Navigation Classes, Nautical Seminars and Crew Training

Crew Training

Safe and relaxed skippering of sailing yachts of any size and crew combination from “getting underway” to “back in port”:

• How to prepare your ship for a voyage
• Prudent assignment of tasks for the crew
• How to give clear and appropriate orders
• Maneuvering – planning and execution
• Responsibilities of skipper and crew
• On-board training

We can offer you, your family and crew individual courses aboard of our 22 m brigantine, exploring completely new approaches to the ways of yachting in one of the most beautiful sailing areas in the world – the Bay of Islands and New Zealand’s Northland Coast.
Duration: Variable

Nautical seminar ‘Weather 1’ – Meteorology for skippers

Often preparation courses for cruising yachtsmen, or even commercial skippers leave out important requirements for skippering a vessel or are only taught incidentially. Meteorology is one of them. Many boat owners lack the general know-how to judge the local weather. This not only endangers lives, but family and crew might loose interest in yachting forever! Without getting into too much theory we will share with you practical tips and tricks on how to interpret weather signs.

Course content:

• essential basics and terms of meteorology
• weather signs on the coast and at sea and how to interpret them
• instruments you should have onboard and assessment of weather reports
• how to evaluate weather reports and weather maps for different sea areas
• assessment of resulting weather events

Duration: 2 days

Nautical seminar ‘Weather 2’ – Meteorological routing

This workshop is based on the basic seminar “Weather 1” and covers safe meteorological navigation in New Zealand waters and for voyages to and from the tropical islands of the South Pacific.

Here you’ll acquire the ability to plan meteorologically even long deep water voyages and complete them safely and successfully. You learn how to react in full control of the situation in unforeseen weather events.

• Specific and typical weather patterns of New Zealand waters and the South Seas
• Time planning for a complex voyage
• Concrete trip schedules on the basis of given weather situations
• Correct assessment and reactions to weather changes during a trip (simulated)

Duration: 2 days

Navigation Class – Electronic Navigation

Possibilities and appropriate use on Sailing Vessels

Electronic components like GPS and chart plotters facilitate daily navigation tasks considerably but also hold numerous dangers. Often failures or an unnoticed error of the instruments can lead to complete disorientation of the crew who had relied entirely on their electronic equipment.

In this course you’ll learn how to evaluate effectively and practice-orientated the possibilities and limits of the modern navigational aids.

Duration:  1-2 days

Navigation Class – Radar

Radar knowledge for safe navigation and collision prevention

• Basics
• Which radar equipment is the right one?
• Installation
• The right settings before departure
• Navigation in very bad visibility – in heavy rain or fog
• Anchoring and entering harbours in bad visibility

Duration:  1 day

Navigation Class – Celestial Navigation

• Basics and spherical trigonometry
• Sextants, timekeepers, time signals, almanacs and tables
• How to work out a position line
• Chart work, plotting sheets, fixes
• taking sights
• Star finder
• How to obtain a position
• Accuracy
• Qualifications: Knowledge in basic geometry and terrestrial navigation

Duration: 5 days

Navigation Class – Terrestrial Navigation

GPS, waypoints, electronic charts, plotters and computer programs have mislead many wanna-be sailors to the assumption that the traditional means of obtaining positions and courses at sea are “out”. However, the prudent mariner will only trust a well-founded education. All electronic equipment can easily fail in marine conditions. Therefore we offer sound training in:

• manual chart work
• dead reckoning
• how to obtain fixes by taking bearings, vertical and horizontal angles, sounding profiles, and combination of different methods
• Compass training (Checking the compass by swinging it, establishing tables of deviation errors, compensation etc.)
• Tidal calculations and how to cope with tidal streams and currents

Duration: 2 days

Most seminars can be combined. Please ask for a package offer