Lots of people who take up sailing do so with the aim of sailing abroad. We ask Andy Barnes, Chief Instructor at Academy Sailing, for advice or tips for people booking flotilla holidays.
At the start of every sailing course, as part of our welcome session, we ask people about what brought them to sailing and what they hope to do in the future. It’s always great to hear people’s stories but also about their dreams. Many of them talk about sailing abroad and recently a couple suggested I write something that may be helpful for people who are perhaps new to flotilla holidays, or who may not have been sailing in a while.
First thing to say is that I don’t intend this article to be encyclopaedic. It’s a few thoughts I’m throwing down which I hope may be of use. There will be plenty of other really good pieces of advice others will have. I may even update the article when I realise really obvious stuff I’ve missed out. But in the meantime, if this is of use then I'm pleased to be of assistance!
So, if you’ve booked yourself on a sailing holiday for the first time, congratulations! With a little bit of thought and preparation you will have an amazing time. Chances are, unless you happen to be really experienced and doing a bareboat charter (unaccompanied), then you will probably be on a flotilla holiday. Important to say, that plenty of experienced sailors also choose to go on flotilla holidays. That's because flotilla holidays offer lots of great opportunities, not just of support, but also socialising and all round great fun. Importantly though, for those who are less experienced, the people who run flotilla holidays are really good at it. You will be looked after with regards to weather, routing, and perhaps the most stressful bit for people… docking in a marina or harbour.
Qualifications
Generally speaking, the minimum qualifications you should have in order to skipper a boat on a sailing holiday is RYA Day Skipper. Yes I am talking UK qualifications because that’s my main audience. Worth having and taking the ICC (International Certificate of Competence) qualification card with you. You can read more about this online, but as long as you have RYA Day Skipper, then you can apply to the RYA (who are the UK issuing authority) for your ICC. They do charge £25 for this, but if you join the RYA (for £25) then you can get it for free. So I always tell people they may as well be members for a year and get the magazines (and support the RYA) and have the ICC for the same money. The other big one to have is your VHF marine radio license. That’s a single day course and is not expensive. Academy Sailing offers these courses on a regular basis as do lots of other schools.
Insurance
Do take out your own holiday insurance which is just good practice on any holiday no matter where you are going. Worth checking if they cover sailing. Most will but do check. What they don’t typically cover is the actual boat insurance. So if you put a huge scratch down a lovely new yacht, you will probably lose a decent chunk of your deposit – unless you take out extra cover, which most sailing holiday brokers or companies will help you with. The extra cover doesn't cost a lot when you divide it up into each person going on the holiday and it’s peace of mind!
How Recently Have You Sailed?
How rusty are you? How much experience does your crew have? If you are happy and confident that you and your crew are in a good place then great. But if not, speak to a good sailing school who will most likely be able to help you with some kind of refresher. At Academy Sailing we do ‘Skills Refresher' courses, which can either be a single day, a weekend, or even 3 days. People often come along with their ‘crew’ who may not have sailed before. We cover whatever is needed by the group, but we often get asked to cover the basics as well as things like 'Med Mooring', person-overboard scenarios, anchoring, putting up the sails and reefing. We are always happy to help people as will any decent training centre. I personally really enjoy instructing on them because they are lots of fun and people are always really excited about their holidays. And its great to be able to allay people’s fears or concerns – particularly new crew. And I love hearing back from people after their holiday about the great time they had.
Skipper Overboard
I always ask people whether they have thought this one through? Can your crew get you the skipper back? Imagine you are sailing along, main and fore sail up and you splash over the side. Will you have a lifejacket on? Remarkably few people ever wear one sailing abroad on holiday. Does your crew know how to stop the boat? Centre the main, get the head-sail in, whilst starting the engine, throwing flotation devices overboard, putting an MOB distress call in, whilst having marked position on the plotter, and turning around and safely piloting the boat back to you? Great if you can answer yes. If the answer is no then not all is lost. Again, this is something we at Academy Sailing do and so will other good schools. We do a ‘Skipper Overboard’ training day where we break this down into some really easy steps that will help you out. We can also put it into a ‘skills refresher’ weekend. So do think about this scenario and at least have a plan with your crew. At some point I will put something up on YouTube for people to watch as a free resource.
Checklists
On our courses I always say to people that if it will help them, write down the steps of putting the sails up and down, or reefing, or anchoring, or person-overboard – etc etc! If it’s good enough for aircraft pilots, then why not yacht skippers? Again, something I will look to put up online very shortly as a free resource. Nice easy aide-memoires which may just give people a little bit more confidence.
