The knowledge acquired in the courses of Spanish nautical qualifications is imminently theoretical and is not at all sufficient to skipper a pleasure boat. Particularly with regard to sailing.
What is the purpose of nautical qualifications?
It should be the preparation of skippers to sail with confidence, self-sufficiency and safety for both the boat and the crew for which it is responsible.
What is the reality that we instructors encounter?
Graduates are not prepared to be skippers. Obviously if the student has a lot of previous experience the goal is achieved, but the vast majority of students who obtain the title, regardless of what it is, can easily find themselves in serious difficulties to enjoy sailing.
Where does the current system fail?
In the lack of importance to practice and excess importance to theory.
What is the best pattern formation system in the world?
Undoubtedly the English system of the RYA. This system is based on practical and not theoretical exams. Of course they have theory, but this is chewed over by very experienced sailors and transcribed in the simplest possible way and focused on being useful while sailing, not while watching the sea from home. In addition, these qualifications require a number of miles of sailing before you can even apply for a qualification. For example a Yacht Master Offshore, with similar attributions to a yacht skipper requires before taking the exam a minimum of having spent 50 days at sea and 2,500 nautical miles sailed, of which at least 5 voyages of more than 60 miles acting as skipper for at least two of these passages with night navigations.
Is the theoretical one necessary?
Absolutely necessary. A skipper cannot take a boat if he does not know the RIPA, basic radio procedures, what it is and what it is for, safety material, etc. But basing all the expertise and ability of a skipper on the theory of navigation and its rules is quite risky from my point of view.
Therefore, one thing is that the Spanish legislation allows legally to sail boats as skipper and quite another is that the qualified skippers know/should do it. Even more so if we take into account that skippers usually sail with the people they care about the most: their family.
The best way to sail is to enjoy the sea, to enjoy you have to have control and confidence in an environment, the marine, which is not ours. For this reason, I recommend, before obtaining the official qualifications, to be trained in sailing schools with … In the end, no one gets on a pleasure boat to have a bad time, quite the opposite.
How can you become a good coastal skipper?
Here we will differentiate between sailors who live near the coast and those who live far away.
Sailors who live near the coast: The ideal are classes of 4 hours per week for several months out of summer (with different weather conditions that allow to know the difficulties in each scenario). Practical classes in small groups, forgetting most of the official contents and sailing in short and intense periods, in all weather conditions.
Sailors who do not live near the coast: The ideal is to do courses of several days in a row with intense sailing and a lot of maneuvering with breaks of at least 2 hours every 4 hours.
It is very difficult to be self-taught at sea and it tends to be very expensive (high probability of breakages and scares). Even skippers who have been sailing all their lives can have great technical deficiencies. Imagine a skipper who only sails on days when there are no waves and wind…he will only be able to sail safely and confidently in these types of weather conditions and will feel overwhelmed and insecure if the conditions become more “muscular”.
Personally I have been sailing since I was 2 years old and I am still learning every day. We should not be afraid to ask for instruction to fill the gaps we have as skippers. We should never think that this shows a lack of confidence in us as skippers, but rather the opposite. One of the differences that causes the most healthy envy between an experienced skipper and a skipper with little experience is that the threshold of dangerous sailing is much higher, so he is able to enjoy a day with 3 meters of wave and 25 knots of wind.
Where can I learn to sail?
There are several ways and unfortunately not well known:
- Sailing school that has courses for adults and cruising. Collective or private/individualized.
- School of nautical qualifications that offer specific navigation courses (not to be confused with official internships to obtain nautical qualifications).
- Rent a boat with a skipper who has didactic experience and a desire to teach.
- A friend/family member with a boat and who wants and knows how to teach…although what they usually want are crew members to help them sail. On the other hand, if there is a lot of trust between student and instructor, it is usually more difficult to learn and teach (try to teach your partner anything and you will understand what I mean).
Is it possible to learn in regatta or in cross-country?
Yes, of course, but always taking into account some important nuances
Race:
Its advantage is that you learn to see the limit of a boat and that it forces you to sail in weather conditions in which you would not normally sail if you had a choice. No one is going to stop in the middle of a regatta to explain anything to you. You learn to sail normally with a lot of crew who know what they are doing, which is not usual in cruising sailing. Nadie se va a parar en medio de una regata a explicarte nada. Aprendes a navegar normalmente con mucha tripulación que sabe lo que hace, cosa no habitual en navegación de crucero.
Su desventaja es que nadie se va a parar en medio de una regata a explicarte casi nada. Aprendes a navegar normalmente con mucha tripulación que sabe lo que hace, cosa no habitual en navegación de crucero. Te especializas en un puesto pero solo sabes realizar las funciones de ese puesto. Lo ideal es ir rotando posiciones a bordo para aprender todo lo posible.
Travesías:
Its advantage is that you get used to not seeing land, to sailing at night, to know life on board, to give importance to weather forecast, safety, etc.
Its disadvantage is that until the second or third day, the risk of seasickness is very high and from the third day we would already be acclimatized, but, the regime of life on board 24h with navigation watches make that our energy is at most at a 70% level complicating the motivation and strength to study. In addition to the fact that during the crossing you can not be doing maneuvers continuously or you will not reach your destination in life.
What are the basic skills needed to sail as a coastal skipper?
- Manoeuvre in port.
- Manoeuvres at sea in various weather conditions.
- Use of electronics at a basic and practical level.
- Crew management: What to send and how to command on board.
- Pre-planning.
- Sailing with a reduced crew and/or those who have no experience.
Iván Pérez-Gándaras
Manager Julio Verne Náutica
P.s. the magnificent illustration at the beginning is the work of Josep Maria Ferrer Sirvent