Small-Boat Sailing Merit Badge

Three gates, and only one of them is a number

Most water badges have a single gate: pass the swimmer test first. This one has that, and then two more that are written as English rather than as numbers.

• Requirement 2: the swimmer test, before the requirements that follow it. That is requirements 3 through 9, so requirement 1 is the only part outside.
• Requirement 4: opens with "Before going afloat". Six parts: Safety Afloat point by point, rules of the road, weather and water, storm warnings, a float plan, and clothing for warm and cool weather.
• Requirement 5: wind direction and wind indicators, and it says explicitly that this matters before setting sail. Both of the second and third point at the same place: requirement 6, the ten-part sailing requirement that is the body of this badge. Work them in that order because the badge says to, not because the numbers happen to run that way.

Your boat has to qualify, and requirement 3 is where that is decided

Requirement 3 looks like a naming exercise. Its note is the part that matters. The boat you use must be capsizable, must be able to sail to windward, and a sailboard is not acceptable. Under 20 feet is suggested rather than required.

Read that against requirement 6(g), which is a capsize and a person-overboard rescue. A boat that cannot be capsized safely cannot give you requirement 6, and the place to discover that is requirement 3, before you book anything, not on the water.

Requirement 6 is ten parts and a whole day

Rigging and a safety inspection, getting underway, a counselor-approved round trip covering running, beating and reaching, tacking and jibing, getting out of irons, the safety position, capsize and person-overboard, running aground, accepting a tow for 20 boat lengths, and putting the boat away properly at the end.

The capsize in 6(g) is conducted under your counselor's close supervision with a rescue boat standing by. That is in the requirement, not advice bolted onto it. Arrange it deliberately.

What this page is

The Small-Boat Sailing merit badge, drawn so all three gates and the conditions on the boat are visible before anything is booked. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs and which change from year to year.