Day Skipper Practical - useful bits of kit

[Daydream believer]

Seriously, the knife might be necessary to cut yourself free, while trapped by a stray rope, under water, in some catastrophic incident, or more mundanely, cutting slices of chorizo!

Do you really believe that you are going to be able to find your knife, Unfold it, then cut the rope, If you can get to it. Then still get free in the 40 seconds it takes to drown you. It does not take long if you are being bounced about & were caught unawares before you start gulping mouthfuls of water.
As a dinghy sailor, I have been trapped under a dinghy on 4 occasions in my life & i assure you, you have no time to look in your pocket for a knife even if you know what pocket & if you can actually get your hand into the pocket to get it.
Chorizo !!
There are not many people that have a knife sharp enough to cut food cleanly. If you have a knife try cutting some nice neat slices of cucumber.
(Actually It makes a good party game if you do it with scissors & see how many slices you can cut in a given time from a set length of cucumber)

 

[ianmkent]

A few battery packs to charge your phone, a hipflask for after sailing, sailing gloves if you do not have any and some hand cream.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I take the opposite approach - take an empty carrier bag and put soiled clothing in it as it's used. That way you can assume everything in the holdall is clean and the wiff of dirty socks/pants is confined to the carrier bag.

I always pack underwear into a plastic bag before putting it in the main bag. Then, towards the end of the week you won't be hunting through your bag in the dark trying to find that last pair of socks that is now mixed in with everything else.
A bin bags for the dirty washing also helps keep things organised.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Do you really believe that you are going to be able to find your knife, Unfold it, then cut the rope, If you can get to it. Then still get free in the 40 seconds it takes to drown you. It does not take long if you are being bounced about & were caught unawares before you start gulping mouthfuls of water.
As a dinghy sailor, I have been trapped under a dinghy on 4 occasions in my life & i assure you, you have no time to look in your pocket for a knife even if you know what pocket & if you can actually get your hand into the pocket to get it.
Chorizo !!
There are not many people that have a knife sharp enough to cut food cleanly. If you have a knife try cutting some nice neat slices of cucumber.
(Actually It makes a good party game if you do it with scissors & see how many slices you can cut in a given time from a set length of cucumber)

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Do you really believe that you are going to be able to find your knife, Unfold it, then cut the rope, If you can get to it. Then still get free in the 40 seconds it takes to drown you. It does not take long if you are being bounced about & were caught unawares before you start gulping mouthfuls of water.
As a dinghy sailor, I have been trapped under a dinghy on 4 occasions in my life & i assure you, you have no time to look in your pocket for a knife even if you know what pocket & if you can actually get your hand into the pocket to get it.
Chorizo !!
There are not many people that have a knife sharp enough to cut food cleanly. If you have a knife try cutting some nice neat slices of cucumber.
(Actually It makes a good party game if you do it with scissors & see how many slices you can cut in a given time from a set length of cucumber)

No, but it's recommended equipment for every new trainee, and every newly minted dinghy instructor seems to proudly sport a knife, a spare shackle and a whistle

 

[Daydream believer]

No, but it's recommended equipment for every new trainee, and every newly minted dinghy instructor seems to proudly sport a knife, a spare shackle and a whistle

The whistle should be part of the life jacket & as it is for day skipper, not dinghy sailing, the yacht should have the other tools & shackles etc

 

[Baddox]

No, but it's recommended equipment for every new trainee, and every newly minted dinghy instructor seems to proudly sport a knife, a spare shackle and a whistle

Recommended for kayak instructors too. I still have a diver's knife sharpened to a razor edge, strapped to my buoyancy aid.

 

[[163233]]

Jeez, I've not sailed in South Wales, but it sounds bloody terrifying, we didn't even cover the knife-fighting part of the syllabus.

 

[mattie_uk]

Jeez, I've not sailed in South Wales, but it sounds bloody terrifying, we didn't even cover the knife-fighting part of the syllabus.

Not sure if it's needed for trips to Swansea or for fighting off dragons. Might be one and the same thing.