Aquasafe blog

Still spaces on our Day Skipper Motor Cruising course on the 2nd to the 5th September 2010

 
  
It is not too late to book a space on our next Day Skipper Power course, which runs over four days from the 2nd to the 5th September 2010.   We are running the course on Oceanique, the immaculate Sealine F42/5 flybridge motor cruiser we use for all our motor cruising courses.   We are as usual running the course from our base in Lymington, which is on the south coast of the UK between Bournemouth & Southampton, at the southern end of the New Forest & the western end of the Solent.  

The aim of the course is to teach pilotage, navigation, seamanship & boat handling up to the standard required to skipper a motor cruiser safely by day in tidal waters with which the student is familiar.  There is some general information on the course on our website, along with details of Oceanique, & more specific details in a recent post on this blog.   

If you have any other questions or need any more information just give me a call or email me - 01590 678809 or adam@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk.   If you are thinking of booking a space just let  me know.

 

RYA Powerboat Level 2 Direct Assessment syllabus

We teach a large number of RYA Powerboat Level 2 courses from our base here in Lymington, but just occasionally we are asked to do a direct assessment by someone who has lots of experience in powerboats but no qualifications.   The direct assessment is a test of skills and competency which replaces the course but still leads to the Level 2 certificate for succesful candidates.    It takes approximately 2 to 3 hours to complete and involves a boat handling test on the water, and an oral or written exam on the theory aspects of the Level 2 syllabus.  The cost for an assessment on a school boat is £150 per person. 

In order to do a direct assessment you need to have the equivalent of at least one full season's powerboating experience and should therefore already be a competent powerboat handler.    The test on the water involves completing the exercises above safely and competently.   In addition you will also be expected to be able to answer questions from any part of the RYA Powerboat Level 2 syllabus so if your theory is at all rusty then some pre-assessment revision is highly recommended.    The assessment allows you to familiarise yourself with the boat before beginning the test but it does not include any tuition so the expectation is that anyone who chooses this route should be able to turn up & complete the assessment without needing any coaching.

If you think that this might be a better option for you than a full course then all you need to do is call or email us to book an assessment; if however you are at all unsure about your level of experience or your ability then do have a chat with us first and we can advise you on whether you would gain more from attending one of our full courses.   Ultimately it is worth bearing in mind that although the RYA Powerboat Level 2 course itself is designed as an introduction to powerboating, we still get many quite experienced boaters joining us for the full course and feedback is always that it is both a useful & extremely enjoyable course...

New dates for the RYA Day Skipper Power / Motor Cruising course

We have a new date for our next RYA Day Skipper motor boat course on Oceanique - Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th September 2010.    Oceanique is an immaculate Sealine F42/5 flybridge Motor Cruiser - big & comfortable but also quick with twin Volvo diesel inboard engines & propellers on fixed shafts.   she is a great boat to teach & learn on, with lots of room above & below decks, & is surprisingly manoeuvrable & in many ways easier to handle than a smaller powerboat.

The course runs over four consecutive days & costs £995 per person which includes everything you will need (all fuel, mooring fees, & lunch every day) except accommodation (we can however recommend plenty of places to stay locally if required).    The aim of the course is to teach pilotage, navigation, seamanship & boat handling up to the standard required to skipper a motor cruiser safely by day in tidal waters with which the student is familiar.    The course is not therefore just about boat handling but also inevitably includes some navigation theory & participants therefore will find it easier if they have already done the Day Skipper theory course, but this is by no means essential.    There is also a night passage included in the course so on one day we start & finish a little later & do the last leg of the day in the dark.

If you have some previous boating experience & fancy trying your hand at twin engine boating or are thinking of upgrading to a bigger boat then this is a good starting point.   If you are completely new to boating and are looking for a shorter introductory course there is always the two-day RYA Helmsmans course which we run on the same boat.   To discuss your requirements or to book a place give Adam a call on 01590 678809 or email on adam@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk

RYA Powerboat Intermediate course scheduled for the 26th & 27th August

For some reason we don't seem to run many Intermediate courses - I am not sure if this is because we dont often get asked for them, or if that in turn is because we dont schedule enough of them to start with - I suspect it is probably the latter, and we need to be more helpful in offering fixed dates rather than trying to lay courses on reactively.   Either way, we have our next RYA Powerboat Intermediate course scheduled for the 26th & 27th August 2010.  

The course takes everything learned on the Level 2 course on a stage further & covers the processes involved in planning & running a daytime passage between harbours. In addition to brushing up on boat handling skills and knowledge of subjects such as collision regulations, buoyage, and charts & tides, navigation plays a greater part and we aim to plan & then run several passages over the two days. Participants should already be to the standard of the RYA Powerboat Level 2 certificate (although it is not necessary to hold the Level 2 qualification), & it is recommended but by no means essential that participants hold a relevant, current first aid certificate and a VHF certificate. The cost of the course is £360 and includes all fuel used, loan of waterproofs & lifejackets, & the RYA powerboat logbook, but does not include food or accommodation (we can always recommend places to stay if needed).

