Life on the ocean wave
If you fancy improving your seafaring talents, Cyprus provides an ideal environment for getting yourself qualified
Despite the demise of Britain’s maritime glory, the country is now the acknowledged leader when it comes to the high standard of building luxury yachts, racing craft and cruising yachts. One thousand of the 2,300 luxury craft made worldwide annually now benefit from Britain’s strict building regulations, that then qualify the vessel to fly the country’s prestigious red ensign.
Its not only boatbuilding yards currently enjoying this nautical revival, UK-based professional sailing schools also benefit, with an increased demand for fully accredited crew. Last year alone it was estimated that over 5,000 men and women would be needed as crew around the world, with all having to posses certification proving they had completed a Royal Yachting Association training course aboard a vessel that will have met the safety requirements of the UK department of transport.
Many dream about owning and sailing a boat around the Mediterranean, to be out there trimming your sail where the best have trimmed before, to live life a bit on the edge but be competent enough to face head-on the physical and mental challenges of cruising. Few however get the chance to even push out a dinghy, as the often dire weather conditions in much of Europe invariably make learning to sail a pretty grim and exceedingly damp, chilly experience. Plus, it will take much longer to learn the basics and progress with one’s level of seamanship as time spent on the water will again be dependent upon the weather conditions.
The answer is to come to Cyprus and more specifically to the Paphos area, where Colin Allaway runs the Coral Bay School of Sailing. Here students of all ages can choose from a series of Royal Yachting Association training courses, from learning how to be a competent crew member, a Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper to getting their all important and highly desirable Yacht Masters ticket.
Learning to sail under near perfect conditions almost all year round without having to thread one’s way through a sea crammed with billowing spinnakers is a huge bonus for the serious minded sailor. Captain Colin certainly looks every inch the part as a keen-eyed, crusty, full bearded sea salt, with a good few years of experience under his hull.
At the tender age of four Colin was already a sailing groupie and was fortunate enough to have been brought up in Felixstowe, a well-known British fishing port, and there in the more relaxed days of old, he was usually off to sea on friendly fishermen’s boats to help with the catch.
In the late seventies Colin decided formal training via the Royal Yachting Association was the next step so he went first for his Yacht Masters certificate and then qualified as a RYA instructor.
By then he knew this was the life he wanted to lead, not chained to a desk, but to be out sailing the high seas, passing on his knowledge to younger men and women who also had the same dream as him. “I love this job and cannot remember a time when I was not messing around in boats. As a teenager I saved up and built my own dinghy, and it did sterling duty for many many years. I even taught my children to sail on Mako, which was named after the fastest swimming shark in the world”.
Was this based on the concept that the name Mako would make the boat go faster? “Not really, when I was a teenager I just appreciated this species and I used to go shark hunting off the coast of Cornwall, something I’d never do now, but that was then, and I know better now! Anyway this particular shark can grow up to 2.8m and weigh 200kg and it gets very angry after it has taken the bait, then it will actually jump into the boat with you and scare the living daylights of unsuspecting fishermen”.
These days Colin hunts only the Mediterranean winds. Every day he is out there with his pupils patiently introducing them to new skills, passing on the accumulated knowledge of a lifetime to those with a similar passion for sailing. “I have lost count of the number of pupils who have passed through, it’s probably in the mid hundreds and a lot become firm friends. Many also keep in touch and let me know where they are and what they are doing – it’s a close knit fraternity sailing, and you get to meet a lot of people from such varied backgrounds, that’s half the fun of this great job”.
He is a chap who obviously relishes the opportunity to pass on his years of knowledge, but feels strongly that to achieve success and get the most from his pupils, small groups will always work best.
Only four students at a time spend five days and nights aboard his yacht learning not only the how, why, what, where and when of sailing but also a fluency in nautical nomenclature, something I found particularly confusing when I went out with Clive for a sail.
First, it important to know of the front and back of the boat which is the bow (front) and which is the stern (back). Rather more confusingly, ropes are sheets and Colin’s craft boasted more sheets than a five-star hotel, with over 200metres of rigging ropes (sorry sheets) and another 100 meters of mooring lines.
As my seafaring knowledge has been gleaned solely from watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I not surprisingly found sailing, like so many sports, almost impossible on the first attempt. But things do fall into place eventually – steering, the setting and trimming of sails, how to tack and jibe – then, before you know it, one finds pure delight in the thrill of a good breeze in your sail and the water whipping up beneath your keel.
Colin’s yacht zipped across the water pretty quickly (there’s probably a nautical term for that but I’ll be spliced at the main brace if I know what it is) before coming to rest at the mooring. But what can students expect from the different courses? “All are quite intensive, we are out for five days and they live on board all that time. Hopefully everyone gets on as it’s essential we all work as a team. That’s key, as the crew have to work in unison. This may be a sport or hobby to some but, if you are going to train people to be professionally responsible not only for very expensive yachts but also for the people who are aboard plus other vessels at sea, they have to be taught and taught well.”
Colin also teaches night sailing, which means being afloat under a thick black night, steering by the stars as the boat heels to the wind, and streams a glittering of phosphorescent wake behind it, something Gordon Doodson, a qualified yacht master who was on holiday in Cyprus recently and decided to brush up on his skills while here, described as a vital part of ones training.
“Because yachting combines a degree of privacy with the ability to change location at the drop of a hat, the crew must be fully qualified on night sailing. I once worked on board a yacht owned by a very rich client who would suddenly take out a map over dinner; she then told us she wished to wake up in Sicily. We had to work hard all through the night to make sure this lady had her request fulfilled.”
Not everyone trained by Colin will be crewing for billionaires, pupils will come wanting just a refresher course, retired folk who need sufficient training to be able to go out and enjoy a few weeks cruising around the coastline, and both novices and old salts alike are welcomed as students.
Colin also fulfills the demand for highly trained crew to deliver yachts from one country to another, so he and selected crews will sail these boats home for a client.
He also takes bookings for sailing on large ocean going yachts, starting off from Gibraltar via the Canary Islands to Antigua, to then spend Christmas in the Caribbean and the Azores, returning back to the Mediterranean via Bermuda and the Azores.
So, if you have always nurtured the dream of experiencing a world away from your everyday land-locked life, learning how to sail under a Mediterranean sky just has to be one of our more civilised adventures.
Coral Bay Sailing School
Tel: 99 578614 or 26 6621516, www.coralbaysailing.com
True North Yachting
Tel: 25 821018 or 99 586486, Fax: 25 821019, email: [email protected] (Andreas Taelis)
Hello Sailor!
Yachting’s new wave of billionaires now take to the high seas aboard super yachts, and qualified crew are in high demand to man these mighty vessels.
The super category of yachts range from 24 meters up to frigate/destroyer size mega boats. Currently there are around 12,000 of them on the high seas and 60 per cent of them cost in excess of £34 million sterling.
One Russian super yacht includes a submarine, plus a helicopter among its on-board toys.
A lowly but essential deckhand employed aboard one of these vessels can earn up to £2,000 sterling tax free per month.
Such is the demand for more experienced crew at all levels, from crewing small, to medium and the new breed of super yachts the University of Plymouth has introduced a BSc degree course in Ocean yachting.
The UK Sailing Academy also operates a foundation course in operational yacht science.
