Complete newbie

Sandy said:
If I maybe so bold as suggest you do the Yachtmaster Theory rather than the Day Skipper, there is a lot of stuff you will need in there that Day Skipper just touches. Secondary Ports come to mind. It might take a bit longer, I am assuming that you are doing it online and if you rock up to your Day Skipper Practical with they won't turn you away.
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Before suggesting the appropriate course it would be normal to determine the level of “prior knowledge” held by a student. For someone with no prior knowledge, it would be unwise, imho, to jump straight to the YM Shorebased course.

A couple of years ago, the Yachtmaster course was revamped and now there is quite a progressive step between the two courses.

There is plenty of content in the DS course and, taught/learned well, provides an appropriate and solid foundation.
 
When I did YS theory in 2019,( 6 weekend course) there were a couple of CC people who wanted to make the jump. One had just bought his first boat. They found the YM theory far too difficult, without having done DS first, so dropped out.
Pity, because they just had not got enough experience to understand what they were learning & why.
 
dustynet said:
Now you mention avoiding the med, would that mean theres a difference in the DS qual depending on where its taught?
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The difference is that in the Med, your DS is for non-tidal waters. Learning about tides is quite handy round the UK!

Others have suggested doing Comp Crew before DS Practical, but IIRC (it was a while ago), the main difference between Comp Crew and DS Practical are the things you learn in the DS theory. I signed up for Comp Crew because it was my first time on a yacht, but I knew my way around navigation and meteorology because I'd done a flying scholarship in the air cadets, so I was able to upgrade to DS.
 
Most of us oldies started to sail in dinghies both large and small.,a platform for what you intend to follow up with i.e cruising locally then coastal daysails this is where the experience becomes important.
Right at the start you would need to know how to work tides both Springs and Neaps ,also the weather forecasting and its special Language when referring to 'soon', 'expected ' and 'veering 'etc. all basics needed for a dayskipper course and of course your actual sailing tuition /practice. Though many clubs do have very keen racing members and boats they are generally for local club racing or National/Class racing.
Your initial training might be in a slower boat such as a Wayfarer which responds to various tweaks on differing points of sailing. Most of the techniques are directly transferable to your first real yacht and though more powerful it reacts in much the same way- and usually without worrying about capsizing.
The Wayfarer can be tweaked to become a good racer too as well as a day sailing dinghy.
My first cruiser was also my last one which I only sold 3 years ago (a Westerly Tiger- finkeeled} I bought her in 1984 and she has travelled to Scandinavia ,France ,Holland ,Germany ,prior to my buying her then, and mainly to France since.
As a marque the Westerly family of yachts have good sailing qualities and reputation , well suited to the novice and family, and built very strongly. They also have a good member association on-line
The Merlin, Griffon and the Fulmar are all around the similar price ranges and Centaurs I believe the largest number model built model with bilge keels. I have helmed and sailed and demonstrated larger yachts to several ex- powerboat customers that had no sailing experience whatsoever who converted well because they had the basics right.
Welcome to this forum where others disagree /agree with the above, but most want to help.

ianat182
 
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dustynet said:
Hi,
That's great advice.

I did call in to my local club a couple of weeks back. Nice friendly bunch, very welcoming but also very dingy racing focused and I got the impression the only way onto anything bigger was of your face fits.

I have no interest in dingys in afraid, and the membership fees I could pay for a day skipper course with. Not that I have anything against clubs or dinghies, but clubs are slow moving beasts.

I understand the social aspect too of course but that's some very expensive social ?
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Wrong club! My club costs £135 a year..... ? And will get you out cruising in the evening on Thursdays and racing on keelboats on Wednesdays at least half of the year.
 
dustynet said:
or Isle of man :giggle:
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Nope. The IoM is not part of the UK and never has been.

Back to the subject on the card, before I launched off on the day skipper theory course, I found reading up on the subject invaluable. There's a great deal of "common sense and learning second hand" in (for example):

Day Skipper for Sail and Power - A more textbook style book.

The Complete Day Skipper: Skippering with Confidence Right From the Start - An easier and more engaging read.

I also think the Competent Crew course would be a very useful introduction for someone with no sailing background. I found it so and I'm from a windsurfing and dinghy sailing background.
 
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Skylark said:
Before suggesting the appropriate course it would be normal to determine the level of “prior knowledge” held by a student. For someone with no prior knowledge, it would be unwise, imho, to jump straight to the YM Shorebased course.

A couple of years ago, the Yachtmaster course was revamped and now there is quite a progressive step between the two courses.

There is plenty of content in the DS course and, taught/learned well, provides an appropriate and solid foundation.
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I'm not an RYA Instructor, just a skipper who when he needs to learn a topic, gets the books out, watches YouTube and any other resource he needs, and gets the knowledge.
 
Excellent, thanks twofish, that's just the kind of recommendation in looking for.
I'm learning more in the past week or so then I've learned in a long time.

Following the recommendations from the forum this far, I'm now looking at including comp crew, so thanks for all the comments all.
 
