UKC

Evenin'

I have a few questions about sailing in and around the UK. Some of my questions relate to inland waterways, and some to the coast and sea around the UK. Bear with me!

In the last year I've just completed two sailing/boating qualifications in Germany... One is the Sportbootführerschein Binnen, essentially a license to sail boats (under 15m total length) under sail or unlimited motor power on inland waterways. I'm told it's internationally applicable, so I'd hope that that could allow me to, for example, hire a sailing boat out, for example, on Windermere or similar, and bimble around.

What is currently interesting me more is coastal and sea sailing. I've just completed the Sportbootführerschein See, which is a license to command boats of unlimited size and power in German territorial waters. I'd really like to use this to do some coastal sailing in the UK, but the question is how...?

1) Is it possible in the UK to hire sailing yachts in the UK for a week or something in the sumer for a bit of coastal sailing? Are there any patricularly pleasant, straightforward waters for a week of messing around in boats? I'm thinking something comparable to the relatively well protected Baltic....

2) What is legally required/what is normally required by hire companies in the the way of qualifications and certificates? Im thinking sailing/radio etc.

3) How does one go about obtaining such certificates? Would my qualifications be recognised? Do i need to get them translated/recognised by the RYA or similar?

Thanks in advance! I hope you're all enjoying your Friday evening, hopefully with a relaxing beer or similar.

Cheers!

In reply to Green Porridge: search this sites forums for 'sailing', there were some posts a while back with links if I recall

In reply to Green Porridge:

I'm a bit of a reluctant sailor but checkout Oban as an answer to number 1.

In reply to Green Porridge:

Oban is a great base for West Coast exploration and Alba Sailing at Dunstaffnage have a good fleet of boats for charter. Not sure of their required qualifications but check them out on http://www.alba-sailing.co.uk/
We keep a boat there and would recommend them to anyone.

In reply to Green Porridge:

You’ll need some qualifications to charter a “bareboat” yacht, otherwise you may need to hire a skipper too. I don’t know if your qualifications will be recognised by the charter companies, try giving them a call. Alternatively, some the UK’s RYA skipper qualification can be used to obtain a widely recognised “International Certificate of Competence.” Your certificate may also enable you to apply for the ICC. You'll also need a VHF radio licence.
The west coast of Scotland have some challenging waters but places like the Clyde area offer a little shelter. Alternatively, you’ll find many charter companies on the south west coast of England, including some that run flotillas which give a supported introduction to the area.

In reply to Green Porridge:

1 Clyde sea.. you have that area inside kintyre.. and then up from Oban and you can skirt through at the canal...

In reply to Green Porridge:

2) I think most places want RYA Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper. Your qualification might be seen as equivalent, but I don't know.

3) It's all administered by the RYA, you should ask them.

I think the best thing you could do would be to copy everything you've written here and paste it into an email to the RYA. I'm sure they could answer all your questions.

In reply to Jonathan:

Thanks guys. Reading around a bit, I think my qualification is somewhere around day skipper level. I was/am hoping to start there if possible, and slowly build up my experience. I'm a pretty cautious person, and I learnt my climbing/mountaineering skills that way, gaining some base knowledge and then learning by putting it into practise, and slowly building up experience at one level before moving onto the next. I would say I'm a competent and safe mountaineer, despite having no formal qualifications. Fortunately, a lot of the boat charter places in the UK seem to take a sensible approach to these things, and most seem to suggest that if you don't have the qualification, you can call them and have a chat about whether you have enough experience. In Germany, things tend to depend a lot more on exactly what qualification you have.

I realise I will also need to do a VHF license, that was more or less my next goal, I'm hoping it won't be too tricky to do it here - it seems a substantial part of the exam is understanding VHF signals.... in English I reckon I can manage that!

If anyone has any more particular suggestions of places to charter, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

In reply to Green Porridge:

Unlike most continental European countries you don't actually need any kind of paper qualification to sail a boat in Britain. It is a Briton's right to go out and buy the biggest or most powerful boat he wants and set out to sea as he wishes, and quite right to.

However, when it comes to doing the same in someone else's boat, a hired one for example, they may well demand some kind of proof of ability, even if this is not obligatory. The various possibilities have already been discussed but one other point that hasn't is that compared to France, for example, I found it was much harder to find boats for hire in Britain - in the small port I know well none were available yet in France there are loads and many owners use it as a way of financing their prize possession. So there seems to be a bit of a contradiction - no legal need for documents but less ease in finding a boat to hire. I don't know about the bigger ports though, maybe things are different.