best sailing school around the Solent?

[Summer Sailor]

I have a friend who wants to do the day skipper practical this summer. Can anyone recommend a school? I guess that the bigger schools have freelance instructors therefore it will be luck of the draw. He wants to do the course in august. Perhaps there is a smaller school with regular instructors. Has anyone any positive experiences so that I can pass on a recommendation?

 

[alant]

I have a friend who wants to do the day skipper practical this summer. Can anyone recommend a school? I guess that the bigger schools have freelance instructors therefore it will be luck of the draw. He wants to do the course in august. Perhaps there is a smaller school with regular instructors. Has anyone any positive experiences so that I can pass on a recommendation?

Try Hamble School of Yachting.
Not smallest, but good.
Worth booking a weekend beforehand, to check any school out .
Could also try captsensible in Gib.

 

[Talulah]

As a sailing school the following may be taken with a pinch of salt.
The OP has suggested that smaller may be better due to larger schools outsourcing instructors.

So here is my take on the above.
A smaller school (and bear in mind I am a smaller school) also has some disadvantages.
Firstly, what happens if something happens to the instructor/boat? What are the plans for a substitute?
Who else will be on the course. A small school may not be able to fill all the places without mixing the type of courses run. i.e. Day Skipper and Comp Crew mix but Coastal/Offshore do not mix with DS. A larger school may be able to group clients to match courses.

I get work subcontracted to me by a small sailing school that has only 2 boats. Yet they have a number of instructor/owners who take on the peaks in demand. They don't have any full time instructors. Because the instructors are not working all the time they are full of enthusiasm.
A small school with only one instructor teaching for the entire summer period is likely to get burnt out. Best are instructors who are teaching intermittently. For this reason of burn out book at the start of the season, not at the end. Likewise, as the season goes on repairs/breakages on board may be stacking up.

(The sailing school I am sometimes teamed with replaces their boats every 3 years. 2 new ones being kitted out this week.) Some schools have very dated boats and there are pro's and cons for this.

The Solent is the last place I would want to do a course in in the summer unless it was mid-week.
At the weekend the tuition will have to stop very early if planning to berth in some of the popular marinas. It can also be very difficult to find quiet spots for certain types of practice.

 

[[70521]]

best sailing school around the Solent?

Please define best?

Best boats, best food, best bunks, best instructor or best company?

I use Plymouth Sailing School, OK not in the Solent, as I like their set up. Good solid boats, great sailing area, complex sailing area, good staff and very flexable - I do my training courses in the winter so the conditions are more demanding with more wind and less light.

 

[newtothis]

Try Hamble School of Yachting.
Not smallest, but good.
Worth booking a weekend beforehand, to check any school out .

+1. Did my YM with them last summer. Good bunch of people and some great instructors, both full time and freelance.

 

[Twister_Ken]

http://www.nomadsailing.co.uk

Nice people.

 

[emsworthy]

http://www.universalsailingschool.co.uk/

Owned by a couple who both worked for Sunsail at a fairly senior level for several years before setting up on their own. The beauty of that is they know what makes customers happy and more importantly what doesn't!

Disclosure. Have done a couple of courses with them and our kids go to school together.

 

[flaming]

As normal this request is providing a large number of good recommendations.

My personal view is that there are very few bad schools out there, and your personal preference as to whether you want a brand new boat, specific dates, female only course etc is probably going to have more effect on who you end up booking with.

 

[TiggerToo]

Hi,

the best recommendation I have, concurs with Talulah: don't go to the Solent. And, of course, look these guys up: http://www.trysail.net/

Who knows, your friend might even get to sail Tigger (yes, I am conflicted ). Seriously, Falmouth offers some fnatastic opportunities and a stunning scenery. And Andy and his team run an excellent set up.

Cheers,
TT

 

[prv]

Seriously, Falmouth offers some fnatastic opportunities and a stunning scenery.

