Skipper Training

Although I passed the SKS exam, I still didn’t feel confident enough to helm a yacht. That’s why I signed up for the skipper training offered by JoJo. It was a week of SKS training, without a subsequent exam, so very relaxed. We were a four-member crew, Ronia, Wolfgang, Dominic, me, and the skipper and sailing instructor Christian.

What does it actually mean to learn sailing? I thought it was about how to correctly align the sails so that you can pick up speed. In fact, that’s a very minor aspect. Sure, if you want to win a regatta, there are nuances to consider, but for a 15-ton cruising yacht, it’s enough to position the sails reasonably correctly.

Much more important are other aspects, safety-relevant aspects: meteorology, the technology on board and all the ways it can kill us, navigation during day and night, rescue maneuvers for man overboard. A sailing yacht is complex and packed with technology; it’s like a floating house, only a house usually doesn’t have an engine or a radar system. The skipper is responsible for ensuring that all these things are in order so that the crew and boat do not get into dangerous situations. Should it come to the point where this is not achieved, the skipper must make the right decisions in an emergency, possibly within seconds. These things are practiced, over and over and over, practically and theoretically.

The second major fear in sailing is docking and undocking. JoJo has the opportunity in their home port of Portoroz to perform as many harbor maneuvers as they like, which is an unusual privilege. Normally, harbors/marinas don’t like it when boats are idling around all day, for understandable reasons. We naturally took advantage of this opportunity and practiced all kinds of docking and undocking extensively. It’s fascinating how you can steer this 14-meter ship with pinpoint accuracy using the correct line handling and throttle. The harbor maneuver training, and the comprehensive insurance, definitely take some of the fear away.

The skipper training was definitely worth the effort. It has given me more confidence for all necessary maneuvers. We were a great crew and had a lot of fun. Christian as a skipper did a great job, as always with JoJo. The instructors are top-notch and the courses are clear, structured, and goal-oriented. I can highly recommend these courses, but after a week I am tired and glad that I can now relax for a week in Rijeka while Alexandra does her training. Someone has to entertain the dog.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.