The 2015 US Coast Guard (USCG) safety statistics have been released and there is a clear (if not obvious) message – those without instruction in boating safety are far more at risk of fatal accidents than those who have had training. Another issue is that intoxication at sea is a killer too. USCG Statistics […]
Owning a boat is an expensive affair. Keeping a 40ft yacht in a South Coast marina can cost £5000 a year, and then you will need to pay insurance and maintenance, as well as hauling it out every year to keep its underside in good condition. It is no wonder that there’s a saying that […]
This weekend I took my partner on a sailing experience day with a sailing school in Lymington in the UK. Though the RYA Start Yachting course is two days long, the idea is to let the potential sailor see if they enjoy it. Judging by the conversion of my sailing sceptical partner, perhaps only a […]
Last week it came out that the US Navy has added celestial navigation to its officer training programme again. The Royal Navy learned this the hard way recently with its newest ships losing all power at random times due to a design fault and being unable to navigate in sometimes awkward situations! With routine […]
As I grew up, I had a habit of getting wet when I was staying anywhere near the sea, and if it floated I would try to have a go on it – be it canoes (surf or inland water), surf boards, a range of dinghies and even tall ships. Behaving badly on the water […]
In the last week I have run into two transatlantic yacht delivery stories that have opened my eyes, but for two very different reasons. Two people best described as ‘suicidal idiots’ made international news for having to be rescued nine times before even getting out of European waters while moving their yacht from Norway to Maine. This is the […]
Sailing has been perceived as a very masculine sport and this can be very off-putting to a woman who may wish to learn to sail. Even though there are a number of women who have made it to the very top of the sport (Ellen MacArthur is a household name in the UK) the […]
This weekend coming I’m taking my partner on a sailing experience day to see if she could enjoy the sport enough for us to buy a Drascombe Lugger and spend the summer months cruising the Channel and south coast of England. My ideal weather conditions would be a southerly Force 4 in blazing sunshine so […]
Through my work with The Boating Hub I have come to the understanding that there are two types of sailing nation – the developed sailing nation with a good, structured sail training scheme and the underdeveloped sailing nation that either has none at all or relies upon its elite sailing clubs to get people sailing. […]
If you want to learn to sail a yacht in the USA it is fairly easy. There are a large number of yachting courses that are approved by authorities ranging from the American Sailing Association (ASA) via the US Coastguard to state approved boating safety courses. Through The Boating Hub we have focused almost exclusively […]