Recommend a sailing school in Portsmouth?
Discussion
Just a little update....
Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first
By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky 
Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first
By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
Mario149 said:
Just a little update....
Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky
Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
Just a recommendation, I have read quite a few times about couples doing training weekends and at different levels and experience. The outcome is generally the same that it wasn't the fun week away as planned. Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first
By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
ecsrobin said:
Mario149 said:
Just a little update....
Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky
Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
Just a recommendation, I have read quite a few times about couples doing training weekends and at different levels and experience. The outcome is generally the same that it wasn't the fun week away as planned. Went with Hamble School of Yachting in the end as they seemed to have the best dates and online booking system. I've done 2 of the 3 weekends for comp crew (last one is this coming weekend, fingers crossed for weather!) and I have to say I'm very pleased so far. It's been an absolute blast apart from a 3 hour period of seasickness as we were beating west in a F6 in the rainy Solent last Sat with the wind and tide in opposite directions. Rather choppy and to add it that half way through when we did MOB drills the engine wouldn't engage forward gear so our poor instructor had to do it under sail with 5 seasick crew, the most experienced being yours truly on my second weekend with the other 4 on their first
By the time we got to Yarmouth we were all feeling rather peaky Anyway, have booked my Day Skipper with them for next year, and my other half is going to come along on the same boat and do her CC
Little update: I completed my Comp Crew with Hamble School of Yachting in October last year and just finished my Day Skipper practical with them this Easter weekend - my other half also did her CC concurrent with my DS on the same boat and we had a great time, no fallings out! Have to say that overall the experience has been very good. Organisation is excellent, more food than you can possibly eat (Hamble School of Eating it felt like sometimes ) instructors have all been great (albeit sometimes teaching with very different styles) and the boats in good-to-very-good condition (I was on a variety of Jeanneau 37s and also a Dufour 36, all about 10-15 years old from what I could tell). It was noticeable that the condition of the boats now i.e. early on in the season, was better than in the Autumn, but that's to be expected I guess as I'm sure a bunch of remedial work is done over the winter.
Final thought, on this weekend there was a bit of a booking cock up (first of its kind in 12 years apparently) and a couple of chaps weren't able to go on a course they'd booked. HSY manager person dealt with it very well I thought (none of this United Airlines-type business!), offered very reasonable compensation and while clearly disappointed, the 2 guys seemed as happy as you could be with the result despite the fact they'd travelled a significant distance. It's easy to get a good review when it's all going to plan, but not so easy to impress when it's all gone a bit pear-shaped, which I think is telling and a good sign.
What's also quite obvious is that the instructors we had seemed to a man to enjoy working for HSY, esp compared to some of the other schools, which I think is also a very good sign.
Anyway, just got my VHF licence to do now, and then, who knows.....! I keep looking at boats for sale which is a baaaaaad thing
) instructors have all been great (albeit sometimes teaching with very different styles) and the boats in good-to-very-good condition (I was on a variety of Jeanneau 37s and also a Dufour 36, all about 10-15 years old from what I could tell). It was noticeable that the condition of the boats now i.e. early on in the season, was better than in the Autumn, but that's to be expected I guess as I'm sure a bunch of remedial work is done over the winter. Final thought, on this weekend there was a bit of a booking cock up (first of its kind in 12 years apparently) and a couple of chaps weren't able to go on a course they'd booked. HSY manager person dealt with it very well I thought (none of this United Airlines-type business!), offered very reasonable compensation and while clearly disappointed, the 2 guys seemed as happy as you could be with the result despite the fact they'd travelled a significant distance. It's easy to get a good review when it's all going to plan, but not so easy to impress when it's all gone a bit pear-shaped, which I think is telling and a good sign.
What's also quite obvious is that the instructors we had seemed to a man to enjoy working for HSY, esp compared to some of the other schools, which I think is also a very good sign.
Anyway, just got my VHF licence to do now, and then, who knows.....! I keep looking at boats for sale which is a baaaaaad thing
Congratulations on the Day Skipper! Its a great qualification to get.
Now you need your first charter to consolidate all you have learnt. The Ionian Islands in Greece are the best area for a new skipper to charter. Very beautiful, easy navigation, kind winds and seas. If you need any advice you can contact me at Rowan@nisosyachtcharter.com
Now you need your first charter to consolidate all you have learnt. The Ionian Islands in Greece are the best area for a new skipper to charter. Very beautiful, easy navigation, kind winds and seas. If you need any advice you can contact me at Rowan@nisosyachtcharter.com
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