How to begin sailing in UK?

[PaulGS]

So here's my situation: in my early 60's but in vigorous good health and only now having the time to think of owning a 'proper' boat (I had a GP14 on a reservoir years ago). A RYA CC course would seem an obvious place to start but forum contributors often see them as poor value - I need to get a lot of sailing-time 'bang' for my £'s in the initial learning phase, and money spent on courses is taken out of the purchase kitty. Many cruisers seem (by their own account) to just buy a boat and wing it, building their experience by gradually extending themselves over years. I'd probably (with trepidation) do just that but here we run into another hurdle - co-ordinating the purchase of a boat with finding a mooring (I'm situated most inconveniently for all this - in Gtr. Manchester). In a perfect world I'd hope to join a club and stumble upon someone (perhaps worried about going single-handed now they're older) prepared to take me out - but it's a bit of a reach to stump up a membership in this expectation. Any advice on getting on-water experience and finding that elusive mooring appreciated.

 

[langstonelayabout]

Time to get some proper (RYA training, not a friend) training in a small boat and then get a cruising type of dinghy and join the right sort of club and go sailing.
My club membership cost me about £100 a year. If that is too much you might consider a different sport.
Take people’s advice like ‘join a club and sail other’s boats’ with a pinch of salt as those who have boats that you’d like to sail treat their boats like an extension of their home: only friends get invited out.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

There are sailing schools that offer so called "mile builder" course, incorporating RYA certificates. Instead of being on the boat for a week, it would be 10 days or 14 days, that set of thing. The focus is on miles and some times qualifying passages and skippering command experience for the certificates of competence (not what you would be doing at this stage). However, the mile builder rout may give you the intensity of sailing you want, and the course completion certificate.

A good Competent Crew will be a better sailor that a poor Day Skipper by far. Some Day Skippers have atrocious skills at the required level and some Competent Crews would sail circles around them. My personal opinion is that following the RYA scheme through practical and theory will make you a better sailor and give you the necessary skills. I personally would recommend that rout as it can work. If you decide that you would want to do that, check the prices online, then ask on here about school experience, you will get good feedback.

 

[Adios]

What sort of sailing do you see yourself doing? If its having a small (but proper) yacht for estuary pottering, reading books (on sailing perhaps) at anchor, making the odd inter river passage at sea, the sort of thing that most people do while avoiding foul weather, just get a modest boat and start using it. If you're thinking sailing is all about sea passage making and want to voyage afar from the off then do the RYA route plus mile building things. Either way will get you to the same sort of place, the former slower but cheaper.

Once you have a boat in any mooring you can stay on it at the coast and you'll meet people with other boats to go on or who will come with you on yours

 

[capnsensible]

In my opinion, you can't beat the 5 day Competent Crew course as a beginning. Go out ona maintained yacht with an experienced and qualified Instructor. Even if its the only course you do in your life, the biggest thing learned is......do you like sailing yachts.

Then start blagging rides.

 

[srm]

As a child I had a Penguin paperback copy of "Sailing" by Peter Heaton that I must have almost memorised.

I managed a bit of dinghy sailing at school and a couple of passages as crew on proper yachts while at university. A couple of years later we bought our first cruising boat at Porchester Creek. The idea was to sail a bit in the Solent first, but the yard delayed launching so into the water, store the boat, head out through Portsmouth harbour, turn left and sail up the North Sea to Shetland where I had to get back to work.

Some ten years later I decided to try running a charter yacht, bought the boat, then did a five day prep and YM exam course in the Solent as it seemed sensible to have some sort of qualification if sailing with paying crew. (This was before Codes of Practice and Commercial Endorsements). I did have about 10,000 qualifying miles logged when taking the direct entry exam, but most signed by myself as skipper. Some eighteen months later I qualified as a YM Instructor.

This approach may not suit everyone, and does require dedication to sort through and try to understand a lot of information and analyse how you might have done something better. I also made a lot of mistakes, fortunately non fatal, and had two stress of weather insurance claims in my first four years (but non since).

It probably helped that I had worked on survey ships and was employed as a trainee hydrographic surveyor after university.

 

[Daydream believer]

If you can sail a dinghy & want to go down the " buying a boat" route I would have thought that a competent crew course a bit too light. A cruiser is just the same as a dinghy, but a big bigger. The theory is just the same in the grand scheme of things.
I would suggest stressing the brain cells a bit & learning some nav skills, as well as just what rope to pull. If you find it too hard I would imagine that you can always down grade to CC. Instructors are pretty understanding.
If you do get a cruising boat you will need to have those extra skills because -as I found- you suddenly find yourself a lot further from home, in a very short time. You need to have a basic understanding of tides & things from the off. You do not get those on a reservoir.

