I have my licence but haven’t sailed since: now what?

In twenty-seven years as a skipper I have seen a lot of people get their licence. And I have seen quite a few of them put it away in a drawer. It isn’t laziness: between the exam and your first real boat there is a gap nobody warns you about.

Why this happens so often

The PER teaches you to pass an exam and to do some supervised practical sessions. What it doesn’t give you, because it can’t in two days of training, is the confidence to handle a boat on your own, with nobody beside you to correct you if you hesitate. That leap —from “I know the theory” to “I trust myself at the helm”— is the real reason so many licence holders haven’t sailed since the exam.

Add to that something very simple: you don’t have your own boat, and chartering one just to “get your confidence back” is expensive.

What you forget first

It isn’t the theory, which tends to stick. What gets rusty fast are the manoeuvres you only learn with your hands:

• Judging distance and approach speed when coming into a berth, especially in a crosswind.
• The full anchoring sequence: choosing the spot, letting out the right amount of chain and checking the anchor has set.
• Reacting quickly to a man overboard, without stopping to think through the manoeuvre step by step.
• Reading the wind and the sea state before deciding how to enter harbour.

All of this comes back quickly if you do it again, but you have to get on a boat. And that is where most people get stuck.

The option that doesn’t mean buying or chartering a boat

That is why we set up the Sailing Club: a waiting list to join as crew, not as a passenger, on a real outing that is already scheduled, when a place becomes free. It isn’t a tourist trip or a subscription with a fixed calendar. You cast off, help hoist and trim the sails, take the helm. The same work any real crew member does.

There are three kinds of place, depending on which outing has a free spot:

• Whale and dolphin watching: €125, a 6-7 hour day.
• Navigation Licence practical session: €100, 4 hours.
• PER practical session: €100, 4 hours, aboard the sailing boat BELA.

You join the list by ticking what interests you, and as soon as a real place becomes free we let you know by WhatsApp or email with the day and time. There is no date fixed in advance, because it depends on a place being free on an outing that already has another purpose, so it won’t work if you need a set day. It works if what you want is to get your hands on a boat again without waiting to organise an outing just for you.

If you need more than a confidence boost

If you haven’t sailed for years and your licence is a distant memory, or if you never got to do the practical sessions calmly, it is sometimes better to repeat a specific block of practical training than to join as an extra crew member. Tell us your situation and we’ll tell you what fits best.