The Intermediate course is a great follow on to the Level 2 course - for more information on this or any of our other courses or training options call (01590 678809), email ( info@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk ), or have a look at our main website.

A late-notice RYA Powerboat Level 2 course next weekend

We have just added yet another RYA Powerboat Level 2 course at quite short notice - many of the forthcoming courses are fairly booked up & we are always looking to add more course dates to meet upcoming demand.   The latest addition is an RYA Powerboat Level 2 course next weekend - Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th July & we have a couple of places remaining.   We run all our courses on our 7.8metre Ribcraft ribs which are powered by 225hp or 250hp outboards.   Although larger & more powerful than the boats used by most other schools, they are very safe & stable boats which make fantastic & exhillarating teaching platforms.    If you are looking for a course at short notice do give us a call  on 01590 678809 or email us - adam@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk  

There is more information on all our courses on our main website with a breakdown of course details, and we keep a page regularly updated with all our upcoming course dates too so if you have any other requirements from bespoke tuition to a VHf course you will find it all on our website.    We have also just set our next Day Skipper practical course dates from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th September & I will post more details in the next couple of days...

Several new Mileage Builder dates for August & September...

Having been so busy for the past few weeks that we had to pull the mileage builder we had pencilled in for July, I am planning to make up for it with several different options for everyone over the next couple of months.   We plan to do another Solent Pilotage Run, a longer one-day trip to Weymouth & back, & (a new departure for us) a marathon two day trip to the West Country & back with an overnight stay somewhere like Dartmouth or Plymouth.  

The ususal format applies - two students per boat with an instructor on board as well.   Students do everything & are either helming or navigating all the time, whilst the instructor is there to answer any questions, assist where required, and to intervene only if necessary to keep the boat safe.

These trips have proved very popular in the past and are a great way of getting familiar with an area whilst improving skills and knowledge in the comfort of good company.   They are excellent for boosting experience and getting more sea-miles under the belt and give many the opportunity to explore much further afield than they might on their own.

Proposed dates are as follows...

Solent Pilotage - Friday 20th August - cost £275 per person
This is a day spent looking at most of the main harbours, inlets, & hazards of the Solent & is really good for anyone looking to bareboat charter one of our ribs who would like ideas for where to go, & also for anyone looking to become more familiar with the Solent as a new cruising ground.

Weymouth day return - Saturday 28th August - cost £285 per person
An early-ish start for a run down the Jurassic coast to Weymouth for fish & chips on the quay before returning the same afternoon to Lymington in time for tea & medals (or more likely a beer) - great for looking at longer disatance passages, the issues of offshore navigation and problems with headlands (& firing ranges).

West Country two-day trip - Sunday 12th & Monday 13th September - cost £595 per person
The aim is to head west, first pass St Albans Head, then Portland Bill, & then launch out across Lyme Bay.  We will stop overnight in one of the Devon harbours, returning the following day.    Offshore nav & passage planning is the key here & we will look at maintaining records of position whilst travelling at speed, & the different ways of achieving this.   It won't be a trip for the faint hearted as we will be afloat pretty much all day both days & in Lyme Bay will be well offshore & out of sight of land, but it will be a good one for the log book and should be great fun as well as a real achievement.    Please note the cost does not include overnight accommodation which we will arrange separately once we know where we will stop & how many people will be with us.

All three trips are obviously weather dependent, & the two longer runs will also be dendent on having sufficient interest to fill at least two boats for each trip.   The boats we will be running in are our 7.8 metre ribs which are all fully coded & are excellent sea boats, but even so on any longer run it is always wise where possible to run in convoy in case one boat runs into problems.

To join us on any of the above trips all we ask is that all participants hold an RYA powerboat level 2 certificate as a minimum, & are fit & healthy.    We will put crews together on our 7.8m Ribcraft ribs.   If however you  would like to join us on your own boat you would also be very welcome - we will simply supply an instructor to join you on board your vessel.   Your boat needs to be seaworthy, capable of maintaining a cruising speed of 20 knots comfortably, and have a range of over 100 miles.  

For more information on any of this do please either  call us on 01590 678809 or email us -  info@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk  

Row For Heroes - a late post on a triumphant return

Captain Nick Dennison & Captain Hamish Reed, the Row For Heroes heroes, have made it back in fine fare having set a new record as the first two-hander ever to row non stop around Great Britain.    It was an enormous challenge, and early on I had doubts about their chance of succeeding after they took a pasting in the first few days whilst crossing Lyme Bay. It was certainly a baptism of fire, however once through that difficult stage things improved, they clearly got into a rhythm, and apart from the odd hold up for strong headwinds they made fantastic progress all the way round.   

Even then it was not without enormous challenges and some danger - they were rolled several times in the North Sea but thankfully were never separated from their boat.   They could only physically carry a certain amount of food so had to complete the trip in a limited timescale, and were having to eat thousands of calories a day to maintain condition because of the physical workload of constant rowing.    They supplemented their dried rations with some fresh caught fish, but otherwise all food was freeze-dried.  

