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mike_1987

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Hi all hope this is the right place to post this
I’m completely new to sailing. New as in I sailed a topper 15 years ago
I’m looking towards getting a little sailing boat 27foot or thereabouts just to take the family on days out with a view to doing longer trips in years to come
Currently sat looking at courses and I’m looking for recommendations
Is there any extra to be gained from the day skipper theory course or will the essential navigation suffice to begin with
Apologies for any grammatical errors I’m terrible with words
Many thanks
Mike
 
Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.

I’d suggest basic navigation would suffice, but practical experience of being on the water is probably most important. Are there any nearby clubs you could join to give you crewing opportunities?
 
27 foot is big, or at least it was when we started. If you can sail a Topper, you can sail anything. Finding your way around depends on where you sail from. I remember taking a hired motor launch out of Mevagissey years ago and chugging round St Austell Bay. I had no need of charts or anything because I could see the coast all around. If you are intending to sail somehwere more challenging such as the East Coast, then some basic knowledge will be needed from the start. There are numerous ways of acquiring this, from books to courses, and again this depends on what is going on locally.
 
The essential navigation course is very basic and if you are thinking about buying your own boat I’d recommend the DS Shorebased course. The syllabus is significantly more comprehensive and, taught well, should be a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience. It should then be a good foundation upon which you can start to gain experience and will enable to you know “what comes next” in your specific circumstances.

.....and welcome to the forum.
 
27 feet is regarded as quite small nowadays, but it's a good size for a small family, manageable and affordable (relatively speaking). To give the family (and indeed yourself) some confidence that you know what you're doing a nav course and also a practical course might be a good idea. I always think competent crew is a bit too simple and not really worth a great deal, I would suggest do day skipper nav (you can even just get the handbook and work through it yourself), get a few trips out on somebody's boat if you can to get the real basics sorted in your mind and do the day skipper practical which (IMO) is worth having - it can get you an ICC for example should you ever want to charter a boat abroad. Good luck...:)
 
Thanks for the replies so far
With regards the practical side of things I’ve a few friends who sail who are willing to take me out and teach me a little
I forgot to mention whilst I’m new to sailing Growing up we always had fishing boats and more recently (10 years or so ago) we had a rib that we towed to Norway and spent three weeks in and out of Fijords so I’m not new to being out at sea
Looks like I’ll book the dayskipper land based course
im bassed in Dorset so if anyone has any recommendations on who to book it with that would be great
Also if anyone needs someone to help out of a weekend I’d be willing to come out for the experience
many thanks
Mike
 
Hi Mike,

Where abouts in Dorset are you?
Lilliput Sailing Club in Poole might be up your street. Our maximum length is 29'.
Happy to have a chat if you would like to PM me.

In terms of courses the DS is worth doing. My 17 year old son is currently doing it on line.
You can try Dorset Marine Training.
Dorset Marine Training | RYA COURSES & BESPOKE TRAINING FOR LEISURE BOATERS
I did my VHF (dsc) course with them just before lockdown.
Andrew
 
Andrew_Trayfoot said:
Hi Mike,

Where abouts in Dorset are you?
Lilliput Sailing Club in Poole might be up your street. Our maximum length is 29'.
Happy to have a chat if you would like to PM me.

In terms of courses the DS is worth doing. My 17 year old son is currently doing it on line.
You can try Dorset Marine Training.
Dorset Marine Training | RYA COURSES & BESPOKE TRAINING FOR LEISURE BOATERS
I did my VHF (dsc) course with them just before lockdown.
Andrew
Click to expand...
Im in marnhull practically Somerset really
I didn’t know there was a club there I thought it was all Sun seekers and jet skies there
We were looking at the club on the frome on Wareham but will definitely look into lillyput club
 
Welcome to the world of boats, you'll love it. It might seem like the focus is on navigation but what you'll need from the outset is much more basic. Get a feel for it. Learn to tie a few knots, find out what drives the tides, learn about weather systems and why the wind direction changes, understand how you can know instinctively where the wind is coming from with your eyes closed, why you usually approach fixed objects like a mooring from downtide but adrift ones like a MoB from downwind. Most of all, always respect the sea.
 
mike_1987 said:
Im in marnhull practically Somerset really
I didn’t know there was a club there I thought it was all Sun seekers and jet skies there
We were looking at the club on the frome on Wareham but will definitely look into lillyput club
Click to expand...
You were probably looking at Redcliffe on the Frome. Nice frendly club, but a long way from the sea.
Poole has a number of clubs that vary depending on your taste/budget

Lilliput SC
East Dorset SC
Parkstoke YC
Poole YC
Royal Motor YC
Off the top of my head...
 
Catalina36 said:
Welcome to the world of boats, you'll love it. It might seem like the focus is on navigation but what you'll need from the outset is much more basic. Get a feel for it. Learn to tie a few knots, find out what drives the tides, learn about weather systems and why the wind direction changes, understand how you can know instinctively where the wind is coming from with your eyes closed, why you usually approach fixed objects like a mooring from downtide but adrift ones like a MoB from downwind. Most of all, always respect the sea.
Click to expand...
So true. It's not complicated, and I have known many simple folk who manage with no difficulty and many intelligent folk who are a menace to all. As well as the sea, whoever that is, you need to respect other sailors, your boat, its engine and crew. Above all, just never put yourself into a situation from which there is no retreat. I have contravened this once or twice and got away with it, but it is a major cause of grief.
 
