No doubt you may have heard many different stories about driving a boat “It’s just like driving a car”; WRONG it is nothing like driving a car. You are on a moving boat on a MOVING surface and you don’t really know what is going on underneath, with different currents pulling you this way and that, PLUS the wind blowing you around, it can be very difficult to manoeuvre a vessel in close quarters, especially in high winds.

Here at Workman International Marine School we specialise in close quarter handling, one of the most difficult tasks for all boaters. For those experienced boaters amongst you how many times have you heard other boaters say “I was just coming in to moor up and the wind came from nowhere”.

The main thing to understand the wind and tide and what it is going to do to you and your vessel, NOT understanding this can lead to very expensive mistakes. A small mistake can compound another and another, so what potentially starts off as a small error becomes a very expensive and embarrassing mistake. Some people can moor their vessels perfectly when no one is watching, but how often does it all go sadly wrong with an audience, the unexplained revving of the engines, crew and skipper all shouting at one another and it still goes wrong even with all this wonderful advice being thrown about.

“THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT”

It tells us that that person either has not had any training or has had a very bad instructor. At Workman International Marine School we say there is no such thing as a bad student only a bad instructor.

We do not just give you a course and take your money, we constantly encourage you to further your training, and we are proud to say that many students have done this and we constantly keep in touch with our students, difficult not to as most have become friends and we feel this speaks for itself.

At our Training Centre we will teach you in such a way that all the correct information goes in, we believe we teach in a friendly and relaxed manner, a very comfortable atmosphere and not regimental. We have fun. Although a very serious subject, training does not have to be a chore after all boating is a relaxing and fun sport.

While the Severn is a great place to learn, why get freezing cold when you have the opportunity to jump on a cheap flight to sunny Spain, during those horrible depressing cold winter months and come and train in the Mediterranean or the Inland Sea of the Mar Menor. Although do not be fooled, both the Inland Sea and the Mediterranean can have instant changes in their conditions, rip tides, very large swells and large breaking waves, but it is warmer.

We continue to train not only you but ourselves pushing our Instructors to the limit setting each other new and exciting challenges. All of our Instructors have a wealth of experience; they are all qualified to commercial standards by the RYA/MCA.

One accolade that we have is that other schools adopted our training procedure, so whichever way you look at it, we would like to think that we lead the way in training. I personally have over 35 years experience and combining this with the experience of our other Instructors comes to a massive 90 years. Some of this experience we would like to pass on to you.

On a personal note, I would like say thank you to all our students past and present. We could not have grown as we have and achieved all that we have and of course kept the quality of our training to the exacting high standards had it not been for you and our mission is to continue to pass on our experience to other boaters.

Please now take the time to look at our website, you have come this far. Take a look at some of the feedback that we have received.

Of course, you may not or want to own your own boat. Here at our Training Centre in Spain why not charter one of our coded RIBS and even our Sealine S48, a luxury sports cruiser fully coded for carrying passengers. Swim, snorkel or just sit and relax.

We look forward to meeting you.
Gary Workman
Principal

“Workman International Marine School promoting safety awareness and peace of mind”