Fast track to Yachtmaster

When Covid scuppers Josh Lindley’s gap year, he takes on a demanding 5-month sailing course instead to qualify as a skipper

-  Josh Lindley

When I was 14 I attended an open day at a small sailing club in Cookham village on the river Thames. I was hooked the minute I got on a boat, and soon became a member of Cookham Reach Sailing Club (CRSC).

I progressed to racing 12ft dinghies and brought home many trophies, which encouraged me to get my dinghy instructor qualification when I turned 16 and teach cadets at CRSC.

After my A-levels, I planned to travel around Asia. However, because of the Covid pandemic, I couldn’t go. Instead, with financial help from my grandparents, I embarked on a five-month fast-track RYA Yachtmaster course with the British Offshore Sailing School (BOSS).

I passed my RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exam in December 2020 and had the qualification commercially endorsed. So I’m now qualified to skipper a commercial sailing vessel of up to 200 gross tonnes up to 150 miles offshore – that’s not to say that the owner of a £3m luxury superyacht would trust a 20-year-old lad to drive it... but technically I can!

The course begins

The course started on 2 August near Southampton where we were based in Point Hamble marina. There I met the other Yachtmaster trainees: Joe who was 17 and had never set foot on a boat; and Peter, 20, a school friend of mine and avid dinghy sailor. Because of the Covid situation all Yachtmaster trainees had to maintain a bubble for the duration of the course as part of the measures put in place by the school to ensure compliance with Covid restrictions. This meant that we couldn’t have contact with anyone else, with the exception of a few weekend visits back home and an occasional change of instructor.