Hi Sardo
I think you have come to the right place with your questions.
However you will get every colour of answer.

22,000 $ could get you around the world.
I say go now pay later.

gary

If you are still in Sydney suggest do the relevant courses with Marc as per here;

ausseasailingschool.com.au/courses/

Tell him what you want to do and your background / experience, and he will advise which of his courses would be suitable. Would expect the cost to be a small fraction of $22k for the same or better result.

Jeff Toghills book "Coastal Navigation" if read cover to cover will give you all the theory of coastal nav', and the pre-amble in Lucas's book "Cruising the NSW Coast" will give you the trip planning info of the coastline of where you live.
Are you going to be sailing solo, or with family/friends?, if solo you could do it in a smaller yacht and get a good coastal cruiser for half of 22k.

most of the people i respect as a sailor have no formal qualifications but have learnt by sailing with others and extensive reading study of hydrodynamics and the weather . my suggestion would be buy a small yacht or dingy and take small steps you will learn much more than doing a course and becoming overconfident

You have plenty of sailing hours and basic knowledge already and display by your questions a very healthy level of common sense. So I agree with the others above - just buy a boat and learn on it.

Take your time, look at plenty of boats, get some crewing hours with cruising types. And be a complete sponge in soaking up info from books, mags, forums like this, cruisers blogs/vlogs etc etc - it's incredible how much knowledge you can gain form your armchair.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

Graeme

Hey Sardo,

I'd say just go and get amongst it. A Meteorology course might be a good idea, but coastal Nav is easy. Ocean nav in this modern age with all the latest tech isn't too hard especially if you are cruising and not racing. Make sure you have some redundancy for the nav gear in case of issues. Pick your weather window and go when most favourable.

I did a bunch of courses through TAFE almost 30 years ago or longer when the tech was in its infancy. Ocean Nav back then was important.

Just as soon as I retire, I will be doing exactly the same. I was involved in an ocean race lap around Australia back in '88 where i gained a tonne of experience in ocean sailing, it can be learned on the boat, especially if you start with coastal sailing.

Hope this helps

DM

3 Es of development, Education, exposure and experience, with the value being 10%, 20% and 70% respectively. Sounds like you have good exposure but throwing up between $22k spend on education or experience. And if the above percentages are anything to go by, experience is the better investment. However, a little bit of education can save you a lot in that experience can cost you. I did my competent crew and helming course through my local yacht club, cost $300 and taught me a great deal, mostly practical on the boat training, forcing us to do drills that most coastal sailors wouldn't bother doing. Drilling it into us helped refine the skills and for $300 definitely saved a few gel coat repairs on my own boat. I also bought a small yacht of my own and started coastal cruising and then went through all the drills in RYA handbook, watching YouTube and reading books to fill in the gaps. Broke a lot of things but learnt a lot.
lastly I did the RYA coastal cruiser course, only cost $1000 including food and board, lasted 10 days and was a lot fun, I did it in the Med and highly recommend it. Doing 20x med mooring drills in a marina with someone else's boat and insurance, made it a lot less stressful doing it in my own boat for the first time. The big thing I took from the RYA course was lots of small tips from an experienced cruising skipper which I hadn't picked up in racing or on my own. And navigation without electronics, especially at night. Important skills to have if you are sailing from Aus to Med, and much cheaper to break someone else's boat than your own in learning. Also buy an older boat with problems and learn how to fix them. Hardest part of sailing isn't navigation, trimming sails or anchoring. The hard part is the maintenance and fixing things, which is important to know for ocean crossings.

Just get out there!

sardosailor said..

@Craig66 - 11k? Damn, you're the most expensive piece of advice I've ever been given ahah

Don't be mug mate, I only want $5.5k!

I've done most of the courses. After the basics I learnt a million percent more by buying a sound boat and getting out of my comfort zone.
Do the courses if you wish but going sailing in your own boat is a must.
As you've experienced racing you get pigeon holed into roles. On your own boat you have to think through and do everything, even with crew.

Well I did most of the AYF courses and then got to some of the practical tests and was told I'd always fail my first attempt.

TOLD THEM ALL TO GET NICKED!!!

Sailed my Top Hat, single handed, three times now to the Whitsundays and hopefully going again next year.

sardosailor said..

I think racing is great in a way that regardless of the role it exposes you to a number of different situations and challenges, and in heavy air you learn how things could go wrong (sometimes very quickly) and learn from that. There aren't many chances to helm but I guess after you've rotated roles enough you have a pretty solid understanding of what's happening :)

hey, some good points in the replies above. Did the same transition about 20 years ago, the biggest gap I found was not being on a boat with 5+ other people that also knew what they were doing. Either short handed or just with a bunch of novices you don't have enough hands to sail the boat and explain what needs to be done and get things done in time. Not insurmountable, but really helps having even one other person with similar experience that you have.
my vote is go for the boat ( with a buddy 1/2 share?).