The Commodore Chronicles

2024 Pre-Season refreshers

Now we’ve gotten January out of the way, it’s a good time to think about this years sailing plans. That includes refreshing those essential sailing skills which might have gotten a little rusty over the winter period.

We’ve got a couple of suggestions which prove popular, and are well worth doing, yet won’t break the bank.

Marina skills & berthing:

We find the most stressful part of sailing is always the start and finish of a passage, i.e. getting out of a marina berth and then getting back into it at the end of the day!

It’s these crucial parts of a passage when things can go wrong, resulting in damage to your boat or another vessel, which ultimately means it’s going to get expensive, possibly involve insurance companies and lets face it, that’s not going to be cheap.

So why not be kind to yourself (and your crew!) and spend a day with one of our RYA-qualified, highly experienced and patient Instructors aboard one of our fleet yachts?

You’ll spend the day setting-up the vessel to depart a marina, learn about crew management and organisation, how to assess wind and tide conditions, the steps needed to leave a berth in a controlled and steady manner, things to look out for and manage when travelling through the marina to open sea, we’ll cover the various methods of picking up mooring buoys, coming alongside places like the fuel berth, as well as safely getting the boat back into her home berth, both bows-in and stern-to, how to set lines and fenders, plus a whole lot more.

This is a course all skippers and crew members will appreciate for that essential pre-season warm-up. We run these courses with a maximum of 5 customers on board, so everyone will get plenty of time on the wheel as skipper and also acting as crew.

This course is also great for those of you who love to get out of the UK and enjoy a summer yacht charter holiday abroad.

The whole day is run in the safe and friendly environment of Portsmouth harbour, usually inside and around Gosport Marina. The great thing about this is you’ll get to experience the typical tidal flows the Solent has, along with varying wind conditions along with the extra added benefit of manoeuvring around a lively and active marina – So very true to actual conditions every sailor experiences.

At the end of the course, you’ll feel more confident in your newly gained or refreshed sailing skills, which will make a weekends sailing less stressful!

We have various dates in 2024 for the Marina Skills and boat handling day, and all are at great value at £125/per person:

• 2^nd March – Only 3 x spaces left
• 6^th April
• 7th April
• 4^th May – Only 2 x spaces left
• 5^th May – Only 3 x spaces left
• 1^st June
• 2^nd June
• 6^th July
• 7^th July
• 3^rd August
• 4^th August
• 31^st August
• 1^st September

We don’t provide any lunch on this course, but we do stop in the marina so you can go ashore to grab something in the local shops, or eat your packed lunch on the boat.

 

RYA VHF Radio:

If you are a regular sailor in the Solent area then you’ve probably heard more than a few confusing and garbled calls over the VHF Radio, let alone all the ‘radio checks’ to the over-worked Coastguard. And trust us, the Coastguard has much more important stuff to focus on than answering those!

A VHF radio is a powerful tool, and essential on a vessel of any kind, from paddle-boarders to container ships and oil tankers. Incorrect use can be a dangerous thing, especially if you don’t know how to make a proper distress call or report an incident at sea. The last thing anyone wants is a lack of knowledge to result in someone getting hurt or killed.

We regard the RYA VHF course as a pre-requisite for anyone who goes out on the water. It’s also a prerequisite for the RYA Yachtmaster exam, and other professional qualifications. It really is a no-brainer and only takes a day in our classroom or is something you can complete online in your own time if you can’t spare a day with us in the classroom. It’s a qualification for life, plus you get to keep the brilliant RYA VHF radio course book which is always handy if you need to refer back to something.

It’s not just for skippers either, it really is a great course for crew members to do. Having someone handle VHF radio calls to the marina while the Skipper is busy helming the boat and organising crew really is a great way to spread the load and reduce stress for all concerned.

It’s also an informative and fun day, where you use actual VHF radios in our dedicated VHF classroom. You’ll learn about all the features modern VHF radios have, make ship-to-ship radio calls, mock Mayday and Pan-Pan calls, learn all the terminology and so much more, including who NOT to call for a radio check (Subtle hint – it’s your local marina or the NCI Coastwatch who generally don’t mind being asked if you are polite and friendly).

We hold RYA VHF courses monthly, and this includes the time for undertaking the exam at the end if you want to obtain your VHF radio licence. The exam fee isn’t included however, so you need to book and pay that through the RYA website. The course is well worth doing and isn’t expensive, at £125/per person.

The next course dates we have are:

• 11^th February
• 10^th March
• 14^th April
• 12^th May
• 9^th June
• 14^th July
• 11^th August
• 8^th September
• 13^th October
• 10^th November
• 8^th December

So why not book a VHF course with us (we also sell them online – click here) in conjunction with a Marina skills day?

Oh, and don’t forget that the 5% discount code “Adventure2024” is still valid, except for the online VHF course.

And as ever, we love to arrange group bookings for courses, skippered charter, race days, you name it. Just drop us a line and tell us what you’d like to do, no matter how wild it may sound. You’d be amazed what we can organise!

Keep on sailing!