Competent Crew - Typical Course

Meet at Landers for a drink a meal and generally get to know each other. Introduction to the boat and stow your gear. This is one of our standard training yachts, a modern, clean and very well equipped Jeanneau 40. Substantially larger and more comfortable than a typical sailing school yacht, this is after all a holiday for you as well as a training exercise! We then aim to get a good nights sleep ready to start bright and early the following morning. although some people get over-excited and go for a nightcap at the bar before getting their heads down!

Tea or coffee at about 0730, followed by showers and breakfast.

Tuition starts in earnest at about 0930 with a thorough safety briefing and familiarisation of all the relevant equipment on board. We aim to leave the dock at 1130 ish, for a gentle sail up the Solent, where we pick a spot for lunch. Afternoon spent becoming familiar with sails, their control and setting, steering etc.

We normally tie up at a marina, usually in Cowes for the first night at about 6.00pm. Supper goes into the oven to heat up, and we go off to the pub for a well-earned drink and to discuss the day. Supper back on board at about 8.00pm, maybe a cheeky glass of wine to wash it down and then bed - you will have had a lot to take in and all that sea air will make you tired.

Usual start, tea or coffee at about 7.30 - 8.00am, showers and breakfast and then back to the task in hand. Perhaps some 'parking' practice in and amongst local pontoons and jetties. We spend a fair bit of time on this as it is the most scary bit! Lunch and then out onto the Solent to practise helming skills, sail handling and general boat handling. We would decide on an evening venue and plan our trip to ensure that we are safely secured in our berth before beer!

By wednesday morning the routine will have become well established! After the usual start we might spend some time considerig the problems we might face leaving our berth, and trying different techniques to take the boat safely out of the mooring. Back out onto the ocean and consolidation of the skills we have picked up so far - sailing an accurate course, planning our passage to make allowance of likely complications such as large shipping, tidal flows and weather forecasts.

Standard start to the day followed by knot practice, introduced earlier in the week. By now you can prepare warps ( you will even know what they are ) for depature, organise a roving fender, remove sail covers if appropriate, undertake daily engine checks and take down the latest weather forecast from the ships radio. We would saunter out into the Solent with recently acquired confidence and extend our sailing skills by picking up a 'man overboard' under sail! You will be able to steer the boat, trim the sails ( that means adjust them ) for all points of sail and generally contribute to the running of the yacht in a meanigful way.

Your last day and it seems an age since Monday when, in preparation to depart, you first turned the bow line into a 'slip', tied a fender to the lee quarter guardrail with a running half-htich, stowed the shore-power and set up a stern spring. Your learning curve will have been very steep, and you will have been having so much fun you won't even have noticed how much you have learned!

You will now be familiar with the way a yacht works, how to make it work, and how to be part of an effective yacht crew!

We aim to tie up in the home berth by about 2.30 pm, which should see you on your way by about 3.30 after we have emptied and tidied the boat. This allows you to miss the Friday afternoon traffic if you have far to go. You will have had the most fantastic week!