Read "Ready About" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
During the following week, Dory's class in the Goldwing made trips in the boat after the close of the labors in the shop. One of the members took charge of the sloop in each of these trips, and the lesson was still "Beating to windward. " In this way, all of them learned how to work a boat to windward; and it was the most difficult lesson for them to learn, for it required a great deal of judgment.
One student would steer so close to the wind that the boat was cramped, and could not get ahead; while another let her get so far off the wind, that she failed to accomplish what she was competent to do. It required a great deal of practice to enable the different skippers to hit the golden mean. They did remarkably well, though not one of them became proficient at once.