Sea School | Learning to Handle a Boat
Rose and Peter Akers, with friend Phil Bull, took a three day Powerboat Level 2 course with Robert and thoroughly enjoyed it.“ I was a bit nervous at the beginning” says Rose, who runs a plastic container manufacturing company with her husband in the Midlands.“ Peter and I have an apartment in Lagos and we try to get out there for 10 days every 4 to 6 weeks and have been saying for a while how nice it would be to be able to take out a boat, but neither of us had any experience. We thought about doing the course in the UK, but the weather is so unpredictable we decided Portugal was the better place to learn”.
Robert taught them how to handle the boat, how to moor it and tie it up and a little bit about navigation and plotting a course on the chart. With the Powerboat Level 2 certificate, they intend to hire a boat next time they are down and then eventually buy their own boat.“ We just intend to run down the coast and visit other harbours and it’ s very nice to be able to go out and see a different vista of somewhere you know well” she says.
Robert also offers Intermediate and Advance Day & Night powerboat courses.“ The Intermediate course is more focussed on planning a longer journey, doing a passage to a strange harbour and navigation up to a certain level” he explains. The Advanced Day & Night course is more comprehensive with night work and handling the boat in rough weather.
Motor cruising courses include an introduction course, 2-day Helmsman course and 4-day Day Skipper course, which can extend to 5 days if you do not have any navigational experience.
For further information go to: www. algarveboatcourses. com or email: info @ algarveboatcourses. com www. theiberianseaschool. com or email: martinnorthey @ me. com
46 | Summer 2012 | www. portugal-life. net |