Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 session / week for 6 weeks, 1 hour / session
The purpose of this class is to tell you something about our Tech Dinghy and how to sail it. This OCW site is arranged as a series of skills, explained both with lecture notes and videos. Please do not think of these skill checks as tests, but instead, as measures of your understanding of our sport. We don’t expect perfection from our beginners, but only that our members be able to safely handle the boats and themselves on the Charles. For those who wish it, there will be much more that can be learned about other boats and other waters, but what can be learned here will provide the basis to build on. For more detail, a text on sailing the Tech Dinghy is provided in the readings section.
About the Instructor
Fran Charles is the Sailing Master at the MIT Sailing Pavilion. Fran has been instrumental in organizing New England Intercollegiate Sailing. He served multiple years as the scheduling coordinator and the graduate secretary.
Living in Marshfield with his wife, Susan, and four children, Fran remains an active competitor in Star boats. This summer he vied for a position on the U.S. Star team at the 2000 World Championship with an eye towards the U.S. Olympic trials.
Fran graduated from Tufts University in 1980. During his four years at Tufts, Fran was a member of the Tufts team that went to the National Championships in both dinghies and team racing. During that time he was a member of the U.S. Olympic 470 team winning U.S. and North American titles, went to the Pan American Games and won a Silver Medal as well as finishing 4th, 6th and 8th in World Championships. He has won both the Interclub Frostbite Dinghy Nationals and the 210 Class Nationals twice.
Fran was the recipient of the 1998 Distinguished Service to Sailing Award given by the Mass Bay Sailing Association for his contributions to the sport as a volunteer, professional and competitor.