Having been boating since the age of 13, I decided last year it would be a good idea to gain some qualifications, partly for business reasons but also because I now own a boat with sea going potential.

Previously my experience was on rivers, the Broads in particular, both sailing and power but people I know, including the builders of my boat (Broom Boats) have said give a try.

So I now have Power boat level 2, ICC, Day Skipper Theory, RYA VHF, RYA Diesel Engine and as of last week Day Skipper Practical.

I had always been self taught and knew quite a lot about the subject but I felt that going through formal tuition would fill in the gaps, which it has.

I took the RYA courses with York Cruiser Training Centre, which I was amazed to suddenly discover through fellow members of Yorkshire Ouse Sailing Club whom I had known for 20 years!

So last September I presented myself at their enrolment evening along with dozens of others. It turned out they were oversubscribed and had to quickly organise 4 classes instead of 1.

For the next 26 weeks I travelled to York every Thursday evening for the theory classes and eventually passed the assessments thanks to an excellent and very patient teacher Quentin Howat. I then went on to book the practical which was to take place in Scotland on a Bavaria 40 Vision belonging to the instructor, Nigel Foster, who is also Chairman of YCTC, based at Troon.

The course began Sunday and finished Friday and involved to begin with, motoring around the marina, berthing, turning etc and was followed by a sail in the afternoon. The next 4 days we had mixed weather and boating
conditions, 2 days motoring with no wind at all, we visited places such as Lamlash, Millport, Inverkip, Gouroch, a motor trip into the centre of Glasgow which was very interesting, but not to be repeated, Holy Loch and Ardrossan.

We saw 4 new Destroyers being built for the Navy in Glasgow and found it disconcerting to be overtaken by a ship going up the Clyde. At one point earlier in the day the skipper suddenly bowled a fast one at us and announced that thick fog had come in and we had to go below where he had closed all the curtains and blinds and switched off the electronics. The idea was that we had to give him steering courses based on dead reckoning and arrive outside Kip Marina. This we more or less achieved and all on the day that I was acting skipper!

On returning to Troon we finished with a rather brisk sail then it was time to clean the boat and pack up. At this point I was pleased to be informed that I had passed!