MarineVerse Community
A global community of sailors using virtual reality to learn, compete and relax.
Dick Bailey
Sail Number
18664
Why MarineVerse?
I do very little sailing. Can’t afford much on pension, I’m 77 yrs old. I messed about with boats during the summer of 69 on Haying Island, Nr Portsmouth, UK. Lived on a 35’ boat on a mud berth with a school mate who had just started as a marine engineer at a local boatyard. The boat was an ex sailplane tender built be Sanders Roe on the Isle of Wight. It had an old 3 cylinder kelvin diesel and a couple of hydraulic winches. We bought it after it got stuck half up nearby slipway and the stern didn’t float before the transom was over topped on the next rising tide and it got flooded. That was the last straw for the owner so we go it cheap, set up a siphon and additional flotation, got it afloat, cleaned it up and had some adventures. Highlight of the summer, besides ferrying people to the see Bob Dylan ‘sink the Isle of Wight’ at the years festival, the two of us being asked to deliver a 36’ yacht from the boat yard to the Hamble. Neither had ‘sailed’ anything bigger than a dingy before that but we gat the yacht there ok. The next time I sailed anything was 45 yrs later when in 2014 when a friend of a friend, who I’d not met before was looking for someone to crew for him to bring a Westerly Konsort Duo 29’ he’d just bought in Aberystwyth back to the Hamble (again). I volunteered, not one to miss a free adventure. I had in the intervening years taken up and done a fair bit of sailplane gliding, so, although no longer ‘current’, I had quite a few skills such as navigation, route/passage planning, meteorology knowledge and map/chart reading skills, under ‘my belt’, which turned out to be usefully transferable. A couple of hours after we left Aberystwyth the owner/skipper got seasick and took to the berth in the fore peak. (Wouldn’t have been my choice, buy what the hey.) So I more or less sailed single hand for four days and nights around Lands End to the Hamble. The experience inspired me to join a couple of courses and get my my RYA Day Skipper rating and I’d like to also get Coastal Skipper rating. I joined two supervised ‘Mile Building’ group weekends across the channel. I’m not interested in racing or fast sailing, just cruising, for which I have no boat or money. So I’ve only hired a yacht myself on four occasions. My biggest skill deficit is confidence about emergency procedures, eg MOB, also docking, sometimes I just got lucky, though often it’s been a mess, and I’ve never tried anchoring overnight. So I’m hoping MarineVerse may be a way of putting in some hours of practice in the NauticEd Training Room. Cheers, Dick.
Sailing experience:
A couple of ‘in at the deep end’ experiences in the UK, including a four day/night more or less singlehanded mid wales to south coast. A couple of week end supervised group trips across the channel. A couple of 5 day courses to get Day Skipper rating. More details in profile section ‘Why MarineVerse’ above.
Sailing inOpti Pro & Catamaran Zone 6 & Dinghy Pro & Waszp Pro & Hansa 303 Intro & Catamaran Pro & Yacht Intro & Dinghy Intro leagues.
