Cruising seminars from Fremantle around the coast to Cairns

by Des Ryan on 10 Dec 2013 Starting in January sailors right round the coastline of Australia who would like to cruise beyond their home waters will have a unique chance to attend comprehensive and intense seminars specifically for the cruising sailor. Whether you are in Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Townsville or Cairns, this could be the chance you've been waiting for.

Rally organisers John and Lyn Martin of the Island Cruising Association, with over 100,000nm of cruising under their belt over the last 18 years, are holding a number of seminars specifically aimed at those who set off without the comfort of a racing organisation watching their every move.

They know that YOU know how to sail your boat, but that is just the beginning when you want to venture past your familiar home waterways.

The recent Sydney International Boat Show proved the value of information sharing for cruising sailors with the Sail World Cruising run Masterclass Cruising Seminars. The Masterclass Seminars were a runaway success but highlighted the lack of resources and seminars available to would be cruisers.

John and Lyn already tested the waters last year with a basic seminar series which met with rave reviews in both New Zealand and Australia. They were also presenters at the Masterclass Seminars at the Sydney boat show in August this year which cemented plans for a more comprehensive seminar series in New Zealand late this year and throughout Australia in the new year.

These 'Cruising Preparation Seminars' are aimed at cruisers that are planning both extended coastal and or offshore cruising and applies to both power and sailing vessels. 'We're not going to teach you how to sail or handle a boat' say's John Martin, Director of the Island Cruising Association, there are other agencies better suited to the basics.

'More so it's about preparation and setup, not just for the boat but it's skipper and crew too. The seminars are extensive and cover a multitude of topics often it's not what you didn't know that surprises you it's what you didn't know you didn't know.

The New Zealand Series covers Auckland, Mana (Wellington) and Waikawa/Nelson in late November and early December.

In Australia the series starts in Perth late January 2014 and travels half way round Australia, concluding in Cairns late March.

The seminar takes a full weekend and covers over 30 separate subjects with intensives for the more complex subjects on the Monday and Tuesday evenings after the weekend seminar.

With comments like; 'I didn't realise the half of it!' to 'John and Lyn saved me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours,' and 'Your course gave my wife the confidence to go cruising, thank you!' this is a seminar series that comes highly recommended.

Dates, Australia:
Fremantle: Seminar Sat 18th/ Sun 19th Jan 2014
Adelaide: Seminar Sat 1st/Sun 2nd Feb 2014
Melbourne: Seminar Sat 8th/ Sun 9th Feb 2014
Sydney: Seminar Sat 15th/Sun 16th Feb 2014
Newcastle: Seminar Sat 22nd/Sun 23rd Feb 2014
Brisbane: Seminar Sat 1st/Sun 2nd Mar 2014
Airlie Beach: Seminar Sat 8th/ Sun 9th Mar 2014
Townsville: Seminar Sat 15th/Sun 16th Mar 2014
Cairns: Seminar Sat 22nd/23rd Mar 2014

Dates, New Zealand:
Auckland: Seminar - Sat 23rd/Sun 24th Nov 2013
Mana: Seminar - Sat 30th Nov/Sun 1st Dec 2013
Nelson Seminar - Sat 7th/Sun 8th Dec

Program:
Cruising Prep. Seminar Syllabus
Times: Sat. 0800 Sun. 0900 (Each day finishes 1700)

. The Ideal Cruising Yacht? Hull design Material Tender Ventilation Sanitation and accommodation layout
. Rigging for extended cruising & safety inc. deck layout, preventors, etc
. Sails selection, balance, tuning, fault finding, maintenance
. Furling headsail, mainsail, car handling, storm safety
. Anchors & Anchoring techniques, types, warps, laying, windlass
. Provisions food stores, what is available and where
. Water treatment, filtration, purification, disinfectant, watermakers
. Vessel Systems water, plumbing, gas, fuel, etc.
. Power generation looking at all the options
. Electronics radios, charting, GPS, Radar, autopilot, AIS, etc.
. Money management of, establishing credit lines
. Mail forwarding, ICA mail & fax drops in the South Pacific, NZ and Australian East Coast.
. Email ways to receive this, advantages
. Search and Rescue authority & scope of SAR
. Cat 1 What it means to you.
. Safety Gear- plus watch systems and safety protocols
. Ship Registration guide to ships registry
. Navigation basic equipment requirements
. Charts tables, filing, requirements
. Log Keeping plus basic record keeping
. Books recommendations, pilots, reference manuals, cruising guides
. Computers what they can do aboard to assist you
. Interfacing all electronics, the advantages, the pitfalls
. Radios, VHF, SSB, HAM skeds, basic operation, installation
. Steering Tiller, wheel, vanes, emergency
. Diesel Engines how they work, trouble shooting, spares
. Fuel Filters, injectors, filtering before it enters the tank
. Passage preparation Coastal and Offshore
. Passage Planning Coastal and Offshore.
. Weather Coastal and Offshore
. Emergencies at Sea fire, grounding, heavy weather, hull damage, leaks, MOB practice
. Repairs at Sea rigging loss, steering loss, towing, being towed and abandoning ship
. Legalities of items that concern cruisers
. Heavy Weather storm rigs, storm sails, heaving to, laying ahull, sea anchors, drogues
. Living while extended cruising with other cruisers plus the locals.

Objectives:
The premise of the course is first and foremost about:- Getting yourself, your boat and the crew ready in all respect's to go cruising, be it extended coastal or offshore.

Two day, full weekend course syllabus can be downloaded at www.islandcruising.org

Intensives (held after and supplementary to the weekend course.)

Monday evening Cruising from a woman's perspective. (girl's only).
or Handling Heavy weather

Tuesday evening Setting up your Communications.
or Provisioning.
2 hour, one on one individual sessions on your own boat can be booked by email.

John and Lyn Martin are directors of the Island Cruising Association, an organisation dedicated to 'Cruising' in all its forms, Extended Coastal or Bluewater, power or sail. As long as you’re out there doing it! John and Lyn have been cruising in there own boat Windflower, a 13.5m sloop, full time for the last 7 years and previous to that, on and off since 1995, with their kids, Adam and Jenna. Including deliveries and other passages together they have over 150,000 sea miles, thousands of islands and countless sunsets experience.

For more information and to book the seminars, go to the Island Cruising Association website: www.islandcruising.org