Experience is king. After learning the theoretical and practical skills, it is important for enthusiastic sailors to start putting some miles under their belt. The type of miles may however differ depending on the needs of our clients. For those sailors that need to build up miles at sea for a Coastal Skipper qualification, we have defined this offering.
This experience builder is an enjoyable balanced mix of making miles, visiting harbours and rivers, and at the same time learning to structure a passage plan, use pilotage, do calculations on height of tide, handling tidal currents, and sailing at night.
Experience Builder
"South Brittany and the Ria's of Galicia in 2024"
Description of this activity:
This experience builder adds a total of about 1100 miles to your nautical experience, divided over two passages with stops in various ports, weather dependent.
Passage One : The Netherlands to La Trinite in South-Brittany will depart from Zeeland, the Netherlands. Always wanted to navigate all the french Atlantic capes? Cap Gris nez, Cap the La Hague, via Guernsey or Jersey to the adventurous waters around Brest, then along mysterious Ouessant and via the threatening Raz du Sein to the beautiful island of Belle-Ile in South Brittany … Yes ? Then this is your perfect route to enjoy lots of miles and accumulate valuable experience on tidal waters.
Passage Two : La Trinite to the Spanish Ria's . This second passage ( approx 500 NM) is another bucket list highlight : crossing the Bay of Biscay, from La Trinité-sur-mer to A Coruna in Galicia, and from here on we’ll hop along Finisterra and the Costa de la Muerte till we’re in the Ria of Pontevedra, the heart of the Rias Baixas. Ask experienced offshore sailors; they will confirm that the Spanish Ria's are one of the most beautiful places to visit by boat.
The miles on this experience builder will be made both during daytime and night-time. A minimum 48 hours leg is certainly expected for the Biscay crossing to Spain.
During this experience builder, we will be using visual and electronic navigation aids including plotter and radar, for position fixing and navigation. You will have the opportunity to practice chart work with dead reckoning and estimated positions to find our way towards our destination as well as digital navigation, under supervision of our skipper/instructor.
We will be practicing watch keeping in shifts, allowing all students to experience sailing at night under a starry sky.
The responsibility to prepare and execute the passage plan for the mile builder will be allocated in turns. This will give you the qualifying experience as skipper on long passages during day and night.
This experience builder is classified by us as intermediate, and requires intermediate sailing experience. It is an ideal activity if you are preparing yourself for Yachtmaster, or if you need extra experience after having obtained your Coastal Skipper or Day Skipper certificate.
What do you get at the end:
Your miles and night sailing hours will be signed off in your personal logbook at the end of the experience builder.
What's included:
- Accommodation on excelllent sailing yacht
- Shared cabin
- Coaching in developing your skills by experienced skipper/instructor
Supporting courses:
We recommend following a RYA shorebased navigation course before departure. Our C-MASTERS Offshore Passage Planning course is also very useful.
Supporting books:
