows her stuff. She has advice on what to do if you are looking at your cunningham with concern and your vang with vexation. She teaches us about starts and lay lines and why words matter. She even has a post about a Lake Sailing Love story which has a picture of someone who looks very familiar. Oh no!



Which blogs teach you the most?


1 comment:

R1 said...

At the risk of sycophancy....Proper Course.

I assume you read, absorb, process, reflect, experiment with all the information in the blogosphere and distil it all down into the entertaining nuggets of bloggerisation that is Proper Course.

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