20 October 2009

Autumn - a time for learning!

 The autumn has come! The leaves are falling and boats are beginning to leave the water. This is the start of the laying up season – the days are shorter so we get less use from our boats and from now on many boats will be laid up until the spring.

We now have time to take stock of the season afloat and prepare for next year – the perfect time to take a shorebased course to increase our knowledge about matters afloat!
There are many things we need to learn about –weather, tides, safety afloat, buoys and lights, rules, charts and chartwork, electronic navigation, pilotage and of course putting all the information together to form a passage plan. A navigation course is the perfect platform to study all of these areas and help you become more proficient afloat.

Back in the 1960’s my late father, Eamonn English, brought me along to my first navigation course - given by a sea captain here in Cobh We ran out the door after the first night – the course was all about trigonometry, log cosines and versines and learning lots of things off by heart – to me it was a very dark science. Luckily I persisted and with the help of two late greats – Eric Healy and Denis Doyle I began a love affair with navigation. I now have had the privilege of teaching navigation all over the country for almost 30 years.
Navigation is not a dark science and the basics are learned very easily in a well structured scheme, delivered by trained, qualified instructors who are there to help every individual to enjoy the learning experience of a navigation course.

It is important to remember that there are huge changes in the areas covered by these courses – GPS receivers have evolved into chartplotters, VHF radio now offers us Digital Selective Calling as well as AIS – so a nav course now differs hugely from one just 10 years ago – it is so important to keep abreast of changes and stay safe afloat.

“Navigation Courses” come in many forms –the Basic Navigation course for beginners – taken over a weekend, the Day Skipper for beginners and improvers taken over 20 evenings, a couple of weekends or a 5 day week. Then there is the “Holy Grail” of navigation courses – the Yachtmaster Shorebased Course. This can be taken over 20 evenings or 3 weekends or 6 days. This is and advanced course and designed for those who have already completed the Day Skipper navigation course.

Pupils at nav classes come from all quarters – at SailCork we have trained dinghy sailors, cruiser sailors, racing sailors, powerboaters, motorboaters, anglers, fishermen, sea kayakers, passenger boat drivers, workboat drivers, windsurfers and kitesurfers.

Now is your chance to sign up for a course as evening classes begin this week here and in up to 50 centres all over Ireland. Several other shorebased courses are run to facilitate the mariner at this time of the year including VHF Radio, Diesel Engine Maintenance, Meteorology etc – all are delivered in a friendly enthusiastic manner helping participants to increase safety awareness and help to make life afloat in Ireland safer.

Eddie English Blog