You are ready for your next step on the RYA ladder; you need experience and nautical miles.

You are ready for a long trip to boost your skippering skills, under the watchful eye of an experienced skipper (RYA instructor).

Do you want to get away from the Belgian or Dutch North Sea coast or the Zeeland waters, discover new horizons, new ports, learn to handle strong tide, experience an adventure with other like-minded souls? Then this Experience Builder is ideal for you.

Experience Builder

"Sailing to the South-West coast of England"

Explore Dartmouth, Exmouth, Salcombe, Torquay and other beautiful destinations in Devon / Cornwall

This is the ideal opportunity for all future Yachtmasters and for Day Skippers to build up nautical miles and enjoy sailing trips with a high experience level.

Description

You will be joining as a full crew member (and sometimes also responsible co-skipper) on board of our Grand Bleu (Grand Soleil 45). Departure from Zeeland is scheduled on Monday 5 June. The overall one-way passage will have a duration of 9 days. Arrival at our destination is foreseen on 13 June (12-15 June).

This Experience Builder includes all necessary skills such as daily passage planning, meteo analysis, sail trim, yacht handling in tidal waters. In short, all aspects of the Yachtmaster and Coastal Skipper training courses come to the turn during this trip.

The beautiful and fast sailing Grand Soleil 45 yacht has three spacious cabins and a sofa bed in the saloon. We can accommodate up to 4 participants, unless there are couples or friends who have no problem sharing a cabin.

The route of this experience builder

This is a one-way Experience Builder. Starting from Zeeland we already need to make choices: how long will we follow the French coast, where do we cross? What about the effect of tides? Where do we plan the stops? Will we sail via the Solent ? Shall we make a stop at the beautiful Beaulieu River or at the sailors town of Cowes? This trip is a good 350 NM in a straight line, but the reality is always a lot more ( roughly 400 NM).

We are certainly scheduling a few passages of minimum 60 NM, and of course there are also some night-time passages.

Please note: this is not a fast mile builder, this is an experience building trip where we look forward to offer you the opportunity to build up as much as possible confidence in yacht handling and navigation. The destinations are amazing and provide for great cultural and natural discovery.

What's included

Accommodation on board of our beautiful Grand Soleil 45
Coaching by experienced instructor
One-way trip of approximately 350-400 NM to be added to your logbook
Several 60 NM passages, including at night-time
And an unforgettable sailing trip to one of the most beautiful areas in our part of the world

Travel over land (tentatively on 14 June) is to be organised at your own responsibility and own expense. There are airports in Exeter and Plymouth. Alternatively, you might decide to rent a car and share the cost with the other participants.

Supporting courses

We recommend doing the one day C-MASTERS Passage Planning course

Supporting books

To make the most out of your experience builder, we recommend reading the RYA Navigation handbook.