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 a significant number of miles at sea for a Coastal Skipper or Yachtmaster qualification, we have defined this offering.

This mile builder is a balanced mix of making a significant number of miles, and at the same time learning to structure a passage plan, use pilotage, do calculations on height of tide, handling strong tidal currents, and sailing at night.  

Mile Builder - Channel Islands 2020 

Description of this mile builder:

This mile builder adds a total of more than 600 miles to your nautical experience, divided over two routes of each approximately 300 miles.

You can sign up for either one of the two routes, or stay on board and enjoy both routes.

Route A  (orange) will depart from our base in the Netherlands and starts with coastal legs along the Dutch, Belgian and French coastline. We will be experiencing the effects of tide, navigate through shallow sand bank areas and encounter large shipping traffic. After passing Cap Griz Nez and through the Dover straits we will leave the coastline behind us for a long leg towards Cherbourg in Normandy.  Good chances that we will encounter some dolphins on that leg. After a stop in Cherbourg we will navigate the Race of Alderney, famous for its fast tidal race, on our way to the rocky Channel Islands.  Our destination is St. Peters port on Guernsey, a charming city on a beautiful island with a mix of French and English influences. 

Route B (red) takes us back to the Netherlands via the South coast of England. We will leave the islands and Cherbourg to cross the English Channel towards the Isle of Wight. Weather allowing, we will enter the Solent via the impressive Needles. The Solent is known for its strong tide, and a great place to practice some of your boat handling skills. After the Isle of Wight, we will continue our trip along the English coast towards Dover. One more time, we will cross a TSS and set sail for our final leg along the Belgian coast towards the Oosterschelde and our end destination in the Netherlands.

The miles on both routes will be made both during daytime and night-time. A 24 hours leg is very likely to be part of it.

On route A we will be using mainly electronic navigation aids including radar, for position fixing and navigation.  On route B, we will mainly use chart work with dead reckoning and estimated positions to find our way towards our destination.

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 mile builder is classified by us as intermediate, and requires intermediate sailing experience.  It is an ideal mile builder if you are preparing yourself for Coastal Skipper, or if you need extra miles or night sailing hours for your Yachtmaster qualification.

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 mile builder.

What's included:

• C-MASTERS sailing yacht with skipper
• Reeds Skipper reference booklet
• Shared cabin 
• Food and drinks on board
• Fuel and mooring fees
• Free parking at our training location

Supporting courses:

We recommend the RYA shorebased courses, our C-MASTERS Passage Planning course and our Navigation @ Night course. In addition, the RYA Radar course is very useful.

Supporting books:

Overview of all our Experience Building offerings