Club Sail News

RYA practical courses: Competent Crew, Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper

We are often asked how often we run RYA sailing courses here in the Canaries.  The answer is that we run them every week of the year!  Due to the great climate (with day time temperatures ranging between the mid 20’s up to the low 30’s) the Canary Islands make a great sailing area with its year round sunshine.

Located in Marina del Sur, Las Galletas on the southern tip of Tenerife we are ideally positioned a short distance from Tenerife South airport (with the largest number of flights of all the Canary Islands from the UK as well as Ireland, Russia, Germany and Spain to name a few).  Our base marina is an active small fishing harbour which can be seen on Las Galletas marina webcam: with plenty of restaurants with the fresh fish on the menu as well as a fisherman’s market that is open every morning.

We are taking bookings well into the summer, but do have spaces left over Easter.  We sometimes have last minute special offers – have a look at the Club Sailors Forum: Special Offers for more details.

RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Theory and Passage / Milebuilding

We are running a number of RYA Yachtmaster Ocean combined courses throughout 2010.  The Yachtmaster Theory includes learning to use a sextant, ocean passage making, worldwide meteorology and electronic navigation aids.  The ocean passage is on the Nauticat 521 – the most comfortable way to sail the ocean!

The theory course is for those aspiring to blue water cruising and is ideal for holders of the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore certificate who are preparing for their first ocean passage.  Prior to the course your navigation skills should be at the standard of the RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Shorebased theory course.

Both elements of the course are under the watchful eye of Lee – one of our Yachtmaster Instructors.

The first trips are:

1. 9th to 16th April – Yachtmaster Ocean Theory (in our classroom in Tenerife, Canary Islands)
2. 16th to 23rd April – passage from Tenerife to the Azores
3. 23rd to 30th April – Yachtmaster Ocean Theory (in the Azores)
4. 30th April to 7th May – passage from the Azores to Southampton, UK

If you don’t feel ready to do the Yachtmaster Ocean theory then we are also offering milebuilding passages for those all important Yachtmaster Offshore miles.

Unusual happenings – including the green flash!

In the Canaries we are always lucky in seeing dolphins, pilot whales and even turtles, but recently we saw a fin whale just outside our base marina in Las Galletas while we were doing man overboard practice during a RYA Yachtmaster prep week just before Christmas.  During last week’s RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exams a “green flash” was seen – even the examiner had never seen one before in all her years of sailing.

Fin whales are the second largest animal on earth and are an exceptionally large size between 15 and 22m long and weigh between 30 and 80 tonnes.  They are more common in the southern hemisphere but can be seen in the Canary Islands though their movements are not that predictable, unlike pilot whales which are resident just off the coast of Tenerife all year round.

Green flashes and green rays are optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset (or before sunrise) when a green spot is visible, usually for no more than a second or two, above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. Green flashes are actually a group of phenomena stemming from different causes, and some are more common than others.  Green flashes can be observed from any altitude (even from an aircraft). They are usually seen at an unobstructed horizon, such as over the ocean, but are possible over cloud-tops and mountain-tops as well.

Over the next few months the Canary Islands has a number of fiestas

Over the next few months the Canary Islands has a number of fiestas: Christmas, New Year, the 3 Kings (also known as Reíos) as well as of course the Carnival. The Carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the second largest carnival in the world!

As Christmas Day falls on our usual changeover day of Fridays we are offering courses, cruises and charters from 18th to 27th December (9 nights for the price of 7). Over New Year we are visiting San Sebastian de La Gomera for the usual spectacular firework display, followed by the live band playing music all night that is put on by the Town Hall.

For Reíos we are leaving our base marina on 3rd January and visiting La Palma to see the Three Kings parade down the main street of Santa Cruz de la Palma looking for the baby Jesus. This will not only give budding Yachtmaster’s the opportunity for two 60 nm passages, but the chance to see a great spectacle.

The Carnival is running for thirty days leading up to Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on 17th February. As usual we will be doing a milebuilding Carnival cruise. Starting from our base marina we will be visiting: San Sebastian de la Gomera, Santa Cruz de La Palma, La Palma de Gran Canaria before finishing in the biggest carnival in Europe in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Due to its popularity we are running two weeks: 5th to 12th February and 12th to 19th February – contact us at info@clubyachting.com for more details.

Sea Survival Courses every six weeks

Now Andy is a Sea Survival Instructor we are running Sea Survival Courses every six weeks. The first course of 2010 is running on Friday 15th January.

You will start the day in our air-conditioned classroom for some basic instruction before walking the short distance to the pool for practising with the liferaft. Covered in the course is:

This one day course provides an awareness of:

– Preparation for sea survival

– Lifejackets and life rafts

– Principles of Survival

– Survival craft ailments, and raft management

– Search and rescue

We have a couple of spaces left on the January course – but are already taking bookings for the beginning of March, contact us at info@clubyachting.com for more details. .

Yachtmaster Sail preparation and MCA exams

We have just added up the number of clients who have done Yachtmaster Preparation (Sail) courses in 2009 and it came to 49! We run the courses every two weeks in the winter and once a month in the summer months. Over the year we have also run Yachtmaster (Motor) conversion courses for 6 clients

We start 2010 with our first Yachtmaster Sail preparation and MCA exams on: 8th and 22nd January, 5th and 19th February and throughout 2010 – with Motor Conversion courses being planned for once a month. With the preparation overseen by Andy (himself an Examiner for the RYA and MCA) and a maximum of 3 clients taking the exam we hope to continue our great record of 100% pass rate at Yachtmaster over the last five years.

If you would like to join us please contact us at info@clubyachting.com