 

[Daydream believer]

As a child I had a Penguin paperback copy of "Sailing" by Peter Heaton that I must have almost memorised.
I managed a bit of dinghy sailing at school and a couple of passages as crew on proper yachts while at university. A couple of years later we bought our first cruising boat at Porchester Creek.
Some ten years later I decided to try running a charter yacht,

With due respect you have to understand that the Op is 60 years of age. Quoting experiences of a gung ho 20-30 something is somewhat irrelevant. I went from a Hornet to a Stella at 21 . At 22 I was bumping into the Belgian & Dutch coast, with only a couple of magazine articles & Eric Hiscocks tales to guide me.

But the attitude of mind changes over the years. Things that seem easy at that age gradually become a hurdle as the years go by.
At 65 & 67 I was sailing round the Uk SH but at 75, Round UK again is, if I am honest, a dream. So the Channel Islands SH are my target . But not holding my breath.

One may have the experience, but somehow there is something in the back of the mind that makes one step back & think.
For that reason I would suggest that whereas I might have laughed at the suggestion that the OP took lessons a few years ago. I would not speak against it now. So the Op will find it better taking an easier route. Mile building with a school, Perhaps a charter holiday to build some miles. Then a decent boat that will get him home, a crew that he can sail with regularly & rely on.

 

[Airscrew]

Hi Paul. A recently(ish) new sailor here....

I dont suggest you go on a compcrew course. Thats 5 days, and could be great fun, but will cost 5 or 600.
But I suggest you start with the 2 day RYA based 'start' sailing, or similar.

2 examples are:
RYA Start Yachting Sailing Courses - Solent & Southampton Waters
at 199
and
RYA sailing courses | Solent yacht charters & mile building – Sail Squad
at 299

Ofcourse, it doesnt have to be Solent or South coast, but you can get some good experiences in 2 days in the Solent.

Whatever you do, Welcome, and Enjoy...!!!

 

[lustyd]

Personally, given that you can already sail, I would start with a couple of books. RYA Navigation Handbook by Tim Bartlett will teach you nav, and The Complete Yachtmaster by Tom Cunliffe will teach you pretty much everything else. Read these cover to cover until you understand them, and buy a short length of rope to practice knots until proficient. Next, as Capnsensible said, book the week long CC course. While I think the DS and CS courses do offer value, they just give you facetime and discussion of what's in the books as well as a couple more weeks on a boat. The CC course allows you to listen and discuss these topics but without the stress of trying to be skipper, so you can enjoy the sailing. The one thing you may not get with CC is lots of helming experience while coming alongside (parking your boat is important!). For this I recommend getting own boat tuition once you buy something. A day with an instructor on board is the best money you'll spend on your new boat.

This is all assuming limited budget. I actually thought doing all three courses was very worthwhile but if it's that or buy a boat then buy a boat.

 

[lustyd]

Also, get your courses in during winter. Better for experience and half the cost. Not exactly living the dream of gin on deck in the sun, but that will come later.

 

[dunedin]

In my opinion, you can't beat the 5 day Competent Crew course as a beginning. Go out ona maintained yacht with an experienced and qualified Instructor. Even if its the only course you do in your life, the biggest thing learned is......do you like sailing yachts.

Then start blagging rides.

Clearly you will get a variety of differnt views on this forum. But my view aligns with the above (and Capsensible has lots of experience in this area, so worth listening to).
Whilst a Competent Crew session may be slightly low level, it gets you out sailing on a yacht - which can be fun as well as good experience. Follow up with another course like Day Skipper, having done some reading and hopefully some sailing in between.
Choose a location that can make a bit of a holiday and justify under that budget.
If Manchester based I would recommend doing one of the courses on the Clyde. It is quicker to get to than the Solent, and massively prettier and more challenging. Many people from your location choose to keep their boats on the Clyde (or NW Wales) as better sailing than the shallower waters of the NW England.

 

[SteveA]

So here's my situation: in my early 60's but in vigorous good health and only now having the time to think of owning a 'proper' boat (I had a GP14 on a reservoir years ago). A RYA CC course would seem an obvious place to start but forum contributors often see them as poor value - I need to get a lot of sailing-time 'bang' for my £'s in the initial learning phase, and money spent on courses is taken out of the purchase kitty. Many cruisers seem (by their own account) to just buy a boat and wing it, building their experience by gradually extending themselves over years. I'd probably (with trepidation) do just that but here we run into another hurdle - co-ordinating the purchase of a boat with finding a mooring (I'm situated most inconveniently for all this - in Gtr. Manchester). In a perfect world I'd hope to join a club and stumble upon someone (perhaps worried about going single-handed now they're older) prepared to take me out - but it's a bit of a reach to stump up a membership in this expectation. Any advice on getting on-water experience and finding that elusive mooring appreciated.

I would recommended having a chat with John at Bay Sea School - they're based at Morecambe but also teach on the Clyde. No connection apart from being a happy customer.

