E M Sailing

Mileage Builders

On ourpage, the Mileage Builders are marked with a Blue Star.

This type of Sailing is specifically aimed at people who are working up towards a Skippers Certificate.

In the UK, there are basically two certificates applicable to skippers of Yachts: The Coastal Skippers Certificate and the Offshore Yachtmaster Certificate.

The candidate needs to have completed Shorebased and practical courses at Sea and then needs to fulfil a "mileage and experience" requirement, before undertaking an examination.

This type of Sailing experience is not aimed specifically at helping the candidate to pass the examination, but is designed to provide some of the "mileage and experience" requirement.

Long weekend?

Usually a weekend, the trip may start on the Friday evening, with the yacht setting off to Sea, very shortly after all the crew have arrived. In some cases, you would not expect to set foot on land again until the end of the weekend, on the Sunday afternoon.

The crew may immediately get into a "watch keeping" routine of "on watch" time and rest time. Meals will be made and eaten under way.

Often a chance to "skipper" a leg, crew on this type of trip like to use their valuable leisure time, actually sailing and clocking up the miles. 200 nautical miles in a week-end can certainly be done.

Sometimes we offer Mileage building trips on vessels larger than most yachts. On this type of builder there might not be a chance to "act as skipper", but there may be a "watch leader" role available. Check out the detail in the offer.

Our Mileage Building trips usually give you an experience very different from most Yacht Cruising. Overall, the trip probably involves longer periods at Sea than ashore. Although "arriving" somewhere is always a good feeling, Mileage Builders are more about Sailing, Navigation and Pilotage and "teamwork" is probably high on the list of priorities. You will usually get plenty of night hours in!

Is this for me?

Not suitable for a first trip to Sea.

You ought to have at least completed a RYA day skippers practical course, although we may be happy to take you if you have "Competent Crew". It really depends upon there being sufficient experience within the crew, for us to expect that the yacht will be safely navigated, 24 hours a day.

Again, check out the details of the offer to see if there is any "pre-trip experience" required.

A qualified Yacht Cruising Instructor or Yachtmaster Instructor will be going with you.

Go to our Sailing and Training  page to find out what mileage builders are currently planned.