Chesapeake Trawler Training

Hello All,

My wife and I anticipate purchasing a trawler.* Our time horizon is two or three years out.* At this point, we would like to get some formalized*hands-on training followed by a bareboat charter, in the same week.* Ideally, we would like to be on the Cheasapeake bay, and on the same boat.* One goal is to develop enough confidence and experience to be able to*have a resume that would allow*future bareboat charters.

I*have found two options that meet our criteria - Blue Goose, and Captain Jeremy Hopkins.

Does anyone have experience with either of these, or know of others that would allow a scenario of training with a follow-on bareboat charter? (Sea Sense and Annapolis School do not).*

Thank you,

wizard6822@aol.com****

You should have no problem arranging a bare-boat charter, and then hiring an instructor to come aboard and spend as much time as needed to bring you up to speed.* Many charter companies have captains available in case you don't have enough experience to operate the boat you want to charter. Once the captain feels you have enough experience they turn the boat over to you for the remainder of the charter, but make sure though that they offer training in the areas you want to learn. Many times they only provide enough training to satisfy the insurance company. Our training charters are custom designed for your needs and desires based on your answers to our questionnaire.* We have a comprehensive training manual that's yours to keep after the charter as well as numerous hand-outs, and instructional videos.* We typically review a chapter or two in the morning over breakfast, then spend the day practising the skills we just reviewed.* We try to anchor early enough to review that days lessons and then allow you some free time to take part in many of the activities we offer. You drive the boat from the first day, and every day there after should you desire, and it will take about* a week to go through the manual and become proficient in all the different skill sets.* Feel free to contact us through our website for further information on our deeply discounted spring positioning cruise departing Ketchikan the first week in April. Safe sailing ......Arctic Traveller

Trawler training at www.arctictraveller.com

We chartered Blarney Goose from Blue Goose for a long weekend in October 2009. Our charter came with 1 day of lessons with Bill, and I paid him for a 2nd day - money well spent. After that I felt comfortable taking his boat cruising around Inner Harbor and the Chessie.

I highly recommend him. He explained the concepts very well and was quite patient with me. After getting a taste of handling his single screw inboard, I USUALLY have no problems handling the twin i/o drives in the 30' Carver I ended up buying. I would definitely charter with him again if I wanted an extended cruise with the extra space his bigger trawlers have over my Carver.

If you have more questions, drop me a PM.

- Paul Artola
Ellicott City, Maryland
1988 Carver Santego 30
1975 Angler 21BR

We hired Annapolis School of Seamanship several years ago when we bought Kismet. Being new to trawlers and larger boats, we needed to have a few days supervision to appease the insurance company. Athough I had a lot of time on the water, a 52 ton boat was quite a step up for me!

Conversely, the Admiral had no boating experience.

A.S.S. ( John Martino) coordinated to have two licensed captains aboard for about 4 days. Both were terrific and excellent instructors. They worked closely with my wife on basic seamanship skills (rules of the road, line handling, knots, navigation, radio procedures, etc), while I spent most of my time behind the wheel, docking, anchoring, brushing up on radar usage, system checks/procedures, etc.

Although it wasn't inexpensive, I consider it one of the better investments we've made. It really forced us to fast track the learning curve that we wold have otherwise stumbled through over the course of several weeks/months.

I'd highly recommend you continue down this path.

South west florida

Highly reccomend having chris at swf yachts training courses. You can do two levels in a week and he takes you through ships systems and basics then works with you on all the docking and line handling before proceeding to navigation etc. We just got back from a week there and it was fantastic and although I have some experience it was nice to have someone else teaching the admiral. Its also a very nice spot for a winter vacation from north in our case nova scotia.