Sailing Clothes
Assuming you are going somewhere hot, take the normal stuff with you but pack light. Don’t take hard suit cases as these are awkward on boats. Instead bags that squash down for storage are the order of the day. Do take some wind-proof layers including a jacket but also a hat to keep the sun off you. Sunglasses are important to protect your eyes but maybe take a cheap pair for the daytime as it is easy to lose them. You can lightweight retainers that help to stop them dropping off your head and into the water. And on that note – be careful about phones as these love to fall out of pockets when you are stepping up or down etc.! Stick these in closed pockets. Do take comfortable shoes with you to wear on the boat. Important that these have grip, are flat soled and that they are non-marking. So if you don't have deck shoes then find a suitable pair of light weight trainers and these will be fine. I do have a short blog on sailing clothes which you can read here. It's aimed at sailing courses but may still be useful to you.
First Aid
Most boats have a first aid kit aboard, but my advice is to take a few of the essentials. So antiseptic cream, plasters, sting/bite cream, after sun, rehydrates, and anything else you think you should take. And don't forget to make sure that anyone who takes regular medication has enough with them for the holiday.
Victualling (shopping!)
Most flotilla sailing bases will be right by or close to a decent supermarket. Sounds like an obvious one but write a list down before you get out there so you get everything you need. There are some small shops in some of the places you will stop, but worth getting most of the bits you need right at the start. If in doubt about the local water, get mineral water. And don’t forget things like bug spray, sun cream, seasickness tablets (which you hopefully won’t need but nice to know you have them and better to take and not get seasick at all than worry about it).
Boat Checks
Your charter company should run through the boat with you. Make sure you do check everything from bow to stern, inside and out. Do include checking of the sails for rips and tears, checking the outboard engine works (if you have rented one) and that the propellor split pin is in place and in good condition, that you know where the seacocks are (again something we cover on pre-holiday training days), liferaft, fire-extinguishers, VHF radio, other emergency equipment, and also things like boat hooks.
Boat & Safety Briefing
Make sure everyone on your boat is included. They need to know all the important stuff, from how to work the toilets/heads (and not block them!), how to safely use gas and electrical appliances, boat rules about smoking and drinking, about wandering out to the foredeck late at night in the dark on their own without telling anyone (maybe having had a drink, how to use hatches to escape, how to use the radio, how to start the engine (everyone needs to know this!), about first aid kits, fire-extinguishers, what to do should someone (including the skipper) falls overboard unintentionally. There are many other things you will think of as you walk the boat from bow to stern.
Navionics
Most sailing you will do abroad will be line-of-sight with deep water between. But it’s still nice to have your own digital charts. I am not sponsored by Navionics and don’t get commission! But I do like Navionics and personally use it. There are other apps and so feel free to try others, but I do talk about the one I prefer. If you are new to Navionics, you can download charts for the area and use it all for 2 weeks as part of a trial. Which will probably more than cover your holiday. If you like it and want to use it again then you can pay a relatively cheap price to keep the downloads and you can use on multiple smart
Don’t Beast The Crew
What I mean by this is don’t sail too far. An hour or two at absolute most is far enough when you first leave the marina. Especially on day one if you leave in the afternoon. Your crew won’t thank you for taking them on a 10-hour passage. Less is more and it will keep everyone happy and enjoying themselves – which is the whole point. And do remember, most charter companies ban night sailing.
The Sails
Don’t be afraid of the sails! It will all come back to you. Use them in light winds as an opportunity to get more practiced. Do warn people about the boom – and do be careful about not accidentally gybing. A great opportunity to practice putting up the main sail and to practice reefing is whilst at anchor (preferably not tied up stern to as well). With just a little bit of main sheet eased the boat can move around into the wind quite easily and your crew are safe. Remember if you think it may be getting a bit breezy then reef! head down off the wind and furl a bit of the head-sail away, then come back up to point high on the wind to reef the main sail. Do use a checklist to help you and have fun playing with the sails.
Anchoring & 'Med Mooring'
Try to avoid laying your anchor chain over someone else’s as it will save you and them a lot of hassle. Remember when dropping your anchor to not drop all your chain out in a ball on the seabed as that won’t hold you properly. You need to work out depth of water and then let out just a little bit more than that to start with (so if 6m then drop about 8m to 9m) and then as you ever so gently and slowlydrop back/reverse let a little bit out at a time. Chain should not be vertical when dropping back – you want just a little bit of an angle which means you are laying it out across the seabed. Remember about 4 times depth for chain is good. Watch where you will swing.
