Motor Cruising – tailored training on your boat

Key Course Details

Duration: From 1/2 day

Time: 9am to 5pm

Group Size: Up to 4/5 people

Min Age: From 8 but usually 12

Price: £200 half day/£340 per day

General

Motor Cruising - own boat training

Training on your own motor cruiser is a really great way to get more confident with its handling, learn about its systems and get the full return on the investment you have made in your boat. We can run almost all of the relevant RYA courses on your own but this section deals with non-RYA courses

Many people choose to spend a day or two with an Instructor without undertaking a RYA course as in many situations this can be a better and more focused way of addressing the areas they wish to spend time on.

Some examples of areas that people typically want to address include:

  • You’ve acquired a new/new to you boat: An instructor can spend time helping you to become familiar with all aspects of your new craft from the general layout, the safety kit to carry, the day to day checks to make and of course how to handle competently your new boat.
  • Marina handling: For many the challenges that handling a vessel in close proximity to other vessels presents, creates a degree of stress and frustration that can spoil an otherwise great day. Spending time just focusing on handling your craft and berthing can be time well spent, irrespective of how long you have been boating.
  • Electronics: There are so many manufacturers and models of chartplotters, GPS units, radars and radios that just spending some time dedicated to understanding how they work is time well spent. We could spend either a few hours with you just looking at the sets or spend longer learning about them then putting the newly acquired knowledge into practice afloat. By way of example learning how to add waypoints and routes to a chartplotter works really well when you then go and execute that route afloat.
  • Passage planning & pilotage: As you seek to venture further afield it is important that you are planning the passages factoring in the key issues and that your plan ensures your safety and that of your craft. When entering a harbour or port your pilotage plan needs to be spot on too so having someone to sit down with and either focussing a training session on this subject or looking through a plan you’ve prepared can be really beneficial.
  • Night navigation: Everyone who has ever boated at night is amazed how different things are after the light disappears. There are no road lights and it can be very disorientating so knowing how to navigate at night is essential for safe and enjoyable night time boating – even just to watch the fireworks! We can accompany you out for a drive around at night or spend longer planning and executing night passages and entries to harbours.
  • Learning about your home boating area – let’s explore! If you are new to an area or want to explore a new place in the harbour then it can be less stressful and more fun having someone else along who knows where it is safe to go and where to avoid. Equally, our Instructors will tend to know those hidden away little gems of anchorages that take years to find! They may even show you where they are!
  • Assisted passages/deliveries: We often join a delivery of a new vessel or one that is moving home ports as a means to help the owner (or boat dealer) with the transfer. As Instructors we want you to helm (versus being solely delivery skippers) so ensure we mix in training with the passage being undertaken. We regularly run from the Solent to Poole or Weymouth on such trips but have undertaken passages for some owners over many hundreds of miles.

These are just some of areas we have focused on when structuring bespoke days for our clients. If you have other areas that we could assist with then we’d be delighted to do so.

If you are entirely new to boating though or have been out for some while then we’d typically recommend a RYA course as these are structured to address totally the needs of those starting out. Please feel free to chat through this with us.

The rough structure of the day is typically agreed when booking and firmed up nearer the course date. If though we need to we’ll happily get our Instructor together with you for a chat to ensure we are all clear what is expected from the day. At the start of each day the Instructor will discuss and agree with you the plan and objectives for that day ensuring that you get the best return on your investment.


Why choose Powerboat Training UK to undertake training on your boat?

Our location and teaching facilities ~ Poole Harbour is a truly amazing teaching location – so much so that the RNLI and the Royal Marines base their training operations here. The RNLI are based in our marina and at the last count there were 14 all weather lifeboats in the marina!! Our classrooms are well resourced, professional, clean and tidy.

Likewise our base in Lymington at Aquasafe Powerboat School is at Lymington Yacht Haven which like Cobbs Quay is a large marina with a huge range of craft. The Solent offers an outstanding cruising ground with a wide variety of harbours and marinas to enter.

