CYCSA MARINE ACADEMY ACADEMY UPDATE As usual it has been a very busy summer with the Marine Academy running numerous courses with student activity high. The Academy continues its important focus on marine safety for both members and the public with our always important and well attended Safety Sunday which was held on 12 January.
OUT THERE SAILING In January the Marine Academy ran its first Australian Sailing ‘Out There Sailing’ program for 12-17 year olds during the school holidays with six participants over three days. Some of the kids were members’ children and others were at the Club for the first time. The course comprised learning to sail training mixed with some powerboating in CYC3 and stand-up paddle boarding. In other words, three days of mucking around in boats! The Academy received a $1000 grant from Australian Sailing for being part of the Australia wide pilot program for this set of courses. These funds were used to purchase five inflatable stand-up paddle boards which were used on the course. We also used three Ocean View College Pacer dinghies for the sail training. All the feedback has been very positive with plans for a follow-up session in the April school holidays. For more information please contact the Club on 8248 4222 or at: marine.academy@cycsa.com.au David Royle Marine Academy Principal
DAY SKIPPER COURSE | JANUARY 2020 After two solid years of regular racing I was ready for a change of pace and looking forward to sampling the cruising life. Peter and I are keen to start enjoying some bareboat charters so that means I am going to need a Day Skipper qualification to get an ICC. (International Certificate of Competence). I had no prior experience with coastal or ocean navigation so I booked into a Marine Academy RYA Day Skipper Shore Based Course which took place over 10 weeks in September-November under the watchful eye of Andy Shipp. We covered a lot of ground from Coastal Navigation to tidal heights, tidal streams, IALA Buoyage, lights and shapes, safety measures, weather patterns, pilotage, GPS and more. The highlight of the course was the session we spent on board the lovely Pacific Hawk, an 18m catamaran, studying the extensive electronic navigation system recently installed with blue water cruising in mind – drinks and nibbles included (well, aren’t cats always the party boats?).
Safety Sunday
Thirty hours of intensive learning moved very quickly and I have been hitting the books ever since to prepare for the exam. I am very glad I tackled this course first as it gave me a solid grounding for the next phase – RYA Day Skipper Five-Day Liveaboard. We jumped aboard Academy 1 on a perfect sunny January day with a light breeze to take us away across the gulf. We were six POB, being five trainee skippers under the tutelage of Marine Academy Senior Instructor, Brett Yardley - a man with definite nerves of steel, luckily a great sense of humour, handy in the galley – and all-around good bloke with extensive sailing knowledge. What more could we ask for? Day 1: We set off sailing across the gulf towards Yorke Peninsula targeting a night mooring off Stansbury. However, the wind on the day did not favour that option so we ended up pulling up a mooring ball at Black Point and enjoying the bright orange sunset and a nice dinner in good company on board.
3 Day Live Aboard: Participants Jo with Elzbita & Tomasz
Day 2: In the morning, we pumped up the dingy and put it through its paces ferrying us to shore for a morning beach walk to check out those not so shabby shacks along Black Point Beach. This drew a few suspicious looks from the locals but we were soon planning our day’s passage and casting off the mooring to head down to Port
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