You have just bought your dream boat, the fruition of years of planning and saving. The balance is paid, the boat has been delivered to the marina and now you are faced with the dilemma of taking her out for the first time. Despite your excitement you are nervous and apprehensive, and the reality of taking a newly acquired vessel out for the first time is overwhelming. What you need is tuition on your own boat.
Own Boat Tuition is often the last consideration for many boat users, having spent so much money on acquiring their vessel. Their budget is often overstretched with costs of surveys, insurance, delivery and launching the vessel in addition to mooring costs, and the seemingly endless expenditure on necessary items for the boat. Consequently, learning how to use the boat is low on the list of priorities. It is no surprise therefore to find new boat owners on a beautiful Saturday morning, moored alongside and unable to make the call to drop their lines and manoeuvre the vessel off its mooring in a series of tight turns. The prospect of hitting something and damaging their vessel or another person's vessel is a major hurdle.
By budgeting for Own Boat Tuition you are going to learn how to use your vessel and get the most enjoyment out of owning the vessel. You will be shown how to prepare the vessel for a passage, learn how to respond to emergencies, and why understanding safety is so important to the enjoyment of being on the water.
You may have experience of sailing or motor cruising or playing around on boats since your childhood days, therefore you may have some knowledge. You may never have been on a boat in your life, and owning your vessel is the first step in to the world of boating. Whatever your background, having a session or more of own boat tuition will set you up so that you can build your confidence in taking your vessel off your berth, fuelling up, proceeding through a lock gate, or barrage lock or coming alongside a pontoon, so that you can berth up and relax. All of this takes time, and whilst one day will be better than none, it would be wise to budget for a few days of training to get your skillset to a point where you can safely manoeuvre your vessel with less anxiety.
A one day Own Boat Tuition session would include safety and preparing to go to sea. Spending time looking at the engine and other equipment, and what to do in emergencies is valuable time spent to mitigate the risk whilst at sea. Also, having a plan in place if things didn't go to plan would be of immense benefit and an aid to safety. Preparing lines and discussing how to leave your berth taking in to consideration the effect of wind, other traffic and unforeseen events would be a priority, and this may take a whole morning.
Then it's about leaving the berth. You may be willing to have a go. If not, that isn't a problem, that is why you have paid for a professional so that they can show you the proper and safe way to do so. Watching and learning a demonstration is a great way to learn, and once a demonstration has taken place, have a go yourself! The instructor is there to guide you and assist at all times.
Once you have vacated your berth, the main considerations are to manoeuvre the vessel safely out of the marina. I work out of Penarth Marina which is a small traditional harbour with two lock gates. Mostly, the lock gates will be opened in order to exit or enter the marina, however, if there has been a lot of rain, or a lack of rain, and this has affected the bay levels, the marina lock master may demand that the vessel is locked in and through, where the vessel moors up alongside the pontoon inside the lock and the gates either side are locked and the water levels are balanced. This is a straightforward exercise when demonstrated by a skipper who has done this over many years.
Cardiff is blessed with an enormous 500 acre inland freshwater lake called Cardiff Bay, which is separated from the sea of the Bristol Channel by a large barrage. This area offers year round boating possibilities and is a fantastic place to teach novices the basics of boating.
Exiting Penarth Marina and turning to port past the marina dolphin presents a stunning view of the bay and the vista towards Mermaid Quay. Here we would practice taking control of the vessel and getting used to balancing the vessel and making turns to port and starboard and astern to familiarise the motion of the vessel.
Exercises consisting of approaching a mooring buoy, coming alongside, turning in a confined space and Man Over Board are some that would take place in the afternoon of an Own Boat Tuition day. It is amazing how quickly a day passes by with so much to take in, and soon it would be time to think about returning to your berth.
If your vessel is a sailing vessel, the main focus would be to get the sails up and to get sailing and making sense of all the points of sail, and how to trim the sails for optimum performance. Again, on a one day session, it would be impossible to master this in an afternoon, and hopefully the introduction would inspire the client to practice.
Returning to your berth is a major part of the day's training, focussing on how to enter the marina and making an approach to your berth. As this happens at the end of the day, clients and students are often fatigued after a long day's training, therefore do not be disheartened if I have to do the manoeuvre for you. This is normal. Manoeuvring on to your berth, maybe stern-to, is a skill that takes time to master, and something that cannot be learnt in a day. This one day session is an essential introduction to anyone who wants to overcome their anxiety of using their vessel in close quarters in the safe hands of a veteran skipper who has been doing this for in excess of 30 years.
Whilst the first day of Own Boat Tuition is considered essential, this is also true of a second day, as this is the day I would lock out of Cardiff Barrage and make a passage in the Bristol Channel. There are three locks in and out of the bay and they operate for 24 hours, however this does not mean that there is enough water for your vessel to safely navigate beyond the barrage. The sign on the outer gate of the barrage clearly states that it is the skipper's responsibility to go to sea. Having an experienced skipper and instructor on board to help with tidal calculations, weather interpretations, and pilot and navigation is a no-brainer.
The Bristol Channel is treacherous at most times, with very high and very low tides throughout the year. It has the second highest tidal range in the world of over 12m, after the Bay of Fundy. Negotiating the channel takes years of training and having a professional to help you understand the basics will go a long way to you enjoying the experience and building your sea mileage.
The day would entail a small passage, maybe around the islands of Flatholm and Steepholm if the tides and conditions allow. Exercises such as retrieving a Man Overboard, proceeding towards a calculated depth, what do do in fog or rough weather and how to navigate towards an unlit mark, are just some of the activities that could take place. The most important experience would be just being at sea and gaining time at sea with a professional to advise and guide where required.
Passaging at night has a greater risk and inherent issues and therefore it would be wise to undertake a night passage after gaining some sea time in order to familiarise yourself with the sea area around Cardiff and beyond. Once you have gained the experience, have gained some knowledge of the local buoyage, taking a night passage is not only exhilarating but is an essential part of boat ownership. This prepares you for a scenario where you have to return to either Cardiff or another port in darkness either through delays at sea or having undertaken a passage that falls beyond daylight hours. It makes sense to have an experience professional skipper on board to assist you with your first venture to sea at night, to help, guide and advise you on the pitfalls and dangers of navigating and passage making in darkness.
Having opted for Own Boat Tuition, you will see your confidence grow, your skillset expand and your knowledge increase and this will embolden you to practice more, use your vessel more regularly and increase your enjoyment.
Contact Meuryn Hughes at OneOcean Limited on 07500 899235 or info@oneocean.co.uk for a discussion about your own boat tuition requirements. I look forward to helping you fulfil your boating dreams.
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