It turns out that at the moment if you live anywhere in Europe except in the UK and you want to get a VHF Radio Licence (SRC) you have to attend a two day course. In the UK, at the moment, you only have to attend a one day course. We have clearly had it easy and...
As he sails around the Irish Sea, First Class Sailing instructor Darryl Hughes is reporting back on his experiences and posing readers a nautical question. Today he is navigating through fog... Last week I was making the 40 mile passage from Campbeltown to Rathlin...
When coming into the river Crouch a young man was told by a yachtmaster candidate to steer a course of 245 degrees and to follow the buoyed channel. Because the boat was on the starboard tack and the wind from the north the student could not see the red channel marks...
The internationally recognised Day Skipper qualification is something any aspiring skipper or someone just starting off in yachting should be setting their sights on. It is the qualification that most charter companies like to see before they charter you a yacht. Day...
Running aground is something that will happen one day, and if you sail on the east coast it is a possibility every day. Get your calculations wrong and a great day of sailing becomes a day of mud wrestling. But the mud can be a great asset when training. Our skipper...
I am just finishing the winter refit work on a Jeanneau 40 . She is from 2002 so it’s important to check things carefully each winter so that there are no unpleasant hiccups in the summer sailing period. Time spent in the winter really pays dividends. Some of it...
Taking a shore-based RYA Day Skipper course makes sense for many reasons, five of which are listed below: It will make you a better and safer sailor whether you intend to be crew or skipper as you will learn, amongst other things: How to work out tidal heights and...
Is navigating using a sextant a dying art? In this modern age of GPS do we still need to know how to navigate by the stars? The RYA Ocean Yachtmaster Course (such as the one being run in Canary Wharf, London at the end of January) builds upon sailors’ basic...