Boat Handling: skills development course
On Sunday 11 August six of us trainees and three trusty instructors set sail with the good ship Nessie to learn all about boat handling, boat management and voyage planning (and knots!). Well Nessie was in the carpark and we were in the training room but we were fully immersed in the experienced thanks to Alf, Richard and Andy who shared their vast knowledge and hands on experience of seamanship.
The day started with a run through of boat types and boat components with Nessie on hand for us to get a good look at all aspects of a RIB and a trailer. We took the opportunity to put up a club banner promoting TSAC and with a boat being an unusual sight in a swimming pool carpark we certainly attracted a lot of attention and interest in the club!
Next up: our responsibilities. Everything from laws on towing to insurance and providing assistance to other craft in distress. Then onto planning where we discussed a huge variety of factors including planning routes, identifying risks, weather, fitness to go to sea, rules of the road, buoyage and handling emergency situations. All very useful information that any diver would benefit from.
With many a tale of near disaster, plans going belly up and enviable trips racing around the UK coast the theory was covered in no time and we were set the task of planning two trips in Angelsey and Fleetwood waters. This was in preparation for the practical training where we would have to navigate some fairly complicated routes with plenty of variables and potential risks to consider. Studying the charts and learning how to read them so we could plan a smooth and safe journey was a group task that everyone got stuck into and we learned an incredible amount.
We finished the day with a mini knot workshop. I’m not sure what anyone looking through the windows would have thought about the sight of us tying up chairs and tables and getting very excited about the various knots at our disposal but we certainly enjoyed it! The climbers and former scouts were true pros while some of us are still sat here trying to get the hang of a rolling hitch.
I wasn’t sure how we’d fill a 9-5 workshop but it was action packed, fun and incredibly beneficial – and we only scratched the surface. It’s off to Wales next month to start the real learning and begin our boat handling journeys. Wish us and those sailing with us in Nessie good luck!
Thanks to Alf, Richard and Andy for a fantastic day!
Thanks to Lisa for the report