Add to this the discomfort and emotional strain of living on a tiny boat for nearly two months - unable ever to simply walk off joint stiffness (a lot of the time they would have been unable even to stand up straight), & never being more than a few feet away from each other you have to have what I believe are called great interpersonal skills.   The weather we have all enjoyed this spring/summer will undoubtedly have helped - they could so easily instead have had a string of low pressure systems queueing up to dish out strong winds and heavy rain all the way round so to get several weeks of high pressure was fortuitous but this in no way diminishes their remarkable achievement.   Indeed this is such a challenge that I am certain we would not be celebrating the same result if the weather had instead chosen to do its worst.

Many congratulations and well done to them both - by all accounts now it is back to Army life but with claw hands.   To read more about their trip head over to their blog; from here you can also donate to the very worthwhile causes they were raising funds for - Help for Heroes, The Army Benevolent Fund, and Toe in the Water.

Own boat tuition - an opportunity to hone those boat handling skills on your own boat

I love teaching clients on their own boats, not only for the wide variety of craft that we get to teach on, but also because it is very often where we see the most dramatic improvements in a short space of time.   A few tiny changes to the way someone approaches their berth, or the way someone rigs their lines for coming alongside can make a massive difference to someone's enjoyment of a day out on the water.    For many boat owners mooring their boat is the hardest and most stressful part of the day, particularly on their home berth where they are known by their friends & neighbours in the marina, & it is an unnecessary shame that some people are deterred from ever leaving their berth simply because they are worried about how they will put the boat back on it again.

We have a fantastically skilled range of instructors for every type of vessel from the tiniest sailing dinghy or speedboat to large sailing vessels and motor cruisers up to 200 tonnes / 24 metres.   A helping hand and some proper tuition can make an enormous difference to confidence and skill, and we are laden with tips and tricks for short or even single-handers and fully crewed vessels alike.    It is often both helm and crew that benefit from spending a little time with one of our instructors on board - a helm who is in control of their boat is relaxed, & a relaxed helm never shouts at their crew!   The opposite is equally true, and an nervous shouty skipper will instantly put their crew on edge and therefore more likely to make mistakes.  The same rules apply to the crew, and a relaxed crew who know what they are expected to do and how to do it properly and safely never have to shout back at their helm - I think you can probably see where I am going with this...

 
It is a very impressive sight seeing a boat mooring silently & calmly.   Whether it is coming into a marina, coming onto a floating berth or alongside a quay, picking up a mooring ball or dropping an anchor, some boats make it look  effortless & even enjoyable, whilst others get known for providing local entertainment whenever they move!   If you would like to be one of the former give us a call. Our instructors are all carefully picked for their skill and experience - they are almost without exception commercial skippers as well as instructors  and are all passionate about being afloat as well as being great teachers.

We can teach by the hour, day, weekend or week, here or abroad, on passage or in one place.   Our standard rates are £40 per hour, £140 per half day (4 hours) or £240 for an 8 hour day.   For more information call and speak to me personally on +44 (0)1590 678809 or +44 (0)7787 332334, or you can email me - my email address is adam@aquasafepowerboatschool.co.uk .   I very much look forward to seeing how we can help make your boating more enjoyable...

 

Row For Heroes - well past the half way mark and on their way home

 
A massive well done to Nick & Hamish for completing one of the hardest and most exposed sections on their Herculean journey rowing around Great Britain.   They are now well past the half way mark having rounded both Cape Wrath and John O Groats, and appear to be making good headway in very favourable winds down the East Coast of England.   They still have a fair few miles to go, but I am sure by now it must feel a little bit like heading downhill again as they are pointing homeward.  

It is obviously not over yet - they still have 600 miles to go and are currently well offshore and  in deep water so will have no chance to anchor up and sit out the foul tides they are experiencing which push them in the wrong direction for six out of every 12 hours; they will also have been out of sight of land for a while so apart from a trace on the GPS and a pencil mark on the chart have no landmarks by which to measure their progress apart from the odd gas or oil rig they may pass by.   They are however in a busy area for shipping, and being so far offshore will need to keep alert for the hazard of tankers and container ships that can easily overlook a tiny boat on a big sea.

It is all being done for a very worthwhile cause - for more information have a look at our previous post, & to see how they are getting on and to sponsor them head over to their website where amongst other things they have a tracker updating their position online regularly.

Well done so far & best of luck for the last couple of legs...

New course dates added

 

After a very busy couple of weeks (apologies for the consequent lack of updates to these pages) I have now finally had a chance to get to my desk in the office and have scheduled lots more courses and added them to the course dates page on this blog.  There has been lots going on including a really good Solent Pilotgae Mileage Builder, lots of tuition on clients' boats as well as the school ribs, and I have also spent several days recently skippering everything from ribs to sailing yachts on charter.   The office is a bit of a mess & my desk looks as though it is a crime scene but apart from that my tan is improving with all the fine weather we have been having so I am definitely not complaining!

If you have a course you want to do but can't find the dates on the website, or the dates we have posted don't fit in with your schedule, it is still always worth giving us a call - we don't always get round to posting all our dates online, and can often accommodate other dates - I can't promise we can always accommodate everything at this time of year but it is definitely worth asking, and rare that we can't help...