Skills & Own Boat Tuition

When I walk the docks I am often asked tons of questions about boating, “How do you get into a mooring with the tide and wind behind you…How do I get into Bembridge…I think my boat needs a service …I want to teach my wife…how would you trim for waves?” All these questions are part and parcel of driving a boat and so we thought people may find it useful to have some own boat tuition sessions.

Own boat tuition sessions are perfect for:

Families who would love to have everyone learn at the same time
Boat owners who want to learn on their Own boat
Those with access to a boat who want to explore more and go further afield
Recent owners who want to extend their skills
The owner who wants to ensure they are keeping their boat in tip top condition
A long standing owner who has “forgotten how to…”

The sessions are delivered by one of our professional RYA Advanced skippers or instructors.

The way we work is we’ll give you a quick call to understand:

What you would like to learn and who else will be on the boat. For example, a day for the whole family?
Where the boat is so we can get there.
Whether you want to be certified by making it an RYA course.

With all this information I can create a bespoke session/day for you.

We tend to group the tuition into a number of common areas:

Cruising destinations
Boat maintenance
Boat management
Safety and crew management
Rights and wrongs – rules of the sea

BUT you tell us what you want and we will shape our tuition accordingly.

Cruising Destinations

There’s so much more to the Solent than simply heading to Cowes.

What about exploring further and looking at:

Where best to drop your anchor in Newtown Creek
How to navigate the sandbar to Bembridge
Navigating the Needles to Poole

A day out in the Solent enables us to teach you where to go and how to get there, how to manage the tide and sand bars and where best to moor up. It also encompasses elements of navigation and tide management, and of course the instruments that you have on your (or our) boat.

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Boat Maintenance and Checks

This is aimed at day to day upkeep and keeping your boat in good condition it is NOT in anyway a full boat maintenance training session, it includes elements of the below:

Winterisation
Pre-start checks and close-down procedures
Antifouling
Engine servicing
Safety equipment

The objective of this session is to enable you to focus on looking after your boat and keeping it in tip-top condition. We want to ensure that when you want to use it you can just “turn the key.”

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Boat Management

Mooring up alongside a pontoon
Picking up a mooring
Dropping the anchor in a bay or off the beach
How to handle heavy seas
What to do if you run aground

Aimed at people who want to improve how they handle their boat. More confident boat handling undoubtedly makes boating more fun and gives you the confidence to go into different places.

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Safety/Crew Management

Good skipper tips!
Safety equipment maintenance
How and when to use safety equipment including the VHF Radio

Practical usage of a boat focused on families and day to day usage – you specify what you would like to know or we can talk to you and identify what will be really useful.

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The Rules of the Sea

Seamanship – who has right of way!
Coastal navigation and pilotage
Chartwork (electronic charts, position fixing, how to plot a course, weather forecasting, tides)
How and when to use the VHF Radio
What to do in a collision

This element of tuition is focused on ensuring you get it right from a navigation and legal perspective. We deliver this course either on a boat or onshore at Trafalgar Wharf .

Many people look for a refresher on their RYA Day Skipper Theory Course or the RYA SRC Radio Course. Don’t forget that if you have a VHF radio onboard the RYA SRC Radio course is a legal requirement.

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Prices, Location & Boat

We charge on a daily basis and can focus on one of the above elements or we can combine several elements into one day.

If the tuition is NOT RYA then we can have as many people on the boat as the boat is legally set up for. If you want to achieve a RYA certificate then we are only allowed to have up to 3 students.

Boats up to 10 metres: £240 per day
Boats 10+ metres : £280 per day

Boat & Location

If your boat is not at Trafalgar we can travel locally and teach on your own boat. For Boatclub Trafalgar members you can take one of our boats as part of your plan.

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How to Book

As this is such a personal service please email me or call me on +44 23 9270 6599