Yacht Master course

My previous post was a video about the whole trip.

Here's a bit of the story of the first part of my trip, the Yachtmaster prep and exam course at Flying Fish based in the town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

I flew from Vancouver direct to London.  The day I landed I checked into a hotel and slept for part of the afternoon.  Dinner and then bed again.

The next day I took the train to Southampton and then the Red Jet passenger ferry into Cowes.  The Red Jet is exactly what we should have in Vancouver.  Fast, no wake, shallow draft and capable in a moderate and high sea state.  The town of Cowes was lovely.  It's the first time I have been on a UK high street.  During that two weeks we sailed to both ends of the Solent and up to Southampton.  We did a lot of crew overboard, a lot of nav, and a lot of theory prep.  We also visited some very nice pubs in the evening.

Here's some pictures:

Cool Boats I saw in the Solent

During my trip to England to get my Yachtmaster qualification I saw so many cool boats it wasn't funny.  The Solent really is the home of Yachting.

Here's some pictures:

2 Mini's

An Artemis 20 Adaptive keel boat.

A passenger hovercraft

"T2" the British AC 45

"M33", "Victory", and "Warrior" at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

A DUCK WW2 landing craft

"Cutty Sark", the fastest tea clipper ever.

A Mod 70 trimaran

"Avenger".  The first planing dinghy ever

Cool huh?

Getting ready for Southern Straights Yacht race

I am getting ready for Southern Straights yacht race.  Southern Straights is a keel boat distance race hosted by the West Vancouver yacht Club.

I am racing on the medium course, which starts at Dunderave Pier on the north shore.  We then race up to the Sisters Island light, about 50 Miles West and then back to finish off Point Atkinson. I am sailing on a Beneteau 36.7 called "ClaraALEGRO".  The start is the morning of Friday the 27th at 1030 and we expect to finish Saturday before lunch.

The race can be followed from the following link:
http://www.wvyc.ca/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=392776&ssid=314640&vnf=1


Here is a time lapse of our practice sail on Tuesday the 22nd.

New Hugo Boss Stunt

Alex Thomson and the Hugo Boss team have done a spectacular new stunt.

This year they have pulled Alex, on his kite board behind the boat.  Using the combined kite and open 60 they have pulled him up to twice the mast height.

Here's some video:



and behind the scenes:





And the two previous stunts:

Uk Trip 2015

It's been quite a while since I wrote a blog post.  I've had a couple of cool adventures that I can share.

The big one is that I decided to go get my RYA Yachtmaster Offshore (Sail), Commercial qualifications, and RYA Cruising Instructor.  I went to the Solent and sailed with a company called Flying Fish for Yachtmaster.  I really enjoyed sailing out of Cowes.  Fantastic place to sail!

Here's a video of my trip.

Crew overboard with spin up

I have done lots of Crew overboard exersizes as part of basic and intermediate cruising courses.  Something I don't get to practice is COB with a spin up.

Here is Yachting Monthly's take on it.




They seem to be advocating for cutting the spin away and saving your friend.



Here's another video of a full crew doing a recovery.  They have lots of hands so they pull the spin in by brute force.





Any other opinions?  I have heard of a method of getting the spin down and then using the engine to return upwind to the crew.  Couldn't find a video though

North U tactics seminar

The popular North U tactics seminar is coming to Vancouver march 14th.  I am attending with a group of sailings from DSA.  Anyone else going?

Info here:
http://www.northu.northsails.com/Seminars/NorthUSchedule/tabid/1461/language/en-US/Default.aspx?modid=75490&func=view&eid=109

and here:
 http://www.northu.northsails.com/Seminars/RacingTactics2015/tabid/1428/language/en-US/Default.aspx