G'day folks
Like a lot of baby boomers, we're planning our retirement cruising
activities. I've had a fair amount of experience bay cruising in a H28
in past years, but that was a while ago before career and kids got in
the way.

We're now looking at cruising 'round the Oz coast and S/W Pacific for a
few years in something nice and comfortable 'round 45 feet or so. I'm
perfectly happy with my standard of seamanship and we'll be doing a lot
of shakedown stuff before we go offshore too much, but I've no formal
qualifications- nor any real desire to have any, unless there's a real
good reason for same...

I've no intention of taking crew, paying or otherwise, just wife and
self. Does anyone know of requirements for licences or formal
qualifications for Oz registered international cruising? The insurance
company is happy with my current experience and isn't interested in
anything else...

Thanks
JM

Mate,

As far as I am aware, there are no formal quals required to do what you say
but I would certainly consider doing some type of training, particularly in
the area of shipboard safety. FWIW, the AYF sea safety and survival course
is a crock of ****e. You are much better off doing a comercial course such
as you Master 5 or Coxswain that has elements of shipboard safety in it.
Having done both recreational and commercial training, I firmly believe that
the commercial training is better and really brushes up on areas that
cruising yachties tend to leave out. I would also look at a course in
celestial and offshore nav. Where in OZ are you located?

Hope this helps.

Andrew

I just went on an offshore passage on someone else's boat as part of my
preparation for similar early retirement cruising activities. I chose
to sail with a captain who is someone manic on safety issues and I
learned a lot about how to set up a vessel for offshore work. Andrew's
point is well taken and the "training" can come in many forms.

Andrew Denman wrote:
Mate,

As far as I am aware, there are no formal quals required to do what you say
but I would certainly consider doing some type of training, particularly in
the area of shipboard safety.

There's a certain satisfaction in noticing that for most countries,
the motivation to sail off shore is enough.
They care about innocent third parties in many places - and
about paying passengers just about everywhere. These two cases bring
regulations - plenty of them too.

So a person with only his family, especially only his adult family
aboard is licensed to kill - himself if the weather, boat or
conditions are unkind.

Think of it as a last bastion of liberty - the freedom to be wise, or
to be foolish as you please.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK


On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 06:50:36 GMT, Moores Family
wrote:

G'day folks
Like a lot of baby boomers, we're planning our retirement cruising
activities. I've had a fair amount of experience bay cruising in a H28
in past years, but that was a while ago before career and kids got in
the way.

We're now looking at cruising 'round the Oz coast and S/W Pacific for a
few years in something nice and comfortable 'round 45 feet or so. I'm
perfectly happy with my standard of seamanship and we'll be doing a lot
of shakedown stuff before we go offshore too much, but I've no formal
qualifications- nor any real desire to have any, unless there's a real
good reason for same...

I've no intention of taking crew, paying or otherwise, just wife and
self. Does anyone know of requirements for licences or formal
qualifications for Oz registered international cruising? The insurance
company is happy with my current experience and isn't interested in
anything else...

Thanks
JM

Hi,

No formal qualifications are required in Australia to cruise unless you are
taking on paying passengers other than perhaps a power boat license if your
vessel can do more than 10 knots. For paying passenges you need a
commercially registered vessel (survey approval) which is expensive and a
coxswain or Master 5 certificate.

Be aware to check NZ regulations if you are coming via NZ with your yacht as
I believe they won't let you leave without a liferaft !

A coxswain's course plus celestial navigation and weather is an excellent
idea, but not compulsory.

Best of Luck and we may see you on the high seas - we are building a 35ft
catamaran for a world trip leaving Cairns, Australia in August 2006
(www.bluewaterrallies.co.uk)
Ray & Liz


"Moores Family" wrote in message
...
G'day folks
Like a lot of baby boomers, we're planning our retirement cruising
activities. I've had a fair amount of experience bay cruising in a H28
in past years, but that was a while ago before career and kids got in
the way.

We're now looking at cruising 'round the Oz coast and S/W Pacific for a
few years in something nice and comfortable 'round 45 feet or so. I'm
perfectly happy with my standard of seamanship and we'll be doing a lot
of shakedown stuff before we go offshore too much, but I've no formal
qualifications- nor any real desire to have any, unless there's a real
good reason for same...

I've no intention of taking crew, paying or otherwise, just wife and
self. Does anyone know of requirements for licences or formal
qualifications for Oz registered international cruising? The insurance
company is happy with my current experience and isn't interested in
anything else...

Thanks
JM

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 06:50:36 GMT, Moores Family
wrote:

G'day folks
Like a lot of baby boomers, we're planning our retirement cruising
activities. I've had a fair amount of experience bay cruising in a H28
in past years, but that was a while ago before career and kids got in
the way.

We're now looking at cruising 'round the Oz coast and S/W Pacific for a
few years in something nice and comfortable 'round 45 feet or so. I'm
perfectly happy with my standard of seamanship and we'll be doing a lot
of shakedown stuff before we go offshore too much, but I've no formal
qualifications- nor any real desire to have any, unless there's a real
good reason for same...

I've no intention of taking crew, paying or otherwise, just wife and
self. Does anyone know of requirements for licences or formal
qualifications for Oz registered international cruising? The insurance
company is happy with my current experience and isn't interested in
anything else...

Thanks
JM

We (wife and I) too are in Oz, boomers, like you spend time (Port
Phillip?) bay cruising and are currently fitting out our 44' ketch to
sail north up the east coast, turn left and come back in 5 years.

