Ever since I got my Competent Crew qualification at the third resit around 20 years ago I’ve had a yearning to inflict my knowledge on others, simply because that’s what happened to me every time I stepped on someone else’s boat.
I mean, you tie a proper bow-line like you’ve been told to on one boat and you step on another boat and the skipper says: “Oh no, that’s not how we do things on Lady Osmosis Of Romford, we prefer clove-hitches.”
If you spend enough time crewing and being skippered at it’ll get so you lose the faculty to tie your shoelaces.
Things came to a head for me in the Butt & Oyster pub when a skipper who’d spent days interrogating me with those ‘fun’ Rules of The Road flash cards asked me what I wanted for dinner and I said: “I give up, I just don’t know the right answer.” That was the day I decided to exact revenge by setting up a sea school.
This story is from the December 2020 edition of Practical Boat Owner.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2020 edition of Practical Boat Owner.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Shearwater sloop sailing in the 1960s
Genevieve Leaper shares her late father John Leaper's recollections-compiled from handwritten notes-of cruising the Channel
Timing an Atlantic crossing
Professional meteorologist and sailor Chris Tibbs shares his knowledge of how to choose the best time to sail 'across the pond'
Transatlantic first
It's 70 years since Ann Davison became the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic. Katy Stickland looks back at her achievement
Going dizzy on an island sailing odyssey
Ken Fowler becomes the first sailor to circumnavigate every island in England and Wales-and all done in a 4m dinghy!
Boats for coastal cruising
Duncan Kent chooses a selection of the best sail and motor boats under 40ft most suitable for adventurous cruising along the coast
Industry view on HVO
The RYA, IWA and CA are working to help recreational boating transition to a Net Zero future, as the CA's
HVO RENEWABLE DIESEL Myth or miracle?
A new generation of biofuel that's cleaner, greener, better for your engine and less prone to microbial growth sounds too good to be true... but the facts beg to differ
Little ships and the wrong sort of waves
Why the correct manoeuvres for the sea conditions will reduce hogging and sagging stress on both ship and crew
Watching boats, saving jerseys
It's amazing what you can see from a hospital window if it's the right hospital
Sweating the mooring asset
Sam Llewellyn looks at ways of getting top value out of his boat's swinging mooring
