There are plenty of articles about the skills needed by a reasonably competent skipper, but there aren't really that many about the guts of the job. One the very few gripes I have about the RYA Yachtmaster and Coastal Skipper courses is that they concentrate heavily on the skills of yacht management, but don't really focus much on perhaps the most important skill of all - person management.
Each one of us is going to manage people differently, because a large part of the task is governed by the chemistry between different individuals. One skipper may use humour, or irony, or wit to weld a crew together. Another may be a great teacher. Yet another may use rules rather more.
But relying on chemistry alone is not enough. Just as you need to know one or two simple facts of yacht behaviour in order to berth alongside in a tightly packed marina, so too there are a few simple facts that can be learned which will help people feel secure and well managed.
It is often said that person-management is not something that can be taught, but needs to come with experience. While it's true that experience is hugely important, I don't subscribe to the 'experience is all you need' school of skippering.
When I was learning to sail, some of the most experienced skippers I sailed with were the ones who had the least interaction with me, and so they were the ones with whom I felt least secure.
I suppose there is a limit to what you can do in a five-day RYA course, especially if there are five students on board. That works out at one day - say eight hours at best - of individual attention per student.
Given that many Yachtmaster candidates may have weaknesses in one or more areas of yacht handling - I certainly did - then with an important exam looming, the time available for a relaxed chat about the skills of skippering, as opposed to yacht handling, tends to be limited.
There is, of course, the time spent in the bar at the end of the day's training, but this approach is also fraught with possible pitfalls. Overheard conversations coupled with a little too much alcohol can be risky, to say the least, and I usually try to avoid in-depth conversations at these times. The bar is for relaxing and unwinding from the stress of the day's course!
So there is, I think, a strong argument for an additional element in the RYA syllabus - the art and skill of skippering. Five days spent with a highly experienced and trained 'skippering coach', who takes yacht handling skills for granted (and probably turns a blind eye to the less than perfect pontoon approach), and who concentrates entirely on an individual's skippering skills might be a very valuable addition.
Couple this with some plain, straightforward Human Resources training, and I think the RYA would be on to a winner.
Being put off sailing by a skipper who can handle a yacht brilliantly, but whose manner and approach is aggressive, or dismissive, or just non-communicative, is not good.
Tom Cunliffe, in his excellent book The Complete Yachtmaster, makes the point that there are some skippers whose crew sail with them once, and then don't want to come back, and other skippers who never seem short of crew.
As a (fairly) experienced skipper myself, I sometimes sail as crew with others. It can be hugely enjoyable, as both of you recognise the skills of the other, and defer from time to time to each other's experience.
But it can equally be a trial. I remember going out for a day sail with an acquaintance - I hesitate to call her a friend. She was the skipper of her own yacht, and despite nasty seas, inconvenient tides, and weather that would have put the most hardy duck off water, she plugged on against the wind until her crew were heartily sick of the whole enterprise. I positively hated the day, and the others were decidedly mutinous when it was suggested that we plug on down the coast into the teeth of a gale.
So for the next few weeks, I'm going to be looking at the art and skill of skippering. In doing so, I'm taking a risk, because unlike anchoring or sail trimming, it's highly subjective. You may disagree - strongly! If so, please use the Forum
for some healthy discussion.
The one thing I don't take sailing with me is offence!
Richard Thomas holds a Commercially Endorsed RYA Yachtmaster and Cruising Instructor (Sail) certificate. He runs his own delivery business, www.yachtmovers.co.uk
He is available for deliveries, assisted passages, own-yacht tuition, and yacht management.