We chose to work up to our Yachtmasters because while we thought we
knew everything, it never hurts to see how other people do it. It is
also helping (a little) with insurance. Our choice tho', not becuase
we needed to.

One course we would throughly recommend is Safety & Survival at Sea.
Not only is it an interesting expeience stepping up into a liferaft,
righting it, seeing how comfortable a 6-man raft is with six men/women
in it actually is, but the theory side also covers off a lot of risk
assessment, minimisation and management aboard. If something does go
wrong, not neccessarily total loss, but, say, loss of a finger in a
winch, all the Duty of Care stuff around can mean the Skipper ends up
in court unless they can show they took clear steps to minimise such
risk.

Just some thoughts

Peter

www.oceanodyssey.net
"Do not measure your life by the number of breaths you take,
Rather by the number of times life just takes your breath away"

"Ray Rodrick" wrote in message ...

Perhaps you would like to have a look at the Cruising FAQ's at
http://www.cruiser.co.za/faq.asp where you will find lots of the sort
of information that you want.

Good luck with your cruising.
Bob

Good people all...
Thanks for the well thought advice. While I do think of myself as a
reasonably competent yachtsman, I've thankfully never been near a
potentially life-threatening situation, so we'll certainly act on the
suggestion to do some practical sea safety/ survival training.

I learnt my coastal nav the hard way as a kid, finding the position of
almost every sandbank in Moreton Bay by intimate aquaintance before I
found out how to miss them... I'd vaguely thought I'd fiddle 'round
with celestial nav once we were away, but I guess there's always the
possibility that may be too late even very early in the show, so I'll do
something there, too. One of the factors in our decision to retire to
cruising has been the advent of GPS navigation, I'll have to make sure I
don't start taking it for granted...

I'm getting in early with my basic planning as the first major ocean
passage isn't planned until about 2011, but once we go I don't
anticipate coming back for a good many years. We're on the coast in SEQ
at the moment and will be doing a lot of coastal cruising 'til the big
day, but we want to make sure we've got all the bases covered before we
get too far & have to rethink something major.

Thanks again.

John Moores

Let me second Peter's remarks. A little formal coursework in safety
and survival will cover subjects and possibilities that you may not
have met in coastal cruising. It may also affect your planning to
some extent.

I would also think about medical training. Before our circumnav, my
wife, Dee, took a one week course qualifying her to be a Ship's
Medical Officer (big ships, not boats) at Maine Maritime Academy -- I
suspect you can find the same thing somewhere in Oz. It's offered
with a very different attitude from the typical first aid course --
which says, "stabilize the patient until help arrives in a few minutes
or hour" -- because the time to professional help may be days or
possibly even weeks. What you get is a little vocabulary, some
reference material, and training in such things as starting an IV and
suturing. If you back this up with one of the radio medical services,
you've improved your chances in many emergencies.

GPS is a blessing and a danger. IMHO the most important single thing
you can do to make GPS use safer is to plot every course on a paper
chart, lay out range and bearing on each leg with dividers and
protractor or parallels, then punch the waypoint locations into the
GPS. If the GPS doesn't come up with the same range and bearing on
each leg, you've made a mistake. And, of course, don't trust the
chart, as they are often wrong.

Jim Woodward
www.mvfintry.com

Moores Family wrote in message ...
Good people all...
Thanks for the well thought advice. While I do think of myself as a
reasonably competent yachtsman, I've thankfully never been near a
potentially life-threatening situation, so we'll certainly act on the
suggestion to do some practical sea safety/ survival training.

I learnt my coastal nav the hard way as a kid, finding the position of
almost every sandbank in Moreton Bay by intimate aquaintance before I
found out how to miss them... I'd vaguely thought I'd fiddle 'round
with celestial nav once we were away, but I guess there's always the
possibility that may be too late even very early in the show, so I'll do
something there, too. One of the factors in our decision to retire to
cruising has been the advent of GPS navigation, I'll have to make sure I
don't start taking it for granted...

I'm getting in early with my basic planning as the first major ocean
passage isn't planned until about 2011, but once we go I don't
anticipate coming back for a good many years. We're on the coast in SEQ
at the moment and will be doing a lot of coastal cruising 'til the big
day, but we want to make sure we've got all the bases covered before we
get too far & have to rethink something major.

Thanks again.

John Moores

wrote in message . ..
On 3 Aug 2003 14:08:47 -0700, (Jim Woodward)
wrote:


you've improved your chances in many emergencies.

GPS is a blessing and a danger. IMHO the most important single thing
you can do to make GPS use safer is to plot every course on a paper
chart, lay out range and bearing on each leg with dividers and
protractor or parallels, then punch the waypoint locations into the
GPS. If the GPS doesn't come up with the same range and bearing on
each leg, you've made a mistake. And, of course, don't trust the
chart, as they are often wrong.

Jim Woodward
www.mvfintry.com

Very true. Charts are not only occasionally wrong, but must be kept
current as per Notices to Mariners (or whatever the charting authority
in your nation issues). The marine environment and man's activities on
and in it, are rarely static.

Also, keep a goddamn watch! Your GPS will not inform you of the
half-sunk container that will put a meter long gash in your hull and
sink you in 45 seconds. Only a decent watch stander can do that.

R.
I wwonder how a "decent watch stander" can see the "half-sunken
container" while sitting in the cockpit on a moonless night in a Force
5 from astern. He'd have to spenmd hjis watch in the bow (or in the
crow's nest, as in olden days...)
john