Boating

T

The class is designed

to help women feel

more comfortable

handling boats, teach-

ing them these skills in

a relaxed, judgment-

free atmosphere —

away, even, from their

husbands.

“Once you get a woman

in that stress-free zone, she

tends to pick up boating

basics pretty quickly,”

says Capt. Rusty Pearsall,

a corporate captain for

MarineMax. Pearsall is

the leader of the class I’m

attending on a windy day in

Venice, Florida.

“For the most part,

women are more careful

and don’t blame everyone

around them for their

mistakes,” Pearsall tells us,

smiling. “I’m not saying it’s a

fact of life — just saying.”

First, the Paperwork

The class is divided into

two portions: an hour in

the classroom, and then a

much longer portion spent

on the water, practicing the

skills Pearsall taught us in

class. But on this Saturday,

the wind and waves are just

too high to teach a bunch of

inexperienced people how to

drive a boat.

So this first day, we stick

to the classroom. We learn

a general overview of the

Intracoastal Waterway. We

learn how to read channel

markers and basic knot

tying, both the bowline knot

and the clove hitch. Pearsall

leads us through this fairly

informally, as the most

important part would take

place on the water.

Fast-forward seven

days to another Saturday

in Venice, and Pearsall

has kindly reconvened the

class. This time it’s a perfect

65-degree day with calm

seas. Today we don’t even

look at the classroom — we

head straight for the docks.

Docking 101

Because most of my boating

experience is fishing from

an aluminum jon boat,

which would probably

damage a dock considerably

more than the dock would

damage it if the two met in

a less-than-gentle manner,

the Sea Ray’s unblemished

fiberglass unsettles me

a little bit. It’s not that I

thought MarineMax would

put us boat-driving newbies

in an old clunker for the

class — it’s just that I would

have felt better if it did.

But Pearsall isn’t worried.

“Aah, you’re not going to

hurt anything,” he repeats to

me and the rest of the class

any time we act nervous

about our lack of experience.

(Later he does, however,

let it slip that MarineMax

employs a full-time

80 BOATINGMAG.COM APRIL 2016