I thought the same, and travelled down to Cornwall when I did the Day Skipper about ten years ago. I won't mention the specific company, though as I didn't think the course was particularly good. (Not terrible, but not great, and for the avoidance of doubt it wasn't the one that Tigger recommends!)

Pete

 

[newtothis]

Hi,

the best recommendation I have, concurs with Talulah: don't go to the Solent.
TT

I think the Solent is a great place to learn. It's busy, there are plenty of big ships to avoid, lots of tricky bits of nav, lots of confusing lights and shore lights - try finding a buoy at Yarmouth at night against the background light - but thanks to the big island in the way, it is largely protected from the worst of the weather so you can pretty much sail every day.

In terms of learning to sail its a great place to start.

 

[prv]

I think the Solent is a great place to learn.

It is true that down in the West Country we got little practice at pontoon-bashing as nearly every night was on a mooring. We had to go and find a pontoon specially to tick the box on the syllabus, and that was a bit of a token effort coming alongside a long straight deserted visitors' berth. This remained (and to be honest, perhaps still remains) something of a weakness for me.

I imagine a Solent course will be in a tight marina berth every night (perhaps except for one to demonstrate what a mooring is) so everyone will get some practice.

Pete

 

[jac]

+1 for Hamble.

Might want to consider some of the 1 day courses as a taster. They do a boat handling 1 day and a sail trim one so you can practice any particular weaknesses and try the school at the same time

 

[Rigger Mortice]

I did Competent Crew with Southern Sailing many years ago. Only four on the course, which had a mix of abilities so I did far more than the basic competent crew. The boat wasn't new, but it was fine. Superb course. I enjoyed every minute and learnt a lot.

 

[Talulah]

Just to be clear, The Solent is a great place to learn with lots to do within a short distance. However, I would avoid The Solent for weekend Summer courses. It just becomes too busy in every aspect. This includes interruption of exercises whilst waiting for someone to pass, harbours being full (Yarmouth, Beaulieu etc), avoiding umpteen different races and on top of it try getting a meal ashore. One problem that applies everywhere in the Summer is trying to fit in a night sail.
It depends what the objective is in doing the course. If it's just to get the DS ticket you're not too fussed but if you want to maximize the learning experience go out of season. Your likely to have a lower pupil/instructor ratio.

 

[Talulah]

One thing that may be useful is to know from those that have done a course is "What question do you wish you had asked the Sailing School before booking the course with them." i.e. In hindsight, knowing what you know now what would have affected your choice of school?

 

[xyachtdave]

.....What question do you wish you had asked the Sailing School before booking the course with them?.....

These 2 spring to mind....

Do you let strange people on board that can't swim, make tea, wash up, cook, wash themselves or brush their teeth for 5 days, refuse to wear their glasses even though they obviously can't see a thing, accuse the rest of the crew of stealing their wallet (when their stuff is scattered everywhere like a jumble sale) and stink of fags?

Will they get the same qualification as me even if they haven't taken part in a single sail change, tied any knot successfully, steered the boat in one direction for more than 5 seconds, done any navigation at all or been the slightest bit of help with anything?

 

[PhillM]

Learn where you intend to start sailing your own boat. I think that local knowledge helps a lot, when you are first starting out.


I also took the view that I should learn out of season so that I got more heavy / cold experience. The rest of the family got to go in the summer to maximise enjoyment.

To answer the OP's question, my family and I have used 4 different schools over the years. All were fine and delivered the course that we wanted. The RYA seem to keep standard universally high. I di think that its easy to look back on a course with hindsight and think, I wish we had covered .... but if you go with the fact that we passed and now we sail our own boat, it was always "objective met".

 

[Uricanejack]

Learn where you intend to start sailing your own boat. I think that local knowledge helps a lot, when you are first starting out.


Big +1

 

[kieranhood]

Has anyone used Stormforce Coaching before? I'm thinking about doing a YM Fast-track with them, would anyone recommend?