RYA Competent Crew Locations

[OatsBoats]

I'm pretty new to sailing but the limited sailing I've done so far has been really enjoyable for me, so for my 19th birthday my parents have offered to pay for me spending a week doing a competent crew course.

What I'm interested in is what locations offer good competent crew courses and especially if there is anywhere I'm likely to do the course with other young people?

So far I've looked into southampton and Solent Boat Training who I've sailed with before in a trial and found quite good.

If anyone has any information on what places they know are good to take a competent crew course at I'd really appreciate it!

 

[KompetentKrew]

You might look at www.PhoenixYachtClub.co.uk, www.brightonbelle.org and www.sailoverlord.org

I learned to sail with Phoenix and highly recommend them - you would probably find them very affordable in your position. Fees are in the order of £32 per day (winter weekdays) to £75 per day (summer weekends). It used to be that students on RYA courses would pay the instructor's fees, so it was effectively a 20% or 25% increase on the normal day rate, but it looks from their site that they might have changed things.

The Competent Crew course doesn't really teach very much - Phoenix do run them, but you'd learn the all the same things just by sailing a few days with them. My first year I did a 5-day Solent to Dartmouth and back with them, which was very good. I think they require you to do a day or a weekend as a guest before joining as a member, but I think you might find the club very suitable for your needs.

Oh, sorry - the club contains many fogies. In my 40's I was often treated as the young lad who needed feeding up. I think Germain Williams' www.SailRacingAcademy.org attracts a younger crowd, once you've got a bit of experience.

 

[[70521]]

Hello and welcome

You might consider contacting the Ocean Youth Trust, or other Sail Training Organisations, and asking them if they have place available in the summer.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Good point. www.tallships.org are very good - they have a 7-day trip to St Malo and back listed in April. The Challengers look great, but avoid the ketch IMO.

 

[flaming]

UKSA in Cowes generally attract more than their fair share of the younger crowd.

 

[laika]

The Competent Crew course doesn't really teach very much

Is that from personal experience or anecdotes? The Comp Crew syllabus looks remarkably good and covers more than I think you'd learn in an unstructured few days sailing. On the flip side when I did it (17 years ago) I had a terrible instructor and the course was nothing like the syllabus I later saw.

If the OP wants to learn a core set of skills for small boat sailing and get an RYA certificate with a younger crowd I can't think of a better suggestion than flaming's

 

[ghostlymoron]

There's a list of course locations on the rya website. None local to me so I did CC at Dartmouth and DS at Conway. Where are you living?

 

[KompetentKrew]

Is that from personal experience or anecdotes? The Comp Crew syllabus looks remarkably good and covers more than I think you'd learn in an unstructured few days sailing. On the flip side when I did it (17 years ago) I had a terrible instructor and the course was nothing like the syllabus I later saw.

You might well be right to say that a Competent Crew course will teach you more than you'd learn on same number of average days crewing. Obviously a lot of people can sail their own boats, but aren't instructors and haven't given much thought to what should be taught.

Phoenix is an RYA training club (I think the scheme was originally set up to support clubs?) and their skippers are quite orientated towards sharing experience and up-skilling inexperienced crew. The TallShips.org skipper and first mate were pretty good at this too. To a lesser extent, so have other skippers I've sailed with.

I don't think there was anything new to me on my Competent Crew course - the instructor assessed me and I got a bunch of Day Skipper tasks signed off instead.

The Competent Crew syllabuses published online look more impressive than I think is the reality - in practice, Competent Crew seemed to cover the gist of what's on the syllabus, but it's an assessment of the crew's competence rather than meeting the syllabus to the letter. The club's training boat has furling gib and they didn't make a point of lowering the sails to ensure the crewman has experience of bending or hanking them on - would any training centre? I think it's a case of "these are the knots you're supposed to know" and you will be signed off if you can do 4/5 of them with supervision - you won't be failed for being unable to remember some of them. Likewise the familiarity with nautical terminology. I don't think I ever saw a flare, but was required to inflate the boat's tender and row it around the marina. "Understands how to launch and board a liferaft" is not covered in any depth.

I think the RYA Day Skipper syllabus is great if, at the end of it, you want to buy a 20' or 30' boat and sail it regularly in familiar waters. Obviously people use it for chartering a boat in the Med once or twice a year - the Competent Crew crew qualification ensures they can start from scratch and quality (in, as you say, a structured way) for Day Skipper in only two weeks. I'm not familiar with Med conditions (but have now singlehanded my 40' boat a couple of thousand miles to Portugal) but I don't think I would have been ready to actually skipper anywhere unfamiliar after only 2 weeks' training. Not however rigorously the RYA syllabus was followed, or however good the instructors.

If the OP wants to learn a core set of skills for small boat sailing and get an RYA certificate with a younger crowd I can't think of a better suggestion than flaming's

@flaming's is an excellent suggestion which hadn't occurred to me.

However the UKSA competent crew course is about the same price as TallShips.org's Challenger trip to St Malo and back - IMO the latter would be better value if the weather is good. With good winds that would be a very rewarding trip IMO.

 

[OatsBoats]

Thanks to everyone for responding. I've checked out the different organisations and courses and think I'm likely to go with the TallShips to St Malo, could be quite enjoyable to cross the channel and seems like there's a young enough crowd.

I'm honestly very excited as this will be the first time I'll spend more than a few hours on the sea, wish me luck!

 

[KompetentKrew]

It occurred to me after posting, and then forgot to mention, that you'll find TallShips are quite good on progression - they have volunteer crew and watch leader positions you can apply for when you have a bit of experience.

 

[Stemar]

I don't think the CC course teaches much that couldn't be learned in a few weekends sailing with a helpful skipper. If you already know how to helm, hoist and stow sails - and have a rough idea of how to trim them, I'd go for Day Skipper.

 

[colind3782]

Years ago I wanted a sailing holiday so I did a Comp Crew with Sunsail at their base in Phuket. I already had much of the knowledge but the weather was nice and great fun was had by all, including the skipper!