Associated Marine Training

Just like flying a plane, it's the take-offs and landings which are the tricky bit.

The equivalent in power boating is coming in and out of marinas, in other words, boat handling and docking in confined spaces.

Unlike flying planes, which involves many hours of lessons and mandatory exams, anyone can jump in a boat and just set off. Though it's not an approach I would recommend.

The good news is that the art of power boat handling in confined spaces is one that can be learned. The bad news is, it has to be learned by doing it.

The trick to minimising expensive knocks, apart from loads of fenders, is to firstly understand some theory about how boats manoeuvre and how the elements (wind and tide) might impact this. Visualising your manoeuvres before you execute them is a critical skill.

You might consider some onboard coaching and take advantage of someone else's experience to accelerate the development of your own skills. This can be customised training, up to full RYA courses.

Associated Marine Training
Powerboat training and skippering.

Hythe - Hamble - Beaulieu - Lymington

https://associatedmarinetraining.com

The joys of powerboating often start with the RYA PB2 qualification. We have some space on a course next week (23 and 24 April). So why not do something spontaneous and sign up now?

The 2 day course is running from Hamble Point Marina. Once you have Powerboat Level 2, you can apply for an ICC which is needed to rent powerboats abroad.

Simply message us directly via this platform, or via our website.
https://associatedmarinetraining.com/contact-us/

The joys of OBT - Own Boat Training.

Andy and Em recently bought a lovely Cranchi Zaffiro but had concerns about driving her from Hamble to Portsmouth and critically, getting her safely on and off pontoons. She’s their first boat.

When the big day came, it was blowing F5, gusting 6. Their concerns were rising.

To help alleviate stress, they had already booked the help of Associated Marine Training to provide assistance and coaching on the day of the trip.

Simon, a qualified skipper and instructor, helped calm nerves. He explained the direction of wind and tide were both favourable for the trip. Which was in the end, a very comfortable ride with no apparent wind ( it was on their tail).

A little coaching at arrival meant Andy and Em, working as a team on helm and lines, made berthing seem effortless.

It was a lovely day out on the water.

OBT - highly rewarding for everyone.

AMT - Powerboat training and charter
Hamble Point - Hythe - Beaulieu - Lymington

More smiling faces. What a wonderful few days of sunshine we have had.

These boaters based at Bucklers Hard on Beaulieu River are also smiling with confidence. With some tidal boat handling training from Associated Marine Training they can enjoy the good times, without the stress.

AMT - Powerboat Training and Charter
Hamble Point - Hythe - Beaulieu - Lymington

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving. Mucking about on the river - is always fun, but that’s not what’s happening here. It’s far more serious than that.

One of the most confidence-knocking pastimes is trying to safely dock your pride and joy whilst wind and tide have other ideas. The folks in these pictures recognised this, and enlisted the help of Adam at Associated Marine Training to provide some training on Beaulieu River. This always starts with understanding the clues around you as to what “the elements” are doing and how to use them to your advantage. Our school Rib is a safe place to start the process, before transferring new skills to your own motor cruiser. We have vast experience of many motor cruisers, small to large (to 24m).

AMT - Powerboat Training and Charter
Hamble Point - Hythe - Beaulieu - Lymington

If you are based on Beaulieu River, ask the friendly staff at Beaulieu River Marina about us.

Know Your Tidal Gates.
When planning a sea passage, a big question is always, when should we set off? There will be many things to consider, but one of the most critical will be tidal gates, and it’s often one of the first to look at.

So what is a tidal gate?

There are two perspectives to consider. Firstly, will there be times when we won’t have enough depth of water to navigate any part of the journey? This is most likely to be the case at the start or the end of the journey, when leaving or approaching shore, but could be during the journey too.

Secondly, are there areas en-route which may become unfavourable or unsafe due to tidal streams? This could be because tide will be against us, or it could be due to rough water generated by the tidal stream (most likely near headlands, reefs or geographical pinch-points). Bear in mind that rough water will also be affected by wind direction, relative to the tide.

So simply put, tidal gates are windows of time, in which it is safe or favourable to traverse stretches of water on your journey.

To make these judgement calls, you’ll need to consult many sources of information. It’s not just about knowing tidal streams, heights and timings - but certainly you cannot proceed without these.

Lucky for you, Associated Marine Training has put together a series of downloadable documents that cover a varied range of subjects that we frequently get asked about when training either RYA courses or bespoke courses for power sail and motorboat users. This includes one for Tidal Heights (which covers streams too).

