tcm
...
As below, i just returned from Suncoast doing a YM course. Well recommended. Phil "cool" (not sure of his real surname) is the Principal - more serious boat handler and calming expert tutor than merely "cool".
You fly to Malaga, then rent a car is a good option instead of cabs and cheaper. Duquesa is a 100km blast down the motorway. A fiat punto cost unde 100 euros for the week, tho i only used it on arrival and departure days. Renting an apartment in summery months for hol with family and kids wd be a fab idea i bet. Duquesa and this whole coast is v popular with brits, a bit white trashy, but popular with good reason. Loads of evening restaurants all in walking distance, not haute cuisine but ridiculiously cheap.
At sea, estepona is a few miles east, then puerto banus. Some training trips turn west, where it's only 15 miles to the rock of Gibraltar which looms froma distance and looks 2 miles away when it in fact still six miles distant. The big bay means that even in rough weather a course or an exam could continue, hidden from a storm one reason the Brits wanted Gib to hold the empire.
Approaching the Rock of Gibralter by sea is one of the world's must-do runs for any boater, and in the course of as week we did it several times - probably more than my fair share on the helm as the others on the course, full-time skippers, were happy to let others take the helm for a change.
Neil Jobes and clive neighbour are the other directors of Suncoast, good guys and very sociable, and whilst it's not a requirement of the YM course to drink them under the table almsot every night, I made a pretty good attempt. Actualy, I did get to bed at 8:30 on one occassion. But unfortunately it was 8:30 in the morning.
Friday was exam day, and Phil made it clear that he wouldn't overly "prep" for the exam us for the course by letting us practise in exactly the same spots as where the exam would take place. Which is fair enough. Off to gib for blind navigation, which went well. You have to sit at the the saloon table, curtains drawn, no sight of instruments, and converse with the helmsman to gettim to take you to another spot a couple of miles away, following bearings or (often much better) some contour of the seabed. The helm can read back at you the speed, depth, bearing and distance but not use any GPS. Forget any idea of developing clever cheating codes cos with exam pressures on everyone, and experienced exmainers in charge, it won't work. Doing it properly is a better choice, and one after another we all arrived within 50 yards of our targets.
Then back eastwards from Gib, towards Duquesa, and into Sotogrande. This was originally a small port, but developers have dug out the land behind to hugekly extend the marina, Eastbourne-style, perhaps on an even bigger scale. There are some areas of new finished developments, and some under construction. Moorings range from big 30 metre dockside moorings to small basins for runabouts, all presuambly to be surrounded by flats. I thought we'd probably do some mooring alongside and so on.
But as we trolled around the examiner spotted one small basin off the main fairway, surrounded by concrete pontoons, an area about 40 metres by 60 metres, with a single entrance 15 metres wide. Lots of public swimming pools are bigger than this, and the poor bugger on the helm was instructed to drive in, turn the boat around, and get out again, with a nice fluky 15-20 knot breeze playing across the water. Oh, and the helmsman was told that he had to do this on one engine only. Jeez. We'd practised single-engine manouvres during the week, but in much more space. I think this must have been one of the freakiests things I've ever done with a boat.
Throughout the day, the Examiner ran man overboard drills, and took individual candidates below to grill them about secondary ports, tide heights, lights, sounds, tides and all the rest. I would strongloy recommned that anyone doing the course does a theory exam/course shortly before YM, cos the practical is no cakewalk, and you aren't excused any theory questions in the practical anyway. I used cmonline.co.uk where (if your remote tutor permits) you can blast through the course in a couple of weeks.
The other candidates did the whole lot, including revising rusty or non-existent theory knowldge in the one week, which means they could forget about about going out in the evenings and had to hope they wouldn't be grilled too hard about tidal heights or secondary ports.
We all passed, and celebrations began in Duquesa, then in Puerto Banus, the examiner joining in the jollities. There was some talk of a beach party, I think, with a spit roast, apparently. But nothing came of it and we roamed aroudn the bars returning home at a more civilised 4:30 pm. No problem getting up for breakfast at 9, though I chatted a bit too long in the dockside caff, and realised that departing Duquesa at 10:40 for a 12:10 flight meant I had to razz along the motorway at 100 , not wait for change at the tollbooths, and dump the wheezing hire car almost out of petrol in the cab rank to make the checkin.
Anyway, Suncoast is strongly recommended. Good people and i wish them well. Nice weather offers a taste of the med if you normally do boating in the UK. I think you need 2500 miles under your belt for Yachtmaster, half of it or more in tidal waters. If you have dayskipper already it's a start, but not necessary.