 

[Adios]

If you can sail a dinghy & want to go down the " buying a boat" route I would have thought that a competent crew course a bit too light. A cruiser is just the same as a dinghy, but a big bigger. The theory is just the same in the grand scheme of things.
I would suggest stressing the brain cells a bit & learning some nav skills, as well as just what rope to pull. If you find it too hard I would imagine that you can always down grade to CC. Instructors are pretty understanding.
If you do get a cruising boat you will need to have those extra skills because -as I found- you suddenly find yourself a lot further from home, in a very short time. You need to have a basic understanding of tides & things from the off. You do not get those on a reservoir.

I'd agree with all that but the question of needing an instructor or not perhaps depends on Paul, if he prefers to be taught or he is quite happy to learn by a book and doing. And also if he buys a small enough forgiving boat that can take the mud. Max 26ft bilge keeler. Big enough to feel stable moving around the decks, the fore sheets can be handled without winching in light winds and technique isn't that important to avoid accidents with less forces involved. But leave the sails in the first few times, motor around an estuary learning some navigation.

Once sitting on a boat on a mooring with the tide going past the need to learn about tides will be apparent. You will see navigation marks and can easily work out what they mean. Once going down an estuary it will all fit together easily. Straight away your stimulated brain will be whirring away with questions that you can find answers for in any sailing book. And it will be applied immediately on a boat you will rapidly become familiar with so it will stick!

On the other hand you can sit in a classroom hoping lots of out of context theory goes in and then be on bigger boat than you're likely to buy where you are taking it in turns to be one of a crew and you get to pull the odd rope and turn the odd winch but with lots of distractions and I doubt it will fit together as usefully as learning it as you go on your own boat. You might even start to wrongly believe you need crew to sail and therefore need a boat big enough to house them, so you buy that boat for which you would actually need crew and can't find any, so don't do much sailing! argh.

Perhaps after a course you'll be starting a little further ahead when you later save up again to get your boat but I personally doubt its worth the quite large amount of money if your ambition is steady and modest.

 

[Daydream believer]

Perhaps after a course you'll be starting a little further ahead when you later save up again to get your boat but I personally doubt its worth the quite large amount of money if your ambition is steady and modest.

If you cannot afford a course, I would suggest one asks the question. Can I really afford a boat?

 

[KevinV]

Having made the transition from mostly self taught lake dinghy sailor to yachts many years ago, and knocking on the door of 50 now, I would highly recommend some proper tuition from someone genuinely qualified. John at the club may well be a brilliant, race winning, world girdling skipper, but that doesn't mean he can teach, and it doesn't mean he won't teach you his bad habits.

Even on a small yacht the loads on lines are exponentially bigger - dinghy habits of using physical strength to correct mistakes can cost you fingers on a yacht.
Then there's anchors, chain and all that jazz to learn to do safely and correctly, and basic sea stuff for a freshwater sailor to learn - like not parking your salty backside on the upholstery, and how to use the heads!

Get some formal training so you are safe and freshly aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Then enjoy spending many years improving both

 

[FairweatherDave]

I reckon there are lots of ways that might suit. You might approach the clubs in the area you think you might sail - if you get lucky you could get a lot of relevant experience for very little cost. Personally I went straight to Day skipper theory after messing about in dinghies. Then did the dayskipper practical after I had gone out on a racing yacht only once and been seasick. My sole yacht experience. Depends how much of a rush you are in. Compy crew is a nice gentle way in but then you still need to understand some navigation etc. I think Tom Cunliffe's Complete Dayskipper is a more user friendly digestible book, (I have Complete yachtmaster book too). My time pressure was to be able to go on a flotilla holiday with family and that is a really nice learning curve. Without that pressure I might have tried more to join a local club and their racing scene.

 

[johnalison]

I know it’s an odd idea, but if you can sail a dinghy, I assume you want to jump to a modest cruiser for coastal work. You might get more experience of life at sea for the least cost by buying a small motor boat to chug around in for a year or two. Much of the stress of cruising involves the business of mooring, berthing, or anchoring, and you can pick up the business of pilotage as you go along providing you do some homework. Joining a club, as you say, is a good start, and you may get the benefit of sailing with someone or getting someone experienced to help you. You will then be in a position to know what courses you need. You won’t be able to operate a radio without a certificate, which basically necessitates a course, but that is easily done. Otherwise, you are free to do what your locality and common sense allows.

 

[ridgy]

Can probably help. Will send you a message.

Edit. Or maybe not I think you need to make 5 posts.before being able to message.

 

[Wansworth]

Came across a whole gable of micro yachts in Chichester,singlehanded mostly,mostly old farts by the look of it,boats where 15 to 18 footers they had met brought boats down on a trailer,helped each other seems a good way,cheap,friendly and interesting