Learning to sail abroad.......

[SimonV8ster]

Thinking about learning to sail and wonder if it would actually be nicer to do it during a week away or long weekend.

Thinking of the Greek Islands or maybe Croatia - anywhere thats going to be warmer than the UK, have blue-er water than the UK, be cheaper than the UK.

Anybody done this ? Can advise on the best sort of courses ? As you can tell i'm a complete novice but would like to be able to feel confident enough to take a boat out by myself if ever I was going to do a holiday abroad.

[anonymous-user]

RYA Day skipper course is the one that you want, its 9 day theory and practical course and you will need it to charter a boat. anything less is pretty much an "experience day2 where you wont learn much but you do get to go sailing.

places like Neilson do it off the adriatic and the dalmation coast is beautiful. you might have to do the theory here before going out to do the practical to save you sitting in a room "on holiday" for a few days and its certainly not cheaper than the UK but its a good environemnt to learn to sail. clear skies, clear waters, good winds and empty(ish) seas...

a word of warning about learning to sail in the med though, becauase it has no significant tides, some charter companies wont allow you to take a boat out around the UK if you did your practical in the med.

if you intend to sail in the uk, i would stay here and learn to get a knowlegde of the tides, weather and being around so many other boats, there is no point practicing at silverstone if you are racing at donington park!....

[danyeates]

I learnt at The Retreat in Sivota, Greece. It's a Neilson hotel and the facilities are amazing. Dinghy sailing, windsurfing, scuba diving, wakeboarding, waterskiing, yachting, yoga, mountain biking......etc etc. Most of it is included in the price, and if you go at the start or end of the season, it's a bargain!

You would have to pay extra for yachting, spa treatments and scuba diving, but tuition and free use of any of the other kit (including waterskiing) is all free.

I did the learn to sail course (4 days I think), and then the flotilla for the second week. We went back again this year to just enjoy the resort, as we didn’t get much of a chance to do much else other than the course last year.

PS. The food is excellent there as well and that’s all included too.

[anonymous-user]

the package below looks ok for a novice who wants to get a flavour of whether you will enjoy it but you still wont be able to charter anything once you return so it might be better to do a taster day here in the UK, then go out and try that - nice weather, more time onbaord, then come back and do the day skipper course here?

http://www.rya.org.uk/coursestraining/courses/sail...

[Hard-Drive]

Before going near a yacht, do an RYA Level 1 & 2 in a dinghy. It will make you a much better sailor and get you to understand the considerable forces at work in a yacht and what is actually going on under the water and up in the air. You will actually feel what is going on in a dinghy and it becomes obvious when you are doing something wrong, and feels instantly different when you do the right thing to correct it.

With zero knowledge, if you want to start truck racing, you'd learn how to slide a Caterham. If you wanted to become an airline pilot, you'd start off in a Cessna. To sail a yacht, start in a dinghy.

And once you've got your ticket, try and get some miles under your belt too on someone else's boat where they know what they are doing, and get involved in the decision making where you can. Tides do throw a whole different thing into the mix (just ask the 3 grounded yachts outside the Beaulieu river on Saturday morning!)

Enjoy and welcome to sailing!

[Jaguar steve]

A course in the Mediteranian sunshine and getting a pretty certificate at the end of the week does not make you a competent sailor.

I'd suggest instead you join a UK club and start learning to sail in dingies. Most sailing clubs run training courses for complete beginners and doing that'll almost certainly open an opportunity of crewing for a competent helm for a couple of seasons. Then once you've learnt the basics and if you still want to sail, buy a dingy and race it. A few years of dingy racing with a rescue boat on the water nearby and you'll become a useful crew on a bigger boat under a competent skipper. You'll then need to gain experience sailing at night and in heavy weather. Once you've done that for a while and passed the RYA Coastal Skipper exam and got your VHF licence only then then will you be anywhere near competent enough to take command of a yacht and consider yourself a competent and safe sailor.

As others have said a short course in the med is absolutely no preparation for coping with the UK's tides and weather - quite the opposite in fact - a bit of false confidence coupled with inexperience will at best get you on first name terms with the local RNLI crew, at worst it'll kill you.

[swamp]

The Solent is (probably) the best place in the world for learning how to sail. And believe it or not it does actually have some nice picturesque bits, and there are some good pubs on the land too.

[SimonV8ster]

Thanks everybody - all taken on board

Think I might try an 'experience' first rather than a proper course where you do get a bit of hands on and some guidance but can also watch/learn from others.

Just enquired about this trip from a colleague who has done sailing in the past.-

http://www.hamble.co.uk/rya-training-courses/rya-s...

Looks quite good ad reasonable for some first time experience

[Jaguar steve]

SimonV8ster said:

Thanks everybody - all taken on board

Think I might try an 'experience' first rather than a proper course where you do get a bit of hands on and some guidance but can also watch/learn from others.

Just enquired about this trip from a colleague who has done sailing in the past.-

http://www.hamble.co.uk/rya-training-courses/rya-s...

Looks quite good ad reasonable for some first time experience

That looks perfect - just remember the time honoured tradition that the Skipper always buys the first round when you go ashore...