Thanks to Phil and the others at suncoast for putting up with me for a whole week.
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You fly to Malaga, then rent a car is a good option instead of cabs and cheaper. Duquesa is a 100km blast down the motorway. A fiat punto cost unde 100 euros for the week, tho i only used it on arrival and departure days. Renting an apartment in summery months for hol with family and kids wd be a fab idea i bet. Duquesa and this whole coast is v popular with brits, a bit white trashy, but popular with good reason. Loads of evening restaurants all in walking distance, not haute cuisine but ridiculiously cheap.
At sea, estepona is a few miles east, then puerto banus. Some training trips turn west, where it's only 15 miles to the rock of Gibraltar which looms froma distance and looks 2 miles away when it in fact still six miles distant. The big bay means that even in rough weather a course or an exam could continue, hidden from a storm one reason the Brits wanted Gib to hold the empire.
Approaching the Rock of Gibralter by sea is one of the world's must-do runs for any boater, and in the course of as week we did it several times - probably more than my fair share on the helm as the others on the course, full-time skippers, were happy to let others take the helm for a change.
Neil Jobes and clive neighbour are the other directors of Suncoast, good guys and very sociable, and whilst it's not a requirement of the YM course to drink them under the table almsot every night, I made a pretty good attempt. Actualy, I did get to bed at 8:30 on one occassion. But unfortunately it was 8:30 in the morning.
Friday was exam day, and Phil made it clear that he wouldn't overly "prep" for the exam us for the course by letting us practise in exactly the same spots as where the exam would take place. Which is fair enough. Off to gib for blind navigation, which went well. You have to sit at the the saloon table, curtains drawn, no sight of instruments, and converse with the helmsman to gettim to take you to another spot a couple of miles away, following bearings or (often much better) some contour of the seabed. The helm can read back at you the speed, depth, bearing and distance but not use any GPS. Forget any idea of developing clever cheating codes cos with exam pressures on everyone, and experienced exmainers in charge, it won't work. Doing it properly is a better choice, and one after another we all arrived within 50 yards of our targets.
Then back eastwards from Gib, towards Duquesa, and into Sotogrande. This was originally a small port, but developers have dug out the land behind to hugekly extend the marina, Eastbourne-style, perhaps on an even bigger scale. There are some areas of new finished developments, and some under construction. Moorings range from big 30 metre dockside moorings to small basins for runabouts, all presuambly to be surrounded by flats. I thought we'd probably do some mooring alongside and so on.
But as we trolled around the examiner spotted one small basin off the main fairway, surrounded by concrete pontoons, an area about 40 metres by 60 metres, with a single entrance 15 metres wide. Lots of public swimming pools are bigger than this, and the poor bugger on the helm was instructed to drive in, turn the boat around, and get out again, with a nice fluky 15-20 knot breeze playing across the water. Oh, and the helmsman was told that he had to do this on one engine only. Jeez. We'd practised single-engine manouvres during the week, but in much more space. I think this must have been one of the freakiests things I've ever done with a boat.
Throughout the day, the Examiner ran man overboard drills, and took individual candidates below to grill them about secondary ports, tide heights, lights, sounds, tides and all the rest. I would strongloy recommned that anyone doing the course does a theory exam/course shortly before YM, cos the practical is no cakewalk, and you aren't excused any theory questions in the practical anyway. I used cmonline.co.uk where (if your remote tutor permits) you can blast through the course in a couple of weeks.
The other candidates did the whole lot, including revising rusty or non-existent theory knowldge in the one week, which means they could forget about about going out in the evenings and had to hope they wouldn't be grilled too hard about tidal heights or secondary ports.
We all passed, and celebrations began in Duquesa, then in Puerto Banus, the examiner joining in the jollities. There was some talk of a beach party, I think, with a spit roast, apparently. But nothing came of it and we roamed aroudn the bars returning home at a more civilised 4:30 pm. No problem getting up for breakfast at 9, though I chatted a bit too long in the dockside caff, and realised that departing Duquesa at 10:40 for a 12:10 flight meant I had to razz along the motorway at 100 , not wait for change at the tollbooths, and dump the wheezing hire car almost out of petrol in the cab rank to make the checkin.
Anyway, Suncoast is strongly recommended. Good people and i wish them well. Nice weather offers a taste of the med if you normally do boating in the UK. I think you need 2500 miles under your belt for Yachtmaster, half of it or more in tidal waters. If you have dayskipper already it's a start, but not necessary.
Thanks to Phil and the others at suncoast for putting up with me for a whole week.
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