Find it here https://associatedmarinetraining.com/theory-centre/

AMT - Powerboat Training and Charter
Hamble Point - Hythe - Beaulieu - Lymington

Know your range.
Every sea passage should be planned, and every passage plan should start with an appraisal of the journey, the boat, the people onboard and the expected conditions en-route.

In a powerboat, a critical consideration is the amount of fuel you need for the trip. The safety of everyone onboard will depend on you getting this right, but with so many variables, how is this done?

Let's break down the problem. Firstly, you need to answer two basic questions:

How much fuel will we have onboard?
How much fuel will we burn throughout the trip?

Your first challenge is figuring out how much fuel you have onboard. Find out the fuel tank capacity. The easiest way is to search online or read the manual if you have one (assuming you have a "standard" factory built boat). This tells you your maximum capacity. Ideally, you should aim to arrive with a third of a tank, so use two thirds in your calculations.

The safest option on a big trip, is to fill up before you go. Don't just rely on gauges, fill "to the brim".

Now I hear you saying, I have a big tank, surely I can just read off the fuel gauge and avoid the cost of filling up. After all, half a tank might be plenty. The problem here is gauges are notoriously inaccurate. As you get more familiar with your boat and how much she burns, and what the gauges actually mean, you may gain confidence to not always fill up before a big trip, but never get complacent about this.

So now we move onto the harder question, how much fuel will we burn on our trip?

The biggest factor here will be the fuel consumption figures for your engine (or engines). This information can often be found by searching online. For outboards, www.boat-fuel-economy.com is a great site to visit. For inboards (and outboards too), manufacturers often provide this information. There are two challenges to overcome here. One - the litres of fuel burned in an hour will be shown against rpm (engine revolutions per minute). Obviously, the higher the rpm, the higher the consumption. Two - you may not know how engine rpm equates to boat speed. You need to know this to calculate how long the journey will take.

A great way to approach this is to fill out a table of values for your boat. This could just be a hand written entry inside your logbook or anywhere else convenient. In the first column, write a series of rpm values, say 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 (you may go higher depending on your engine). In the second column, write down your boat speed for each rpm value. You need to go out in calm conditions and drive at these speeds. Speed through the water is the metric you need, so if you have GPS, use this in opposite directions and use the average (to cancel out tidal effects). I would not trust a log for speed accuracy. Now, you can add a third column which is your expected fuel burn rate, in litres per hour, for each rpm value (based on your research).

Armed with this information, you can now calculate how much fuel you need for a given trip. Here is a worked example:

Distance 60 nautical miles. Cruising speed is 20 knots. Journey time therefore 3 hours (distance divided by speed).
From your table, 20kts is achieved at 3000 rpm, with a fuel burn of 68 litres per hour. So 204 litres needed for the trip.
If this is less than two thirds of tank capacity (assuming starting full), then you have the range for the trip.

(In case you were wondering, these figures are from an 11.5m flybridge, twin shaft, 2 x 260HP Diesel).

Apart from some maths, the big trick here is writing down that table of fuel burn figures for your boat.

Finally, a word of caution. There are two assumptions baked into this approach.

One. The manufacturers rpm / fuel burn figures assume a level of load which may not be the same for your boat. Good practice is to log some trips, take note of fuel used (by filling up again when you arrive), and compare actual usage to predicted. You may need to adjust your table accordingly. If you are lucky enough to have metered fuel flow on your instruments, you can use this in your table (it shouldn’t be vastly different to the manufacturers data, but is specific to your boat).

Two. Your figures are based on calm conditions. Fuel consumption can greatly increase in poor conditions and if you are forced below planing speeds, tidal streams will become more significant (ie,if your speed through the water is 6 knots and you are fighting a 3 knot tide, it effectively doubles the journey length and so the fuel burn).

Follow us for future handy information, or visit: https://associatedmarinetraining.com/theory-centre/

AMT - Powerboat Training and Charter
Hamble Point - Hythe - Beaulieu - Lymington

The smile says it all. Tom just completed RYA Intermediate Powerboat with AMT, and feels like he’s on Cloud 9. In fact he is, that’s our school RIB.

Intermediate Powerboat is the next level up from PB2, and is a great introduction to coastal cruising.

It’s been great working with the team at the Buckler’s Hard. Looking forward to doing more training with the berth holders.

This sounds useful

Amazing rainbow