Qualifying Experience – Sailing Certification

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Here’s an email from a student asking about qualifying experience and my answer follows. The topic is regarding what it takes to gain qualifying days to count towards your Skipper, Bareboat Charter Master and Captain Ranks. >>>> On 12/7/10 6:57 AM, “Vadim K”> wrote: Dear Colleagues, ~ 2 month ago I have opened my account […]

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There are two types of Sailors

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They say that there are two types of sailors – those who have hit the bottom and liars. Well, with this blog, I can firmly place myself in type I. I believe the reason “they” (I never really know who “they” are) make this statement is to promote caution, that you’re never too immune from […]

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How to Get to a Waypoint

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Recently on our NauticEd flotilla with the Moorings to the Kingdom of Tonga we wanted to pass through the Fanua Tapu Pass which is a gap in the reef to get to the eastern islands of the Vava’u archipelago. Normally the gap is marked by a series of buoys, however the latest storm ate them. The […]

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How to Spring off the Dock with a Catamaran

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Next week we’re going to Tonga and the island of Vava’U for a week long NauticEd Flotilla sailing trip amongst the archipelago. After a rainy and relatively cool winter in New Zealand this year its going to be a welcome and fun trip. We’re bareboat chartering three catamarans from the Moorings. 21 adults and 3 […]

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Even whales want to learn to sail

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Oh My Goodness This story is, almost unbelievably, one hundred percent real – included here is a pic of a southern right whale who, it seems, accidentally breeched on to a sailboat in Capetown, South Africa. I actually think it was, most likely, just jealous. I believe it simply wanted to get in on the […]

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Leeway and a Bottle of Rum

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Leeway is just one of those things that is a law of the universe that we have to put up with. It’s just like gravity. Still with gravity – the advantage is that it’s highly predictable. And so then is leeway. Leeway is the sideways slip motion of our sailboat downwind from the pressure of […]

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