Training

DAY ONE : SAFETY

The first day’s training is all about safety. Our goal is to make your event as safe as possible. ‘Safe’ to us has a few meanings. Number one, of course, we want to keep you safe from bodily harm while with us on the boat- this involves revealing all the hazards present on the boat- those that are simple to perceive and those that are somewhat less obvious. This might include such simple things as correctly navigating your way up and down the companionway and goes right through to understanding how to launch and enter a liferaft. Secondly ‘Safe’ means emotionally safe- that means you understand what is happening around you and people are not getting nervous or uncomfortable with the situation at any point. We want you to be part of what is happening on board the boat and that requires a high level of information about everything that is happening around you. To make this happen, we cover a lot of ground on Day 1. Below are some sample headings from the first day’s training.

DAY TWO : DECK WORK

Day two is about learning how to sail our boats. During training, we assume you know nothing at all about sailing and start from there. If you are already a proficient sailor, this might sound a little disappointing but let us assure you we know how to balance this dilemma. On day two, the information will come at you thick and fast, and it is easy for us to throw in high-level information that will top up the average sailor’s knowledge base. Our boat’s- although 15 years old- still represent the edge of what is possible in open ocean racing so when we pull away from the dock at the start of the event, we will all be keen to make sure we have full speed available. To this end, we take the whole crew through a full rundown of how to perform every evolution on deck from basic tacking to gybing a kite. It may take the whole event to perfect what we tell you on Day 2 but then isn’t that the point of the challenge?