Filling in some expertise areas

Posted by olddoglearnsnewtrick@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 7 comments

I sailed on my father’s boat and with him logged around 25.000 at sea, around 19.000 in our two long journeys (from Rome to Panama and to Madagascar both ways) and the rest around the Mediterranean with many times going down to Tunisia or westwards to Corsica and Sardinia or further to the Balearic islands I have weathered all sorts of sea and wind conditions from dead calm to Bf 10 and being at the helm, navigating both at large and dead reconing in coastal waters, meteorological awareness, sail trimming and selection of proper sail plan are deeply ingrained in my experience. But I was seldom the captain, so my father took care of stocking, paperwork, overall planning, and mooring in those crowed summer Mediterranean marinas where you fit in with surgical precision. Now after many years working (too much) as a landlubber I retired and am feeling the itch to get back at sea but also feel that I should fill some areas that I never fully developed being under my father’s “shadow”. Also while on my dad’s boat with my 2 elder brothers we were a very expert and coordinated crew, my current family has no boating experience and therefore I should count on being almost single handed and would never want any drama arising from that. My “paperwork” is ok with an Italian license (unlimited mileage sail/motor under 24m) but no idea if these are equivalent to any of the UK or US certifications and VHF license. What are your suggestions for me to get back in shape and finally earn my captain stripes ? ;)

7 Comments

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Biscuit85@reddit

Maybe try some RYA courses in the UK. You clearly have the miles to show for it, but those courses can help you fill in the blanks. Try looking at a coastal skipper course with theory or go for the Yachtmaster right away.

johnbro27@reddit

Do some bareboat charters. with your license and sailing resume, you shouldn't have any trouble getting a charter. Once you HAVE to moor Med style, you'll figure it out. Same with all the other details. Frankly you have sea time and experience greater than 99.9% of all sailors so you should be fine. Trust yourself.

olddoglearnsnewtrick@reddit (OP)

With Dad we were a very coordinated crew and med mooring was always eventless. The mooring I remember best was performed under sail only (motor dead) with 30kn blowing towards the pier in Porto Azzurro - Elba myself ready to drop the anchor, bros ready do drop the sails, Dad at the helm, all fenders out :) Nobody speaking. Execution perfect, we even got a few applauses from onlookers :) Doing even simpler moorings alone is what worries me more :( Thank you for your kind advice.

M37841@reddit

One option might be to charter (or do flotilla) with a skipper. It’s not a huge additional cost and the skipper will fill in your learning and teach your family to be competent crew. It’s also the best way to keep the stress levels down which is important if you want your family to love sailing as much as you

Absolutely. Thank you.

butcanyoudancetoit@reddit

The other comments are probably right tbh, but as an alternative approach: To charter in some countries you may need an ICC anyway so could use that as an excuse to do a course. If you book with a small independent sailing school and explain the situation, they'd probably be happy for you to do a sort of top up syllabus with ICC certification at the end - in the UK you might follow an RYA dayskipper syllabus but given your experience probably at an accelerated pace where maybe you show you can do x skill once rather than spend all day practicing it. The extra time could then be used to practice things you want to. The real benefit of this would be that you could also bring along some of your inexperienced family and they could do a basic sailing course (RYA comp crew for example) alongside you at the same time. This gives them skills and confidence, while also giving you space to learn to trust them as crew without the added pressure of having to teach and be responsible for them. Low pressure might mean they enjoy their first sailing more and then when you do all go out together with you as skipper, everyone will be happier and less stressed. Don't try to do this with a big company like Sunsail though who just churn through numbers. Pick a quality but small sailing school and discuss it with them before booking.

Very interesting, thanks a lot.

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