Nikola Prelevic – From Novice to Chartering a Boat in a Year

This week, former First Class Sailing student Nikola Prelevic shares a personal account of his training experience – and his subsequent adventures in the Mediterranean…

Ahoy potential new Mariners!

In September 2012 I decided I really want to get into sailing and be in a position to skipper a yacht confidently with the aim of sailing the beautiful islands of the world and indulge in those sea adventures!

However my sailing experience was nothing more than wine sipping on the yacht in the Med and I was worried it would take me years before I could skipper on confidently. I put the worries aside and joined First Class Sailing RYA courses and what a great decision it was!

I did my Day Skipper Theory and YachtMaster Theory from January to May 2013, followed by Comp Crew practical, Channel Hop for experience building and Day Skipper practical in the Solent from May – August 2013. All the instructors were top notch (YMI level) and they next to offering training of the core RYA material shared their personal tips and tricks of sailing but above all they were all very friendly and made everything very enjoyable!

From the Solent to the Med

All the will I put into learning to sail during Jan-August 2013 together with outstanding training I received from First Class Sailing resulted in me very confidently skippering a yacht sailing the Ionian Sea from Corfu to Zakynthos and back! I highly recommend visiting the Ship Wreck beach in Zakynthos… true desktop wallpaper stuff!

It was an amazing feeling of achievement and enjoyment as I caught good winds, moored safely and helped other skippers too! For the first time I actually had to do a reverse anchored mooring into the marina and thought "I didn’t practice this in DS practical!" I wasn’t worried, but I decided to plan it out properly as I had just seen a yacht bang against others while reversing into a mooring slot!

I checked the wind direction and calculated how much anchor I needed. I briefed the anchor girl on how we’d communicate if anchor is too tight or loose and ensured there were people watching the side fenders to avoid the boats moored on either side. I even had a plan B if things didn’t go to plan… and remembered a quote by First Class Sailing YMI instructor "Speed is Bad Power is Good."

After all this preparation I stopped the boat, put slight reverse throttle, and blown by wind from the beam, I smoothly slotted into the mooring space… then I thought, "S**t, the training was very good!"

Nikola.

If you fancy the idea of skippering a yacht in the Mediterranean yourself, First Class Sailing provide all the RYA courses to get you out on the open water. Call us on 0203 006 3717 for more information.

Posted by: First Class Sailing