Sailing Dinghy Covers

Sailing Dinghy Covers

Learning to sail

Many people learn to sail by going sailing with their friends or parents. But how do you get started if you do not know anybody with a boat? Or perhaps you want to undertake formal training to acquire a recognised qualification. Many yacht charter companies will require potential customers to hold a recognised qualification prior to them chartering a yacht. Sailing in many countries is looked after by national associations or federations. The RYA (Royal Yachting Association) in the United Kingdom and in the United States the ASA (American Sailing Association) to name but two.

These governing bodies have designed a series of courses that enable people to obtain internationally recognised qualifications. The courses are rarely run by the national body itself. Private companies can apply to run the courses to national associations/federations and if approved they can then offer recognised courses to people wanting to learn to sail.

Courses are available both on the water (practical) and shore based (theory) for sailboats, power and motor boats, dinghies as well as supplementary courses such as sea survival and diesel engine maintenance. This article will look only at courses for sailing boats and the structure of courses within the United Kingdom. For information on other courses available please click here.

The the number of people carried on board for the practical courses will vary but normally will not exceed an instructor and 5 students. I completed my own Day Skipper Practical with just one fellow student and the instructor. The higher the student/instructor ratio, the less one to one time everybody gets with the instructor but the cost per person is reduced. It is also preferable, I think, to have a mix of people taking different courses. 5 people taking the Coastal Skipper Practical Course aboard the same boat will have a reduced amount of time in their role as skipper.

Getting started – The first course we’ll look at is called Start Yachting, no previous experience is required and over two days participants will be shown how to steer a yacht, how to handle the sails, a little ropework and an insight into safety on board. The Competant Crew course is again aimed at complete beginners, no previous experience is required. This course last five days and in addition to steering and sail handling participants will be shown how to keep a lookout and row a dinghy.

The first shorebased course is called Day Skipper Theory. A little on the water experience is desirable. The course requires 40 hours and two written exams are taken at the conclusion. Primarily about the basics of navigation, seamanship and the weather, when completed you should be able to navigate a boat in familiar waters in daylight.

The Day Skipper Practical follows and can be completed in 5 days or over 3 weekends. This can be undertaken in either tidal or non-tidal waters and the certificate issued at completion recognizes the distinction. Experience is required, participants should have spent five days at sea with 4 hours night sailing and have logged 100 miles. The course covers boat handling, seamanship and navigation and pilotage. When finished you should be able to skipper a yacht in familiar waters in daylight.

The Watchleader Practical course, as the name suggests, teaches the responsibilitiesof a watchleader, navigation seamanship, safety and collision avoidance. Experience is required, participants should have have logged 100 miles and spent five days at sea with 4 hours night sailing. After the 5 day course you should be able to take the watch on a sail traing vessel.

The second shorebased course is called Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Theory. This course is in part a preperation for the Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore practical examinations. It continues on from the Day Skipper theory course looking again at navigation and meteorology and also considers safety, collision avoidance and passage planning. Some practical experience is necessary and you should understand theory of navigation to the level of the pervious Day Skipper theory course. The course takes 40 hours and concludes with three examination papers. When completed you should understand the theory of navigation required to undertake coastal and offshore passages.

The Coastal Skipper Practical Course follows the theory. Again this can be taken in tidal or non-tidal waters and again the certificate issued at completion recognizes the distinction. This course is aimed at skippers wishing to make coastal passages by both day and night. It assumes you will have spent 15 days at sea with 2 of them as skipper and have 8 night hours. You should have logged 300 miles. You should have practical skills equivilant to the Day Skipper Theory Course and theoretical navigation to Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Theory. The course lasts 5 days and deals with boat handling, safety and emergency situations, pilotage by day and night and passage planning. You will be expected to plan and skipper a short passage.Upon completion you should be able to skipper a yacht on coastal passages by day and night.

You can follow this up with the Coastal Skipper Sailing Practical Examination. More experience is required, 30 days at sea with 2 days as skipper and 12 night hours and you should have logged 800 miles. You are also required to hold a First Aid Certificate and a VHF SRC Radio Operator’s Certificate. You should undertand theory to the level of the Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster shorebased course. Course content includes boat handling and seamanship, collision avoidance, safety, passage making and navigation, meteorology and ability as skipper. Upon completion you should be capable of skippering a yacht on coastal passages by day and night and with the additional of a commercial endorsement you can skipper commercial vessels under 24 metres in length up to 20 miles from a safe haven. For one person you should expect the exam to take between 6 – 10 hours, if two people are taking the exam this will increase to between 8 -14 hours.

The next level is the Yachtmaster Offshore Sailing Practical Examination. Canditates are required to have spent 50 days at sea with 5 days as skipper you should have logged 2,500 miles. You should have made 5 passages in excess of 60 miles including 2 overnight and 2 as skipper. Again you are required to hold a First Aid Certificate and a VHF SRC Radio Operator’s Certificate. You should undertand theory to the level of the Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster shorebased course. You will be expected to demonstrate your ability as the skipper of an offshore sailing yacht, including questions on collision avoidance, navigation, pilotage, meteorology and boat handling. After a sucsessful completion you should be able to skipper an offshore sailing yacht by day or night. For one person you should expect the exam to take between 8 – 12 hours, if two people are taking the exam this will increase to between 10 -18 hours.

