16/03/13 - Day Skipper Course - Kinsale

16th March 2013
Day Skipper - Sovereign Sailing - Michael
3*C - Wind F1-2 - Sunny

• My aim for today was to get to know my way around the yacht and get comfortable with the basics of yachting again.

I was really nervous about the week and not sure of what to expect to be honest. I was worried that I wouldn't be a good enough sailor to pass the course and in particular, I was worried about the navigation aspect of the course. I have not done a whole lot of sea navigation and thought it might be too much for me to take in and understand well enough to pass in a week.

We arrived in Kinsale for 9am and we took our bags on board 'Kyachtic', the 40ft yacht we would be on for the next week.

Kyachtic. 40ft.

We then went up to the office where we met our skipper, Michael. He asked us all to fill out a form of our details and then we paid him. He sat back in his chair and asked us all to tell him what area of sailing we thought we were going to need to work on the most during the week. Most of us said 'Navigation' which actually made me feel a bit better because I thought I would be the only one with a lack of experience in that area. Then Michael went on to say that we should be coming to do our Day Skipper course with all of that knowledge already and that we should only be brushing up on navigation skills and practical skills during the course. He was very negative and I didn't like his attitude toward us very much at all. It was a bit like, "Well, you probably shouldn't have bothered coming here if you need to work on your navigation because I you're going to fail...", the worst introduction to a course I have ever had! There was no excitement or encouragement or anything like that, it was just "well you should know this that and the other before you come to do this course". 

If I was in Michael's position here and a group of enthusiastic sailors had come to me to do a Day skipper course and they told me they wanted to work on their navigation skills, I would probably say something along the lines of, "Ok, so a few of you are worried about the navigation part of the course. Well, don't be worried, we will be doing a bit of navigation every day during the course so by the end of the week you will hopefully have no problems with the navigation side of things." We came to do the course to learn didn't we?

Anyway, so once he had finished trying to scare us, we went down to the boats and organised who would sleep where. The guys gave myself and Liz the bow cabin so we put our bags in and then Michael gave each of us a life jacket and a harness for the week, which we also put in to our cabins.

Then we started 'Victualing' which means ensuring there is enough food and drink on board and preparing meals for the passage in advance. We wrote a shopping list and then Liz, Martin, David O'B and myself went to the shops to get everything we would need for the week.

Meanwhile, back at the boat, Michael showed Fionan around the boat. So when we came back from the shops, Fionan had to show us everything he could remember from what Michael had told him.

He showed us:

• The engine and how to do simple checks like oil
• Where you would find the tool kit with fuel filters, impellor and belts
• Fire blankets and fire extinguishers -  where they are on board
• Where the gas canister was stored and how to shut it off
• How to turn on/off the water pumps
• The navigation instruments
• Where we would find flares
• Where the first aid kit was kept
• Where the water tank is
• Where the fuel tank is

Once Fionan had been through all of those points with us, Michael did a safety brief with us, he showed us how to use the different flares, red hand held, orange smoke and rocket.

For more information about the different types of flares, you can follow this link: http://kbmurray.com/Cadence/flares.htm
Michael then showed us the 1st aid kit, showed us how to check our life jackets (air canisters in automatics) and also showed us where the raft was stored under the seats up on deck. It is important that the raft is stored somewhere that is easily accessible and that nothing is stored on top of it. You also need to make sure that when you release the life raft, you hold on to the rope that is attached and then get it tied on to something as soon as possible.

Once everybody knew where everything lives on the boat and how to use the different types of equipment, we went through the very basics of how to use a chart.

Michael showed us the top and bottom of a chart and went through what some of the symbols, numbers and colours meant. I thought this was a good introduction because it didn't cram our heads with too much information. It was also good because we were  all at different levels and by going through the very basics first, he was going to get us all up to the same level before going in to the more complicated information with us.

We then prepared for take off! :D Make sure everything is stowed away neatly and that all cupboards are clipped closed! We then learnt that we have to 'glow' the engine for 10 seconds before we turn the engine on, you then turn the engine on. You then press the red button on the throttle & bring the revs up to about one and a half thousand and you leave it like that while you are getting the lines and everything ready. By pressing the red button it allows you to bring the revs up without the boat actually moving anywhere. The reason for doing this is that it is so cold out and it is important to warm the engine.

Taking the boat out to do figures of eight.

So we took the boat out into the river to practice doing figure of eight on motor. It is important that you come off the speed a little bit as you go around a buoy in order to make a nice smooth, tight turn without throwing your crew across the boat. Then when you want to stop the boat for the next person to take the helm, you have to make sure you go into neutral and if you are still going too fast then give it a little bit of reverse.
This was a great way to start the course because it was simple and gave everybody a feel for the boat without too much pressure.

Coming along side and mooring was the next thing to learn. We had to come in to the pontoon so that it was on our port side. The tide was coming onto the pontoon on the section that we planned to moor up on. This meant that we could use it to our advantage and ferry glide across the water and on to the pontoon. We aimed to have our beam cleat hitting a certain point on the pontoon and came in at a 45* angle this then helped us to bring the boat perfectly alongside the pontoon. When we were helming we had to organise our crew to do exactly what we needed, so one we had decided on the best approach, we would get all of our crew to get the fenders on the side we needed. Then we would choose one person to be on roving fender, another person to be on bow line, another on stern line and another on beam line.
Michael taught us how to lasso the cleat on the pontoon quickly and get the line back under the cleat onboard and pull it tight by sitting back and putting all of our weight on the rope rather than trying to pull on it!

We then went over a few man over board drills, I found this quite easy as I had already done it on the power boat course. Obviously it was a bit different because the yacht is so much longer and higher out of the water than a rib but the same principle applies.

1. Shout man over board
2. Tell one person to point at the person in the water and don't stop pointing until we have made contact with that person
3. Immediately slow down
4. Tell somebody to send out a mayday
5. Decide on your best approach
6. Get one person to get the boat hook and wait at the beam of the boat
7. Get a person on the bow to point and shout distances
8. As you approach kill the power
9. Try & approach so that you make contact with the man over board at the beam of the boat but try and bring them to the stern to bring them back on board.

Fionan on helm

We then came back alongside and Mike showed us how to set up springs on the boat so that there is no movement. You bring the bow line way back to the stern of the boat and attach it on the pontoon and you bring the stern line all the way up to the bow of the boat and attach it on the pontoon.

We then had some tea, after tea Mike went through all of the course content and then showed us how to reef the mainsail. When the sun had gone down, we took the boat out again and did a small bit of night nav. We just took the boat out into the harbour and then followed the port & starboard buoys back in to Kinsale marina.

One thing to remember from today is for the cleats, you should either do an 'OXO' knot or a bowline if you can.


Points of Environmental Interest...

Today we saw lots of Cormorants around. They were sitting on the pontoons and then as we arrived they would fly off.
We knew that they were Cormorants and not Shags because they didn't have their hair sticking up on top of their heads.