Planning to Sail to Australia - How Much Training Do I Need ?

[gatzke]

Planning to sail to Australia - How much training do I need?

I heard of a guy who learned to sail in a summer and then set sail on the open sea from Europe to Australia. (Nick Jaffe)

I've never sailed before but I surfed for many years so I'm comfortable in big swells. I'm a fast learner with a mature attitude and take safety seriously.

I live in Canada.

Cheers!

[Boracay]

Some training has it's place in preparation for a serious offshore cruise but the overwhelming need is for experience.

Cruisers can be such recalcitrant learners that the only practical way is to get some basic instruction, get a boat, get on the water and set sail.

As to which boat, that's a different question.

[bewitched]

The better training courses are geared towards the type of sailing you intend to do. For example, the RYA scheme have various levels of achievement:
- Day skipper - for day trips in daylight
- Coastal Skipper - for sailing in coastal of protected waters
- Yachtmaster Offshore - for offshore sailing.

Sounds like you are in the last category. The 'zero to hero' course can be done in about 17 weeks I think.

This will give you a certain amount of knowledge and some basic skills but it won't give you much experience. That's achieved by getting out on boats in different sea conditions over a period of time.

I think if I was in your situation, the way I'd go about training is to get signed up for a weekend dingy course to get used to sails wind and boats, then get involved in the local racing scene and after a time do one of the national training programmes aimed at offshore sailing.

[FraidNot]

Fortunately, you don't need any training to be in Australia - it pretty much just comes natural here.