Advise Please on tickets

[POMPEYBIRD]

A little advise please!

I have spent thousands of miles on the sea mostly on commercial dive vessels both in the uk & abroad.

I have however done a limited amount of sailing miles, what should I do day skipper or coastal skipper under sail?

I know its all good fun and practise, but would like to get the best out of the course....so which one?

Secondly anyone recommend who I do it through on the solent? Anyone used Sunsail or Sail UK??

Thanks chaps for any help

 

[bigmart]

First question must be that miles are all very well but what did you do with them?

Have you any experience at Navigation for example?

Presumably you can handle ropes & tie the right knots, Anchor etc. but what else.

Martin

 

[POMPEYBIRD]

Good point, I have all the usual skills in skippering, navigation, radar, first aid, sea survival etc.

But probabaly wouldn't know how to handle the mutitude of sails & winches?

I can certainly hold my own on the deck, but have limited experience in MOB under sail, and your usual crewing position under sail e.g bowman.

 

[TheOldGaffer]

Suggest you talk to Southern Sailing. They, I'm sure, would be happy to take you on a course and assess you on where they best think you fit in. Hence, won't need to make a firm decission as to which course when you book. I've had many great weeks with them over the years in both sail and power and can well recommend them. Other nice thing with them is it's only 4 (plus instructor) per boat, so more hands on time.

 

[bigmart]

From what you say I am sure you would propably get away on a Yachtmaster course but The old Gaffers suggestion is one of the most sensible I have read in a long while.

Having used Southern Sailing personally I can highly recommend them & you would get the best advice from them. If you look at other posts here you will see how respected they are & certainly, when I sailed with them they tailored the course content to my needs.

Martin

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[snowleopard]

as i understand it the theory section is the same for coastal skipper & yachtmaster offshore. so you can upgrade by getting the extra miles and doing the extra practical exam.

the miles need to be on an relevant type of boat and mostly in tidal waters. also, i heard of someone who did his exam in a motor-sailer and was awarded a 'motor boat only' ticket. whether your miles qualify is assessed by the examiner on the day of your practical test.

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[bedouin]

I would say it depends a lot on how many miles/days you've done under sail. If less than 400 consider Day Skipper, between 400 and 2,500 go for the Coastal Skipper. Above 2500 then you could consider YM, but may prefer the CS instead.

Note that there isn't a YM course as such. The prep courses are really designed to sharpen you up on certain aspects rather than to teach you new skills.

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[Guest]

Live near the sea? Try your local yacht club. Everyone seems to be looking for crew. In fact I know of a few boats that never move due to lack of willing hands.

Should at least teach you the "mechanics" of sailing, i.e sail handling etc, and with a tolerant skipper maybe even a little practice navigation & skippering.

A 5 day coastal skipper may be a bit of a steep learning curve without much practical (sail) experience IMHO

Good luck
Jim

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[Reap]

As an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor I would personally advise you to go for Day Skipper, you will probably find it more useful and enjoyable at this stage. I understand you have done plenty of sea miles, but navigating and skippering the boat whilst heeled over at 40 degrees in the dark, in the rain may take a little getting used to.
And after all, whats the hurry!!!
The suggestion to go to Southern and tell them your true past experience (you'd be surprised how many lie about it,..why????) is a good idea. As an ex Southern Instructor I often used to get students in your position, it doesn't usually take long to know what standard you are at. The instructor can advise you on which way to go and this will make the course all the more enjoyable.

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[Ohdrat]

mmm not so sure about starting with Day Skipper.. I did a 2 week course and completed the Coastal Skipper Course (not the exam) without having ANY nav or previous big boat experience.. only dinghy / dayboat sailing many years prev when I was a kid.. now I know that I "pushed" it a bit but I even managed to pick up enough nav to do the blind nav and a vast amount of night sailing as the first week was I was crewing for a couple of Yachtmaster candidates.

I wouldn't advise this to others necessarily but Pompeybird has much more experience than I had and only really needs to pick up the principles of sailing ...

As for the nav I reckon navigating in a bouncing dive rib would be pretty tough too.

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[clueless]

I don't know anything about southern sailing, however i would like to say that sail UK are very helpful and knowledgable in my experience. You would need to talk to them, but in my experience they have always been more than happy to assess you as you go along and then give you whatever certificate they feel is appropiate at the end of the course, which would mean you didn't need to decide costal or day skipper now. Sunsail I've also chartered boats from for the last few years, and although I don't know anything about actual courses that they run I imagine they will be slightly more expensive than smaller companies and probably no better....

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[Reap]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

I did a 2 week course and completed the Coastal Skipper Course (not the exam) without having ANY nav or previous big boat experience.. only dinghy / dayboat sailing many years prev when I was a kid..

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The course is five days, so essentially if you did a 2 week course you did day skipper and coastal anyway!

Yes you passed and pompeybird may do the same but with no navigation or big boat experience and only a 5 day course are you really a coastal skipper??? Who would lend you there yacht for a passage from say Porstsmouth to Falmouth with no experience, I know I wouldnt. (no offence)

And what is the point of Coastal Skippper without the D.O.T. exam?

Why is everybody in such a rush? people come along for a comp crew course, six months later with no more experience and no nav theory they come and want day skippper, now is it fair on a practical instructor to be expected to teach a full theory course on top of the practical? I dont think so and in fact its not possible and whilst I and other instructors do our best to fill in the gaps there simply isnt time in a fiveday course. So what happens? The student passes the day skipper course and goes away with the ticket. Do they ever then bother to do the theory course? well some may but i doubt many do, so what do we end up with? a bunch of day skipppers with little idea of how to navigate.
Now I know this may not apply to Pompeybird, my point really is that coastal without the exam really is a bit of a nowhere ticket, doesn't seem to achieve any more than being day skipper.
I reckon I could take a complete beginner and if they had a bit of a flair for it. If I gave them a one on one intensive training for just two weeks, I could get them to pass the yachtmaster exam. (qualifying experience aside of course).
But what would that prove? and what sort of yachtmaster would they be?

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[POMPEYBIRD]

Guys thanks so much for your advise, I am going to do my day skipper ticket at Sail UK over easter

Cheers again



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