Med-Mooring is more about reversing against the well-dug in chain by the time you are squeezing into your spot. So as you let a little bit more chain out you drop back further. Once you get your stern lines on and come out of reverse gear, the boat will pull forwards with the weight of the chain and the stern lines will tension nicely. You will have lots of help from your flotilla helpers with this part and it’s common practice for them to buzz about in inflatables to help push you into your spot too. Do remember to drop fenders over the stern of the boat so you are well protected. And finally, discuss your plan with the crew before you go into the marina or harbour, make sure everyone knows their role and is happy - that way everyone should be calm and there is no need to raise voices and become the entertainment for everyone else!
Another top tip is to take some cheap thick DIY gloves with you on holiday. The sort you can pick up for literally a couple of quid in Factory Shops. When handling ‘lazy-lines’ these are not only grimy but they can cut your hands due to the little sharp shells embedded in them. Just as a reminder, lazy-lines are lines tied to the dock, that extend out way in from of your boat. So when you reverse in, you get hold of them at the dock and pull them through until they are tight (from the direction in front of the boat) with you standing on the bow. You secure these to your bow cleats instead of anchoring. They work really well. I will do a separate article on anchoring at some point.
Dinghies
Dinghies are great fun to use but you need to be safety conscious. Often easiest to get in and out of them at the stern (tying the painter/bow line) and stern line to your yacht. Get in one at a time and get people to sit down straight away. Keep weight slightly inboard rather than sitting right on top of the sponson (tube). Don’t overload and take two trips if you need to. Do make sure you always attach the ‘kill cord’ to the helmsperson when underway as if they fall in the engine will carry on and it will lock over to one side and has a high chance of running people over and causing serious injury. Do remember to open fuel shut-off switches and bleed valves, and do take oars with you in case the engine conks out! I also recommend having a `dry-bag' for valuables and even clothing to go in.
When using dinghies in the dark (maybe going back to your boat having been to a restaurant) do watch out for the many stern/shore lines tied from yacht to shore as these are easy to drive into and can often be at head height! Do take a good torch with you and maybe even a head-torches as well. And if leaving your dinghy on a pontoon by a restaurant, make sure your dinghy is identifiable as yours – you don’t want someone to take yours by mistake, or to stand looking at 10 dinghies wondering which was yours. And final bit of advice here would be to not let kids play with outboard engines - as much as they may plead to take the dinghy out with the engine, it is a recipe for disaster and they aren't toys.
Fresh Water
Do take opportunities to replenish your fresh-water supply when you get the chance. It’s amazing how quickly your crew will drain the tanks as they use taps the same as they do when on land! But do encourage people to be sensible with washing up. A great tip for washing up is to use a bucket of sea-water to wash the dishes, so that all the food is off them – and then finally use some soapy fresh water as you will use very little at this point on the already fairly clean dishes.
Refuelling
You don’t normally need to worry about doing this until your last day. A very common practice in busy places is for you to reverse towards the refuelling pontoon, take stern lines and then drive forwards against them and stay in gear during the refuelling process. This avoids you having to anchor and it’s quick. But the flotilla company will advise you on the process and help at the time.
Lifejackets
Many interesting discussions to be had on this. At Academy Sailing, as with any other RYA sailing school, the wearing of lifejackets is mandatory. When you go on holiday, I'm aware the reality is that very few people wear lifejackets. I’m not advocating that as sensible and neither would ytou expect me to. I do understand that in the hot sunshine and warm waters that for people wearing swimming costumes, a lifejacket can feel slightly out of place. What I will say is please use common-sense and please be careful. If someone can’t swim then a lifejacket is essential. If the sea is a bit lumpier than expected and someone is going forwards out of the cockpit then it's a good idea. As the skipper, if no one else on your boat is likely to be able to rescue you if you fall in – strongly consider it.
Have Fun!
Sailing holidays abroad in the sunshine are brilliant fun. Many people go back for more on a regular basis and often end up booking sailing weeks at the same time as friends they have made on previous holidays. Sailing holidays offer so much, from lazy days with peace and quiet, to social evenings in anchorages and marinas when you want that. Don’t be nervous about your first holiday and if you do want more advice or refresher training then contact a good sailing school who will be only too pleased to help you. I hope this article is of use to a few people who may perhaps be heading on a sailing holiday for the first time. Please have an amazing time!
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