Coastal & Offshore Sailing School

[NevP 0]

Is anyone out there familiar with the Coastal and Offshore Sailing School run by Henk Haazen (http://www.sailing.school.nz/)? I'm contemplating doing a trip with them from Bluff to Auckland in April and wondering if anyone has any comments about the quality of the training/experience provided.

 

Some of the guys from our Dunedin office chartered Tiama to do some work around Fiordland a couple of years ago and looking at Tiama's website (http://www.tiama.com/) I feel pretty confident about Henk's ability as a skipper. My take from what I've seen is that chartering is their main activity and that the sailing school is a good way for them to utilise "downtime" on their repositioning voyages. Wondering how this measures up compared to other training schools seeing as how it isn't their primary focus.

 

As I see it, one plus is that this would be a serious coastal trip with only a couple of stops between Bluff and Auckland (expected 10 days versus the standard 5 of most other schools). Although a downside might be that there is more of a focus on the destination rather than spending time practicing skills.

 

At this stage I'm not sure if I'd just treat the trip as a way to build my coastal experience with a good skipper or to bite the bullet and sit the RYA Coastal Skipper exam at the end.

 

Or should I just save my dosh and put my hand up when boats/skippers are looking for crew for coastal/delivery trips? I do like the idea of getting a good grounding of the basics from a skipper who's experience/quals I can have confidence in, before I contemplate joining a skipper who's training and experience is not documented and I need to make a judgment call.

 

I know there are plenty of crewers out there with opinions about gaining experience and training so please fire away. If you've actually been sailing on Tiama/with Henk it would be great to hear your thoughts.

[Guest]

I would trust & recommend him. Have never sailed with him but got to know him a while back. Good solid boat. I used to sail with his daughter who was trained by him and her standards were very high. Just don't get into any political or environmental discussions with him unless you're of the Green Party/Greenpeace persuasion.

[NevP 0]

Yes, i did get that impression from his web pages. Like to think I'm more on that side of the fence than the trash & burn, rape & pillage camp anyway. Will try to avoid any heated environmental debates all the same.

 

Cheers for the comments.

[flebea 0]

I sailed with Henk on Tiama a few years ago to get some coastal miles under my belt. I would definately recommend him! well set up yacht and good teaching (and good food!) PM me if you like.