I'm in the same boat as you ? on this one. I've managed to get a very loose grounding in most of the terminology, boat setup and gaps with some basic Google-fu, and similar searches on YouTube and the likes. The rya training courses all mention the same topics so using that as a start for reading/watching fodder gives me something better than the nothing a had a few weeks back. The kind of content I do like to find is the stuff that gives you a quick 5 mins idiot guide summary before digging into it in more detail. one part in struggling to find anything that makes sense to me is meteorology. I know I'm going to cover this on a course, but I do likea heads up before hand cos it flattens the learning curve slightly. If there's any recommendations, please let me know ppl. I'm always looking to learn something new even if it's irrelevant ☺️
 
dustynet said:
……one part in struggling to find anything that makes sense to me is meteorology. I know I'm going to cover this on a course, but I do likea heads up before hand cos it flattens the learning curve slightly. If there's any recommendations, please let me know ppl. I'm always looking to learn something new even if it's irrelevant ☺️
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Look no further. From the Met Office website.

Weather for young people
 
Welcome to the forum, its a very useful place.
I was in the NW too, Keswick, and pretty much in your situation back in 2015. I did a comp crew course in scotland with a mate, just us in lousy weather, early in the season, then bought a cheap small boat and learned as I went. As long as you can navigate with a tablet, (I was a climber for 30 odd years, so just had to factor in that the ground was now moving too, and I knew enough to get me from a to b) the rest of it easy. Might be worth searching for posts started by me and reading the early ones in order, I have already asked all the dumb and stupid questions for you :)
Do your course, buy a boat and start sailing.
Someone once told me, it's dead simple, there's only 3 real things you need to do...keep your boat in the water (ie off the rocks) keep the water out of the boat, and keep yourself in the boat, your golden. The rest is just detail :)
Its really not as hard/complex/dangerous as folk like to think. As a diver you will be well used to asessing risk and deciding where your own comfort zones are. Enjoy.
 
Hello again! I 've been trying, and failing ,to send you some basic information by PM re boat-handling and mooring pick-up and marina berthing.
Do you have an email or address I can send these notes to please - By Private Message for your security if you like. There are three pages so I could post them if preferred.

ianat182
 
steve yates said:
Welcome to the forum, its a very useful place.
I was in the NW too, Keswick, and pretty much in your situation back in 2015. I did a comp crew course in scotland with a mate, just us in lousy weather, early in the season, then bought a cheap small boat and learned as I went. As long as you can navigate with a tablet, (I was a climber for 30 odd years, so just had to factor in that the ground was now moving too, and I knew enough to get me from a to b) the rest of it easy. Might be worth searching for posts started by me and reading the early ones in order, I have already asked all the dumb and stupid questions for you :)
Do your course, buy a boat and start sailing.
Someone once told me, it's dead simple, there's only 3 real things you need to do...keep your boat in the water (ie off the rocks) keep the water out of the boat, and keep yourself in the boat, your golden. The rest is just detail :)
Its really not as hard/complex/dangerous as folk like to think. As a diver you will be well used to asessing risk and deciding where your own comfort zones are. Enjoy.
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Hi Steve,

Ill have a dig and read through.
You describe pretty much exactly what I intend to do, so Im looking forward to the read, and hopefully come across some historic progress reports too :)

It seems that there is a fair number of like minded individuals who seem to flock to similar sports / pass-times.
Climbers / Divers etc.
Ill take comfort in that :cool:
 
jwfrary said:
Theres a couple of clubs in Fleetwood/Blackpool might be worth a look.
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Thanks for the recommendations, it is apprecated.
Realistically, anything more than an hours commute I would struggle with when I only have a couple of hours spare sadly :D
 
dustynet said:
Thanks for the recommendations, it is apprecated.
Realistically, anything more than an hours commute I would struggle with when I only have a couple of hours spare sadly :D
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And here is the rub. In the North west you are going to be looking at tide gates to go sailing so your sailing opportunities may be time and tide limited.
I hadn't sailed on a yacht when I started. I had been out on a laser dinghy with a mate whilst on holiday 30years ago so knew the difference between a tack and a gybe and I have a background in aviation so meteorology and navigation were not an issue but there was still plenty to get to grips with. I decided to do the DS theory on line then book 2 weeks in Gib to do Comp Crew and DS practical one after the other. It turned out to be great as I basically did DS twice as the other crew were all doing DS on week 1 and I just did everything they did.
It was more than enough to then go bare boat chartering for a few years and I got an opportunity to crew on an adventurous ocean trip 2 up on a small classic yacht. (I learned much more on that trip with a very experienced old skipper than on the previous courses). That gave me enough confidence to take the plunge and buy a yacht and then do my YM again in Gib once I felt I could do everything on the syllabus to some degree.

I bought my yacht in the UK and kept her there a couple of seasons before sailing her to the Med where I do my sailing, purely because when I can get a long weekend I want to sail not wait for the weather to improve or the tides to be convenient. Having said that, if I did still live in the Northwest I would keep her locally but I'm not sure where. Fleetwood, Preston maybe but I would be looking at tidal restrictions carefully.
 
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