ARE YOU BLUEWATER READY?

WHAT ARE THE SKILLS YOU NEED BEFORE CASTING OFF ON A TRANSOCEAN OR BLUEWATER ADVENTURE? OFFSHORE TRAINING SKIPPERS SHARE THEIR ADVICE

You might have a departure day circled red in the diary and be furiously working through a to-do list to get there. Or maybe you’re considering a bluewater adventure in future, and starting to think through the preparations you need to make. You might even have postponed your big trip, and be considering how to make the most of an extra sailing season at home.

Either way, in between the jobs lists of boat upgrades and household admin and everything else, it can be easy to overlook one area of preparation: yourself. How ready, really, are you? Are there skills or areas of knowledge you and your partner or crew could work on? Would some coaching or additional experience boost your confidence? Now, with a lot of people’s sailing plans in hiatus, could be just the time to learn.

Regardless of whether you followed an RYA/ASA training pathway or similar, or have learnt through time on the water and poring over books and YouTube tutorials, some skills just can’t be practised until you have to do it for real. Anchoring in coral, for example, is a hard situation to replicate. Nevertheless, there are a small number of specialist training providers who offer skills coaching specifically for sailors who are preparing for bluewater and ocean sailing. We asked these hugely experienced training skippers which skills they think are worth focusing on.

BEYOND YOUR COMFORT ZONE