It also complements our on-the-water training such as the Intermediate Powerboat, Start Yachting, Helmsman or Day Skipper courses.

You will receive a course pack which includes a chart, plotter, course handbook, exercises and an electronic chart plotter CD.

This is a highly practical course with lots of opportunities foryou to put your new found knowledge into practice using the exercises provided.

The course is taught over 16 hours with exercises to complete along the way. It can be covered as a series of short sessions or over two full days.

Course topics include:

• charts and publications
• safety
• engine checks
• buoyage
• tidal awareness
• visual and electronic navigation
• pilotage
• rules of the road
• anchoring
• weather forecasts
• passage planning

Two day course £180 each

Based out of Weymouth and Portland we offer practical hands on experience in Olympic waters.

Quote BH Blog to qualify for a 10% discount!

RYA Portland House has been developed by regeneration company the Sutton Harbour Group in partnership with the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency) and will be the hub of performance sailing in the run up to and during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It is the first phase of Sutton Harbour’s £30 million leisure and tourism development called Castle Court near Portland Castle, and the latest development to take shape at Osprey Quay where the RDA is investing £40 million to transform the former Royal Navy Air Station into a major employment centre with up to 1,400 jobs by 2016.

Nigel Godefroy, chief executive of the Sutton Harbour Group, said: “This is just the first phase of our Castle Court scheme and we’re very proud to have delivered this high quality building on time and on budget despite market conditions. We are currently in detailed discussions with both the Council and the RDA over the content of Phase two, the construction of which we intend to complete before 2012.  This next exciting phase is likely to include a combination of employment space, food store, hotel, and associated high quality public realm and we are on target to submit a planning application in the next few months.”

Mike Wigley, RYA Treasurer and chairman of the Portland Working Party, said “We are delighted with the new RYA Portland House facility which we believe will be instrumental in providing a performance advantage for our potential Olympic sailors in the run up to and during the 2012 Olympic Games.

“But as well as being earmarked for 2012 preparations the facility will also be available for use by class associations, RYA personal members, members of affiliated clubs, as well as berth holder associations and Sailability for events, meetings, conferences, training and competition activities.”

James Watt, development manager at the South West RDA with responsibility for Osprey Quay, said: “RYA Portland House is another exciting addition to the range of leisure and employment uses being developed at Osprey Quay. Our investment has helped make this site attractive to private investors like Sutton Harbour and there is now more than £80 million of private sector investment either spent or in the pipeline. Osprey Quay already supports more than 300 jobs with many more to come by the time it is fully developed.”

Cllr Geoff Petherick, brief holder for economic development at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, said: “It is fantastic to witness the regeneration of Osprey Quay, and the handover of RYA Portland House is another example of how the 2012 Games are transforming the area into an outstanding location for world-class sailing. In less than 1000 days, sailing teams from around the globe will be here to participate in the Games, and I am sure that I speak for residents across the Borough in saying that this is a very exciting prospect indeed.”

The five-storey RYA Portland House includes a reception area, meeting rooms, storage, a small retail unit, three floors of 24 en-suite bedrooms and a top floor clubroom, bar and dining area with views over the water.

The building was designed by the Architects Design Group and built by Midas Construction. It is expected to achieve a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) ‘excellent’ rating because of its high environmental performance.

Elsewhere at Osprey Quay work has almost finished on the old Mere Tank Farm site, which has been cleared, levelled and services installed to provide flexible space for activities related to the 2012 Games, after which it will be available for a range of employment uses. The work has been paid for by the RDA and managed by the Borough Council.

A planning application has now been submitted for 17 small business units at Osprey Quay and work is also progressing well on a low carbon housing scheme that aims to be an exemplar of green development. Sustainable developer ZeroC, in partnership with the RDA, is building 77 low carbon homes to the north of Victoria Road, which should be completed in December.

The RDA has earmarked up to £500,000 from the sale of the land to Zero C to be spent on community facilities, including a new skate park, new seating and play facilities at Victoria Gardens and an upgrade of Officer’s Field nearby, keeping it as a permanent sports field and open space.

Last year saw the completion of the £27 million Portland Marina by marina developers and operators Dean & Reddyhoff, including a range of shoreside facilities for boat owners, The Boat That Rocks bar and restaurant, 15 new business/retail units and five large commercial units. Osprey Quay is located at the gateway to the Isle of Portland, adjacent to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), the UK’s world class sailing academy and venue for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events.

Written by the RYA.

This is a particularly piquant question for the recreational boater, who might head out of, say, Cherbourg with every intention of taking advantage of a westerly breeze to take him to Brighton, after informing the relevant authorities, he may then find the wind has switched, making, perhaps Fowey a better bet. That’s the beauty of cruising: freedom, but it presents a considerable obstacle to the Government’s apparent wish to monitor and analyse all cross border movements.

EU Concerns

At the end of last year, the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report of its investigation into the e-Borders programme concluded that: ‘The e-Borders programme is therefore, as far as we can ascertain, likely to be illegal under the EU Treaty’. This related to laws regarding freedom of movement throughout the EU, which makes sense when you bear in mind that at present EU members don’t have to show a passport when crossing borders.

However, it transpires that the Government has in the mean time been negotiating with the European Commission and it emerged in December that the Government has provided a series of assurances to the European Union in an effort to ensure that the e-Borders programme will be consistent with EU law.

The European Commission has indicated that, in light of the clarifications, commitments and assurances given by the UK Government, it appears that the e-Borders programme would not be in breach of EU Directives relating to data protection and the freedom of movement of EU citizens.

Importantly, the UK Government has assured the EU that travellers who have not provided the UK authorities with relevant personal information will not be denied the right to travel, thereby ensuring that the whole scheme does not fall foul of EU rules on the free movement of people within the EU.

Major concession

Gus Lewis, Head of Government Affairs “It seems that, in satisfying the European Commission’s concerns over the free movement of EU citizens, the UK Government has had to make significant concessions that may undermine its aspiration to collect and analyse information on everyone who travels to or from the United Kingdom.”

“However, the Government has still not published a comprehensive explanation of how the e-Borders scheme will in practice be rolled out in the recreational boating sector so it is not clear how the recent correspondence between the UK Government and the EU will affect the implementation of the e-Borders programme for recreational boaters.”

RYA Stance

At the same time as challenging the methodology of the e-Borders programme at a political level, the RYA has been meeting regularly with the UK Border Agency to ensure that they understand the complexities when it comes to recreational boaters.

However, although the technology platform is intended to be launched in 2011, the scheme is not expected to be fully implemented in the recreational sector until 2014 and the UKBA is at present heavily occupied with implementing the scheme in the commercial sector.

Gus explains: “The UK Government’s correspondence with the European Commission raises a number of questions as to how the e-Borders programme might be implemented in practice.

“For example, the assurances given by the Government refer to ‘carriers’ and ‘passengers’, clearly with commercial carriers in mind, and it is still not clear how the UK Government proposes to relate these definitions to owners, charterers, skippers or crew in the recreational sector.”

With this in mind, the RYA will maintain a dialogue with the e-Borders team to ensure that the interests of recreational boaters are not compromised.

Article written by the RYA.