Every one and his uncle on 'ere will want to offer advice. First of all, welcome! :giggle:

You'll spot quite quickly that there are as many opinions as there are people to offer them. Some of them are right! But... it doesn't matter hugely.
Provided the boat floats, you can ( sort of ) move it and ( sort of ) steer it - the rest falls into place bit by bit, with a bit of reading and listening. YouTube is a very good source of 'how to'.....

You don't need to be hyper-precise about anything to do with boats - otherwise very few of us would still be able to do it. There or thereabouts works, and you can 'fine tune' that as your own attitude dictates. Go lurk around a club or two. Just about every one welcomes 'newbies' - especially those who can make themselves more or less useful. That's how the majority of us started.....

Doing courses is 'good', but best value when you already have a framework in your head into which to put the new knowledge..... so take most opportunities to go out with friends.

One practice I - and quite a lot of my students over the years - have found useful is to keep a very private diary, and write it up after every day on the water, with what went well, what didn't and why. As it is 'very private' no-one else will see your scathing shorthand about cockups, and it is surprising how, when you look back after a few months/years how much your perspectives have developed, and how your awarenesses have grown.

And... second of all, welcome.
 
Andrew_Trayfoot said:
You were probably looking at Redcliffe on the Frome. Nice frendly club, but a long way from the sea.
Poole has a number of clubs that vary depending on your taste/budget

Lilliput SC
East Dorset SC
Parkstoke YC
Poole YC
Royal Motor YC
Off the top of my head...
Click to expand...
That’s the one I looked at and my concern was the distance from the sea although having kayaked in Poole harbour a fair bit having to sail through it wouldn’t be too great a hardship although ask me again coming back in on a wet miserable day ?
What are the fees like in lillyput as that’s what put me off some of the Poole moorings
Feel free to message me them if you don’t want to share them here
 
johnalison said:
So true. It's not complicated, and I have known many simple folk who manage with no difficulty and many intelligent folk who are a menace to all. As well as the sea, whoever that is, you need to respect other sailors, your boat, its engine and crew. Above all, just never put yourself into a situation from which there is no retreat. I have contravened this once or twice and got away with it, but it is a major cause of grief.
Click to expand...
I put myself in a bad situation on a fishing boat exactly once
we had a little cobble With an old seagull outboard on it I knew the engine wasn’t great but being young and dumb went out anyway
Long story short I had blisters on top of blisters from rowing back ashore against the breeze and tide
Lesson were learned that day I got a vhf a few weeks later and did the course a month or so after that as we had no way of calling for help.
 
zoidberg said:
Every one and his uncle on 'ere will want to offer advice. First of all, welcome! :giggle:

You'll spot quite quickly that there are as many opinions as there are people to offer them. Some of them are right! But... it doesn't matter hugely.
Provided the boat floats, you can ( sort of ) move it and ( sort of ) steer it - the rest falls into place bit by bit, with a bit of reading and listening. YouTube is a very good source of 'how to'.....

You don't need to be hyper-precise about anything to do with boats - otherwise very few of us would still be able to do it. There or thereabouts works, and you can 'fine tune' that as your own attitude dictates. Go lurk around a club or two. Just about every one welcomes 'newbies' - especially those who can make themselves more or less useful. That's how the majority of us started.....

Doing courses is 'good', but best value when you already have a framework in your head into which to put the new knowledge..... so take most opportunities to go out with friends.

One practice I - and quite a lot of my students over the years - have found useful is to keep a very private diary, and write it up after every day on the water, with what went well, what didn't and why. As it is 'very private' no-one else will see your scathing shorthand about cockups, and it is surprising how, when you look back after a few months/years how much your perspectives have developed, and how your awarenesses have grown.

And... second of all, welcome.
Click to expand...
I’ll take advice from absolutely anyone knowledge doesn’t weigh anything after all
I like the idea of a diary I used to be meticulous about keeping one for fishing and still enjoy looking through it
floating seems simple enough making it move and steering not so much
Do you have any recommendations for YouTube channels all the ones I’ve seen have been the likes of sailing vagabond great to watch for entertainment but not much to learn from
 
Welcome to the forum. There is a thread on sailing vids which is a good source of knowledge . It rather depends on what you want to get out of your vids on utube but I quite like sailing RAN currently and also watch sailing doodles which offer completely different scenery and styles. If you want technical stuff maybe look for ones based around type of boat you might own and your sailing areas eg ones around Poole harbour on a small bilge Keeler or something more sporty like a jeaneau 3200 type. Lastly if planning sailing with family crew a flotilla holiday might be a way of learning basic parking and suchlike with a way of seeing what skills you have. Clearly a flot holiday in Croatia isn’t the same as tidal uk but if you are planning an investment it is a good way of brushing up skills in a safe environment in warmer weather etc. I started in dinghies and then sailed on a westerly centaur but our first family boat was 10.8m so a first cruiser at say 27 foot is easily doable but it does depend on skills of any crew for berthing, picking up buoys or whatever and in planning ahead in any arrival scenario eg berthing in a new marina in a tidal ripe with off pontoon force 5 can be a challenge so any boat handling you can learn on flot abroad is well worth it and saves domestic rows here in home waters.
 
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