Our Instructors ~ we ensure that our instructors are teaching 100% ‘Best Practice’ and have a process whereby we constantly review their sessions to ensure that you get the most productive experience from your time with us. All teach because they love boating and we work with them to constantly ‘upskill’ their qualifications and experience.

Our history ~ we started the school over ten years ago and have grown a reputation for delivering on our promises. Our clients range from individuals with their own craft to organisations such as Sunseeker, the RNLI and we were awarded the RYA Training contract by Dorset Police for the London 2012 Olympic events in Weymouth.

We are also very proud to have written the RYA Powerboat Handbook for the RYA and 2014 will see the launch of the RYA Advanced Powerboat Handbook.

What is included in the course price? ~ When you undertake training on your boat then the price you pay includes all RYA Certificates (if relevant), free use of waterproofs if required (often charged as an extra) and other items of safety equipment if needed. The price includes VAT too – yet another common extra.

Does the course price represent good value? ~ remember in life you pretty much get what you pay for. We have great facilities in large marinas offering a great all-round experience. Check out the other relevant pages on this website to see what we mean.

Course prices The price quoted in the ‘Key Course Details’ section above is per day for up to 5 people in the area Weymouth to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Areas further afield may incur travel and accommodation charges at cost but we will discuss these with you. The price shown is inc VAT.


Some of the offers available when buying this course include…..

Special Offer No1!! Book and pay for your VHF Course at the same time as you book the training on your own boat and only pay £75 for the VHF course (including course pack). (Usual cost is £100, you also need to pay the RYA Fee which is £60). You can choose whether to undertake the course in the classroom or online. We run VHF Courses every two weeks so fitting you in will never be an issue – we run these courses in Poole and Lymington.

Special Offer No2!! We also offer the opportunity to book the RYA Dayskipper Theory Course online for £290 when booked alongside training on your boat. This is a great course to really further develop your understanding of charts, tides, buoyage and navigation onto the next level after the course. The course price includes a plotter and dividers and the course certificate fee.

Reviews

Whatever we may think of our courses what really counts is what others think, below are a selection of comments taken directly from the Feedback Forms that we ask are filled in at the end of each course.

Viv/Paul – I will give you a very positive feedback on Social Media as suggested below but also wanted to let how delighted we were with our session earlier in the week.

Robin was perfect, he listened to exactely what we wanted out of our time with him and delivered precisely that.

I now have plans to buy simular sessions for our two sons as Christmas presents.Gary (Nimbus 310C)

Dear Viv, We can neither thank you enough nor praise the whole experience too highly. Our RYA2 course was on our previous small boat and we desperately needed help when we moved to a bigger, more powerful boat. One doesn’t adapt as quickly when the next zero birthday will have an 8 in front. For the female half of this couple there was fear and concern that the purchase of the new boat had been mistaken.

The previous owners of Bella B had completed RYA2 on her with Powerboat Training UK. They had praised their experience and suggested that, should we choose to have training in her, we should make the same choice. This decision was already made because of our own trust engendered by RYA2 and VHF courses. In particular, they recommended their own instructor, Robin. They praised his professionalism, patience and understanding. We felt it greedy to request a particular instructor but were allocated to Robin. How fortuitous! We agreed with every word that Bella B’s previous owner had said. Suffice it to say that Bella B is remaining in the family when her days may have been numbered. This is entirely due to the confidence which Robin managed to instil, despite this being an arduous task.

Please pass on to him our grateful thanks. He may be interested to know that Bella, for the winter, has moved berth to the more favourable one next door. ….. We add this as we felt that he took a genuine interest in our welfare. That is a footnote which you may find useful. Robin had said that we could contact him if we needed any advice, something which was reiterated in your letter. This concern reflects the ethos of your company, you’re in business but it is conducted honourably. This is so reassuring and encouraging for your clients.

We said we couldn’t praise the company or Robin too highly. Yours in gratitude,Gerard and Rosemarie

Motor Cruising – tailored training on your boat - Book Now

Thank you for choosing to undertake a course on your boat.

We can be very flexible on the dates to train you on your boat so please choose dates that work for you and we’ll check the calendar and contact you to confirm the training. This will usually be at the latest the next business day.

Viv on the phone