Sailing Skills weekend
“Step up your game and learn the skills that will make you an efficient sailor!”
“Learn invaluable skills for trimming your sails efficiently, powerful sailing procedures, aerodynamic concepts, as well as working efficiently as a team during sail manoeuvres”
THE COURSE OVERVIEW
This course will give you the tools and techniques you need to start sailing your boat more efficiently, and you will learn everything from how to trim your sails properly for the best boat speed, to various useful sailing manoeuvres and clever sailing tactics. You will also learn the often forgotten basics that form the foundation of your sailing skills.
In many training schemes, there is not enough time and opportunity to properly learn how to work your sails properly or to sail the boat as efficiently as possible, as there are so many other aspects to cover for their syllabus. This S.T.E.P.-course aims to bridge that gap and cover what you never have the opportunity to learn on, for example, a RYA Day Skipper course. Whether you want to beat the other flotilla boats on your holiday, or if you want to win the Thursday evening club races, this is the course you need to have a leading edge over your competition!
This course follows the principles and learning plans of S.T.E.P. and is an exclusive and tailor-made course, not available anywhere else, and it is carefully constructed to last over several weekends only (Sat-Sun). This is so that you don't have to spend your precious vacation days for training, but rather allocate them where they belong: To your sailing adventures!
This course is suitable for skippers at any level and for any reason; certifications and holidays alike. You can be a beginner or advanced sailor, and it is also suitable for aspiring skipper wanting to come well prepared to their skippering certification. The reason why this is possible is simply because the methods and procedures do not change depending on your level, only your proficiency and ability to execute them will increase with your experience.
Course Content & Schedule
As with almost any other skill, the techniques and methods do not change, it is the participants' proficiency at them that changes. Therefore, the course content will start with the basics and work its way up towards more advanced skills during these two days. How fast you progress through this is really up to you. For an experienced sailor, the basics may seem trivial, but they must still be achieved correctly. And for a novice, the more advanced content may be a bit too much, but we still have to achieve the basics correctly and can therefore focus on those items throughout the course. Time permitting, this is what you will cover:
SYLLABUSWhat to expect
THE CORRECT METHODS
Sail handling, sailing procedures and sail trimming could indeed be considered a science and an art on its own. However, we aim to deliver simple, memorable and effective methods during this course, so that you will get a solid understanding of how it all works and be able to improve your sailing skills from a strong and accurate foundation.
During the course you will cover everything from how to execute sailing manoeuvres correctly, to learning about various aerodynamic concepts and how to trim the sails and make them more efficient, and to competent and safe application and operations within the team onboard.
We aim to give you a practical approach to your Sailing Skills, with straightforward and understandable techniques that you will be able to use and to implement in to your future sailing life.
MADE BY A PROFESSIONAL
Your instructor is a certified RYA YachtMaster Ocean and YachtMaster Instructor, who has more than a decade of teaching under his belt. He started racing in dinghies at the age of 11 and competed on a semi-professional level and has done plenty of races in various other boat classes. He is the proud owner of “Red Sparrow”, a Carrera 290, which is a tremendously wet speed-machine with running backstays and an oversized asymmetrical spinnaker, and is eagerly looking forward to racing with it in future competitions. He has lots of valuable information to pass on to you during the course (and is quite a nice guy to hang out with…).
A PROPER COURSE
We also limit the participants to 4 people, so that there will be enough time for everyone to do the exercises. Also, there will be plenty of handout material during the course, from the S.T.E.P. resources.
Keep in mind that the aim of the course is NOT to make you fully proficient immediately upon completion. This is simply not possible, as Sailing skills is something you will practise and improve on for the rest of your sailing life. The goal is for you to get the correct techniques and methodology so that you get an ideal foundation and can practise and improve your skills after the course.
What's included
What's not included (and what to bring yourself)
Various logistical information:
The course is limited to a maximum of 3 singles or a couple (sharing a cabin) and 2 singles. This is to allow enough time and training for each student, and also to give you the privacy of your own cabin. For the 2-cabin yachts, one person will have to sleep in the saloon due to the layout of the yacht. You are of course welcome to choose an accommodation ashore for the night if you prefer.
The course starts at 0900 on Saturday and finishes at 1700 on Sunday. Expect to cover theory or practical exercises on Saturday evening as well!
There are showers and toilets in the harbours, and of course also on the yacht.
The yacht has ingredients for breakfast, lunch and a delicious dinner. However, you are welcome to visit a restaurant in the evening if you prefer.
Unless you are notified otherwise, the course start and finish is at one of our bases in Zeeland. Currently we primarily sail out of Kats and Wemeldinge which you can reach by car (Kats - Google Location), (Wemeldinge - Google Location), or take a train to Goes and a taxi from there. If you prefer to arrive the night before, there are several hotels and B&Bs in the area.
As a participant of the course, you are expected to clean the yacht on Sunday afternoon, before leaving.
The course is held in English, and it is heavily advised that you are fluent enough to get the most value out of the course.
S.T.E.P. Academy Courses Schedule
In the calendar below you will find all the planned courses for the year. Please click on the course you are interested in to see more information and the course cost.
Please be aware that the schedule and courses may change. Therefore, it's advisable to come back here regularly and keep yourself updated with the current schedule. Please use the form below to make an enquiry about the course you are interested in.