Back on shore for the Yachtmaster Ocean Theory Course. This provides the knowledge required for those wishing to sail long distances. It covers ocean passage making and astro navigation including the use of a sextant. I’m sure the purists will disagree but personally I’m not convinced of the relevance of astro navigation and the sextant. I once crewed across the Atlantic for a couple who were making a circumnavigation. Seeing the sextant on board I asked the skipper if he could give me a demonstration of it’s use. He pointed me in the direction of the book that went with it saying he’d relied upon GPS for the last 12 years. “What happens if the GPS packs up?” I asked. “We use the spare one” he told me. The course lasts 40 hours and when completed you should understand how to plan and navigate on an ocean passage.

Finally the Yachtmaster Ocean Sailing Oral Examination on passage details and sun sight information. You must have successfully completed the Yachtmaster Offshore practical exam. You should have made a 600 mile passage as either mate or skipper and be able to take sun-run-sun sights and compass check by azumuth. You will receive questions on the techniques and problems of ocean passage making, including navigation, passage planning and ocean meteorology.The exam lasts a minimum of 1 and 1/2 hours and upon sucsessful completion you should be able to skipper a sailing yacht on an ocean passage.

More information about learning to sail can be found here

About the Author

Ken Jones runs the two websites. A Spanish Travel Guide which includes a commercial directory wth extensive listings for hotels, hostals and pensions, property for rent and sale.And a Sailing Site which features a global marine directory with listings for yacht charter, sailing schools, marine surveyors, boat insurance and marine electronics.

This recreational lake — Is there a suitable sailboat?

Buckeye Lake has an average depth of about 6 feet with a maximum depth of about 14 feet. It has a relatively flat bottom without much underwater woody cover. It is a recreational lake of 2,847 acres located in a state park with many 4, 6 and 8 foot depths.

I’ve been sailing a 17-foot keel boat on a local lake with similar characteristic and under similar circumstances for the past 12 years or so. As with you, the majority of boaters are not sailboats, but pontoon boats or small fishing skiffs. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a sailboat. Certainly there are some coves, I’m not going to venture into as far as a pontoon boat will, but most of the lake is still open to me. It doesn’t matter if there is 1 foot under your keel, or 100, to enjoy the lake as long as your boat floats. Towards the end of the summer, there is usually less than 6 inches of water under the boat when I pull into the dock, and in some really low years, the keel has even plowed through a bit of silt to get back in. So what?

One of the things that helps me sail with confidence is that it is a swing keel boat. so I know that if I get stuck or the water goes down, all i need to do is crank up the keel and and I have an extra 2 feet to work with.

This boat is defiantly the best value I’ve ever had. I bought it used with a trailer for 2.5K over a decade ago, and have probably put less than $500 into it since then. However, it’s still light enough to be towed with a mid size car and since it’s a keel boat I can enjoy it when the water is too cold to even consider a dinghy. Unlike a dingy, it will sail 4 comfortable and on a few occasions I’ve had 6 on board, yet its as easy as a dingy to sail on my own. I store if for the winter and take it out and launch it in the spring with no thought in between. It’s only about 20 minutes to rig, launch and be off sailing. I also feel confident to go out on calm days knowing I can just enjoy being on the water.

I think so many sailors miss so much because they get so paranoid about depth. From what you’ve said the bottom is unlikely to hurt most boats if you should run aground and with a swing keel or centerboard, its so easy to deal with that if you do. Even when I’m sailing in the Bahamas on a 33-foot boat, I’ll often sail all day and rarely have water over 14-feet and find some beautiful shallow anchorages with nobody around. Sure there may only be 1.5 feet under the keel at low tide but as I said earlier, as long as the boat is floating, who cares how much depth is under it.

From what you’ve said a boat similar in size 17-19 feet might make sense for you, but you need to look more at what you’d like to do. If you will not have a slip, you need something easy transport rig and launch. Do you want to sleep out at night from time to time? – then you might want to go with something a little bigger. What’s the towing capacity of your vehicle? Do you want to take other people out? These are all things to consider.

I had one year, that I tried a lake about an hour away, but I found the small lake similar to yours so convenient at only 20 minutes, that I used it so much more and have kept the boat there ever since.

There are a lot of used, small keelboats with trailers that are very affordible to purchase and will likely require little upkeep. I teach a sailing class that uses the above mentioned keelboat and several small lazer-sized dinghies. I’m thinking of getting rid of all the dinghies in part because they are less adaptable, more expensive in the long run, are not as appropriate in many weather conditions.

There are many boats to choose from including: West Wight Potter, Catalina, Vagabond, O-day, Precision and Hunter

Buying a used keelboat is much like buying a used home. Don’t get caught up in curb appeal. Don’t get too worked up about the condition of the sails, paint jobs, old tires, or trailer lights not working. These are easy, cheap fixes. Structural damage to the boat, an engine that needs replacing or major trailer work however, can end up costing quite a bit.

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