Beginner advice

[Malx]

Hi, this has no doubt been asked before but I can't find the answer.
I want to learn to sail with the hope of one day owning a smallish boat I can take around the coast of the UK. I want to do some of the RYA courses and from what I read I should start at the beginning. My question is, should I do the Adult Dinghy courses first and then the Keelboat Levels 1&2 or will I learn enough about wind, sails etc on the Keelboat courses to start there?

Looking at this one http://www.findhornmarina.com/keel-boat-sailing.ht... and the description seems to suggest that it'll be a good place to start.

Any advice?

[b14]

I'd always say learn to sail on a dinghy first, every time. You get a much better understanding of the wind and how a boat sails, by being very connected to the whole operation. The yachts you'd sail on a course are big and heavy and don't give you the feeling of what the boat is doing.

All the best yacht racers started in dinghies - it gives you an unrivalled understanding of what the boat is doing, compared to if you started in yachts, where the feel of the boat is much more subtle.

[s2kjock]

Not sure what the difference between "keelboat" and yacht based courses like Day skipper are?

I always thought a "keelboat" in RYA course context was a dayboat with a keel, not a yacht as in the picture linked to above.

Plenty people do take up yachting without learning on dinghies first, and if you plan on getting a yacht anyway, you will need to learn how to do other yottie stuff that won't be covered on a dinghy course.

A good thing would be to try and find someone you can crew for and can build up experience gradually, maybe on different boats (which is helpful), and it needn't cost you much.

Maybe just ask at the boat yard or chandlery - folk are often helpful.

Are you based near Findhorn? Good for practice calculating your tide heights there

[Malx]

Thanks for the replies, I think starting in dinghies is the way to go.

I'm actually nearer peterhead but I liked to look of the findhorn place and know someone who has a boat there. The Peterhead marina is very sheltered which might be the best place to start.

I did think about going away for one of the learn to sail holidays but as I'll hopefully be sailing in scotland i'd like to learn in the snow/wind/rain. Just so I'm prepared for our summers

[Ayahuasca]

Dinghies are a great way to learn to sail.

However you will need a great many additional skills to sail a yacht around Britain e.g. navigation, calculating course to steer allowing for tides, map reading, tidal depths, weather reading, boat handling, mooring, using warps and springs, engine maintenance, VHF radio comms, sail changing, anchoring, identifying buoys and signals by day and by night, victualling, crew management, watch systems, plus anything else I have missed.

[Malx]

Yep, I'm under no illusion of setting off and navigating my way around after a two day course. It's the sort of thing I fancy doing in many years time, maybe when I retire even.

[maser_spyder]

Malx said:

Yep, I'm under no illusion of setting off and navigating my way around after a two day course. It's the sort of thing I fancy doing in many years time, maybe when I retire even.

The most sensible 'I'm thinking about buying a boat' thread I've seen on this forum.

Actually, with some good instruction and a lot of reading, you could easily be navigating by yourself relatively quickly.

The big thing about boating is prudence, which is a mindset rather than a skill. Looks like you've demonstrated this already by taking tuition before heading out, so that's a good start!

Something you will find useful at a later date is the VHF radio course. About £100, do it once, it's yours forever. Good to do it in the winter when you won't be boating anyway, lots of places run a Saturday or Sunday course. RYA website should have details. And if you do a day skipper course, make the extra effort to get an ICC certificate, it'll be handy if you want to charter abroad one day.

As for learning abroad, it's excellent for holidays, but as you've already guessed, not exactly good experience for navigating your way around Scotland!

[Petrus1983]

As mentioned above Neilson is a great way to learn. They do a holiday which consists of one weeks instruction followed by a weeks flotilla which is highly recommended. Just remember learning to sail in Greece/Turkey is good for getting to grips with navigation/boats etc, but is still a long way off what the UK weather can throw at you. I'd also put up a notice in any local sailing/yacht clubs - often yacht owners are looking for an extra set of hands or are just happy to have an extra person aboard. If you're ever on the south coast drop me a pm and I'd be happy to take out our boat

[Malx]

Thanks Petrus1983, I may take you up on that.
Heading to sea without training I find mindboggling (unless you've been brought up on boats). I'd hate to be one of those people who gets into a tricky situation and has to be rescued when the situation could easily have been avoided.

There is a program on Discovery Shed at the moment where an actor (I forget his name) is taking his boat around the UK. He's never had lessons and learned how to navigate using a simple book and just learns teh rest as he goes. Just about to tackle Lizard point which I believe is a little tricky. I know it's all for the tv but I'd prefer to know stuff first before I find myself in the middle of the atlantic staring into a storm.

[Malx]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Isn't that the "Rescue Me" Timothy Spall in a Thames Barge ?

Not quite the same.
Meanwhile snippets of the one show this week have shown some glorious sailing up on the lochs by John Sargent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tcw7/broadcast...

Close, it is Timothy Small on his Barge but the programme is "Somewhere at sea" and appears to be on Blighty rather than Shed. I sure he said on it yesterday that he'd never been taught and the only training he'd had was in the "How to learn to navigate in a short time" book. He's been able to travelling from port to port so he must be doing something right but it just sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

[Malx]

Spall, sorry my typing is stupid.
This guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Spall

[guillemot]

He got some unfavourable comments when he got 'lost' somewhere down on the Medway (I think!) - but I do wonder how much of that was set up. That said, dusk, tiredness, lots of lights, it's certainly possible - coming back into Harwich (home port for me) can be similiarly confusing until you know what you're looking for. Good on him I say, can't wait for a time when I have enough time and money to take mine round Britain.

[TTwiggy]

guillemot said:

He got some unfavourable comments when he got 'lost' somewhere down on the Medway (I think!) - but I do wonder how much of that was set up. That said, dusk, tiredness, lots of lights, it's certainly possible - coming back into Harwich (home port for me) can be similiarly confusing until you know what you're looking for. Good on him I say, can't wait for a time when I have enough time and money to take mine round Britain.

Easily done on the 'Med' too. I think he was making for Queenborough, where there's an all-tide landing and mooring buoys.

As you enter the estuary, it's the 'first turning on the left' marked by a cardinal. The second on the left (which he took by mistake) is easily confused with it, and actually leads into the much nicer Stangate Creek, where you can anchor.

But it gets tight and shallow at the end, and he kept going, as he thought he was on the Swale, when in fact he was heading down a dead end.