Grab a sweater and a cup of Milo…… Winter is here!! The days may be cooler, but there is no shortage of action out on the water. The 2016 Winter race series is only 3 weeks away and both our boats will be involved. The RPNYC Winter Series has the biggest fleet numbers of the year, making for some fantastic racing. Even if racing isn’t your thing, it is a great environment for improving your skills. As well as the racing we have several cruising and coastguard course opportunities coming up too. So wrap up warm and get involved!!!
Racing and Casual Sails
Racing Crew
Our next Racing Crew course commences on Sunday 12 June and there is only one place available for booking. The course runs over 4 consecutive Sundays and will compete in the first two races of the RPNYC Winter Series. Nothing improves your sailing skills quicker than racing. Having to actually get the boat from one fixed point to another (as quickly as you can) is great for focus, and speeds up the learning process. Also, the advantage of doing this course as opposed to simply going racing is that over a four day period we will take you step by step through hoisting, lowering and trimming spinnakers, all with the aim of making you a “competent crew member on a racing boat”. This course will also give you greater confidence when taking up RPNYC member crew requests.
2016 RPNYC Winter Series
For those who have already completed Racing Crew, we have entered the second WOS boat in the RPNYC Winter Series races only. This will involve 5 fortnightly races from Sunday 19 June. The cost is $225 per person and races commence at 12.15pm each day. Further information and booking available here.
Learn to sail refresher
Has it been a while since your learn to sail course??? Well several people have requested that we run a learn to sail refresher, so this could be for you. The 4 hour session is scheduled to run on this Sunday from 10am, the forecast looks perfect and several places are available for booking.
Cruising Crew
For those wanting to get involved in cruising, our next Cruising Crew course commences on Saturday 25 June. Cruising Crew follows on from the learn to sail keelboats course and provides an opportunity to consolidate and build on your knowledge and skills. It also allows you to develop seamanship skills and covers navigation, weather, rules of the road and includes a night sail. Cruising Crew leads on to the very popular Cruising Skipper course.
Cruising Skipper
Our next Cruising Skipper course is being held over the weekend of 7 to 9 October. This Marlborough Sounds based course will see you progress to be a “competent skipper on a cruising boat”. So take the next step now, and continue the journey to running your own cruising experience. The Marlborough Sounds are a fantastic part of the country to explore and we have an undertaking from Compass Charters, which they will charter to anyone that has completed our Cruising Skipper course.
Coastguard Boating Education
As detailed last month, Coastguard Boating Education courses have now been approved by NZQA as access training towards obtaining the new commercial qualification of “Skipper Restricted Limits”. This will alleviate the need for students to attend a Polytechnic block course. This is a fantastic development for Coastguard and now means commercial recognition and applications for their courses.
Wellington Ocean Sports offer a wide range of Coastguard Boating Education courses.
Boatmaster
For those wanting to formalise their theory based boating education, Boatmaster is a great way to do this. The Boatmaster course is a 30 hour, theory-only course providing in-depth knowledge of all aspects of boating safety. Whilst this is an excellent stand-alone course, the Boatmaster course is also a pre-requisite for the ‘Coastal Skipper’ course. We have the course running here at Wellington Ocean Sports Monday and Wednesday evenings from 4 July to 3 August, 5:30pm – 8:30pm. Booking available here.
VHF Radio Operator
The VHF Course is a 6 hour, theory only course, providing the necessary knowledge require to obtain the ‘Marine VHF Operator Qualification’, which is the minimum level for anyone to legally operate a fixed or hand-held marine VHF radio. This is a great stand-alone course, but is also a pre requisite for the ‘Coastal Skipper’ and ‘Offshore Skipper’ courses. This course will be on Monday 6th and Wednesday 8th June, 5:30pm – 8:30pm.
Advanced Sea Survival
Wellington Ocean Sports is running an Advanced Sea Survival course the weekend of Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 August and places are now available for booking. Advanced Sea Survival is a comprehensive theoretical and practical course required by crew competing in offshore races (category 1). The course is equally applicable for anyone considering a cruising passage.
Coastal Medic
Wellington Ocean Sports is next hosting a Coastal Medic course over 20 and 21 August. This course offers participants the qualification of Coastguard Boating Education Service Marine Medic (Coastal), NZQA units 6400, 6401, 6402 and Maritime New Zealand commercial first aid. It is a prerequisite for attendance on the Offshore Medic course (which we are planning to run in Wellington this year) and should be for anyone involved in ocean sports.
As well as its marine applications, this course exceeds the Health and Safety requirements of “two day workplace first aid”, so has many commercial usages.