Cruising-2-Racing

A practical course for established cruising sailors to discover and participate in 'yacht racing'

If you have been cruising for several years and you are now looking for a little bit of "je ne sais quoi" in your sailing, then yacht racing might be an avenue you might like to explore ... Whilst the jump up from cruising into racing might seem a challenging one, we are planning to provide a course of 2/3 practical 'on-board' sessions, together with a mix of theory and skills building to help you make the transition.

The theory session(s) will be held at the sailing club on one or more Saturday/Sunday mornings from about 10:00 to 12:30 to cover some of the knowledge and skills that can be done away from the boat.

For the practical sessions, we will be chartering a Sunfast 37 cruiser/racer from an established charter company on the Hamble based out of Mercury Marina. The practical sessions will cover two sequential weekends, stepping up our learning about the boat and its equipment, sailing with 'white sails' through to spinnaker handling and trimming. We will base our sailing in the Solent and enjoy the Saturday night in Cowes, based in one of the Cowes marinas.

Entry into one of the Sunsail Weekend Racing events and/or the Round The Island Race (RTIR) will be the next logical step. To find out more about these programmes see the Racing Programme.

Costs

1. The theory class is free to Shustoke SC members and £30 for non-members. In the case of non-members, I'm hoping they will take out Yachting Associate membership (£29) and get the theory class for free !

2. Practical sessions, include the yacht charter, Cowes marina on the Saturday night, fuel and food on-board (breakfast, lunch, drinks and snacks) and will be charged at approximately £150 per person per weekend, based on the actual costs incurred.

Deposit and Balance Payments

In order to secure your position in the course, a deposit payment of £50 per person is required on booking, with an interim balance payment of £150 payable early in January to cover the boat charter. The final balance covering marina, fuel and food costs will be settled shortly before the practical sessions commence.

Please note that deposit payments relating to the boat charter can not be refunded, unless the charter company cancels the charter contract, or part thereof.

Insurance Excess

As in all boating, there is an insurance excess, and in this case it is £1000, which as a crew we jointly accept and carry. This means, that if we have a bump and lets say £320 of damage is incurred, then assuming a crew of 8, we would each chip in £40 to pay off the excess cost. If that bump were to cost £3200 to repair, then our liability would be limited to £1000 jointly, so the cost would be £125 each.

Course References

Course members can access the exercises and reference material at this location.

Course Status ...

The above course is now open for bookings please get in touch with Geoff Johns, the course organiser.

Last updated 15:05 on 2 November 2025