Zero To Hero: Intro

THE BEGINNING

“So you landlubbers want to be sailors, eh?”

It would have been cool if someone asked us that, but they didn’t. Nevertheless, attaining our skipper licenses was a very important milestone for us to undertake and lean into. In actual fact, there are very few places globally where you need official paperwork or certificates to show your experience and knowledge. However, this trip had two broad goals for us. First of all, we needed to learn how to sail and manage a boat. And secondly, we wanted to see how well we worked together on a boat, and whether we would actually enjoy it (probably totally useless at this point given our knee-deep commitment!).

As you might recall, back in 2016 we completed a 4-day Competent Crew Course at the Changi Sailing Club. This essentially gives one the ability to understand how a vessel sails, basic navigation, some rope-work, safety theory, and boating manoeuvres. Essentially, a sailing taster on a small training boat in very restricted waterways. But we’ve also been working on completing the RYA Essentials of Navigation course online as well.

However, this next training session would be a massive shift up in every way. We knew we wanted to complete this course as close as practically possible to our departure date, in order to maximise our knowledge retention. Learning to sail in South East Asia is not nearly as ubiquitous as other parts of the world, so our choices were going to be limited. Yet, one upside was that we could choose to study in one of arguably the most beautiful and relaxed parts of the world. Thailand has been a pretty special place for us whilst we have been land-anchored in Asia Pacific. We’ve always been drawn to its cities, rainforests, jungles, beaches and wildlife for 13 years, so on that front it was quite an appropriate setting.

I won’t debate the merits of the different training authorities in the sailing world, but it really comes down to RYA, ASA and IYT who can get you near-globally recognised. Whilst our priority was to learn as much as possible, it was also important to have a level of certification which can also be helpful for insurance or country-specific purposes. In that regard, the most appropriate certificate is the International Certificate of Competence (ICC). Finally, we also wanted to consolidate the kid-free time, so we were also searching for liveaboard options to get the most bang for our buck.

Thankfully, we were referred to a training school in southern Thailand by our broker Andrew de Bruin from Multihull Solutions. Java Yachting, based out of Krabi Boat Lagoon, is a wonderful setup run by John Coffin and Jessica Qu, and this IYT-accredited school couldn’t have been a better match for us. We opted for the Zero to Hero Course, which couldn’t have been more appropriately titled.

In brief, this entails a 5-day liveaboard crew course, two days of theory ashore, followed by another 4-day liveaboard experience for your Bareboat Skipper License. And all of this would allow us to earn our ICC, become certified skippers and hold a VHF radio license all in one go.

Let the fun begin…!

-Ben