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Helmsman course


wullie

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Was wondering can anybody on the site recommend a company for my wife and myself to take this, looking for 2 days we are expecting to be buying our boat this year and want to take this to give us some understanding on safe practice on the handling of the boat.

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Any training is good but as in most things experience will be gained later.

Is there nowhere in Scotland doing this .

A couple of days on a Holiday boat would give you the training and some living aboard experience the crew will be glad of help.

Edited by b0atman
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couple of thoughts here - if you're happy to travel and money isn't tight, you could come down here (well near) and try a weekend course at Bear boating... make a holiday out of it,

 

 

http://0www.bearboating.co.uk/training.htm

 

OR why not try one of Paul Smiths discvoery days down in Calcutt? - https://livingonanarrowboat.leadpages.net/narrowboat-discovery-day/

 

I've no connection with either, but given we're not hiring this year before getting our new boat, we intend to do both.

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yes, you can do the helsmans certificate in Scotland but I am not sure of who to contact. Iain-s should chip in later as he will know.

 

haggis

 

Iain chippng in :

 

Chrissy at Canalskills is very competent.

 

An oher possibility is ReUnion,who have a wide beam in Edinburgh, but usually use a small narrow beam based at Falkirk for the assessment. They don't run "public" courses very often, but are fairly flexible.

Edited by Iain_S
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couple of thoughts here - if you're happy to travel and money isn't tight, you could come down here (well near) and try a weekend course at Bear boating... make a holiday out of it,

 

 

http://0www.bearboating.co.uk/training.htm

 

OR why not try one of Paul Smiths discvoery days down in Calcutt? - https://livingonanarrowboat.leadpages.net/narrowboat-discovery-day/

 

I've no connection with either, but given we're not hiring this year before getting our new boat, we intend to do both.

 

I don't think Paul has any qualifications, and despite his website, does not really have extensive boating experience. This is why they are called discovery days rather than training! It would be better to get the training from someone who can offer a certificate at the end then you might get a few quid off your insurance, oreven be able to drive a diesel boat (as I believe the basic helmsman certificate is an acceptable qualification for "high risk" roving traders).

 

................Dave

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I don't think Paul has any qualifications, and despite his website, does not really have extensive boating experience. This is why they are called discovery days rather than training! It would be better to get the training from someone who can offer a certificate at the end then you might get a few quid off your insurance, oreven be able to drive a diesel boat (as I believe the basic helmsman certificate is an acceptable qualification for "high risk" roving traders).

 

................Dave

 

Agreed about Paul - The Bear boating lot do the proper one though... but we we're going to use Paul as a means for the other half to play around driving someone ELSE'S boat before our own as I tend to get stuck on the tiller during locks etc.

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  • 1 month later...

I am glad you managed to get sorted out.

 

Just in case anyone else stumbles across this thread at a later date I would add that the helmsman certificate can be gained through Chesterfield Canal Trust using their "Hugh Henshal" trip boat.

 

They run 4 different trip boats on the canal and that requires a lot of volunteer skippers to ensure they can run all the days and hours they do through the year. The Trust train all their own crew and also offer training on a paid for basis to the general public. The use of this service puts money directly back into The Trust and so subsidises the cost of training their own crew

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  • 4 months later...

Sorry for not getting back quicker about our helmsman course, we had an absolutely fantastic time for two days with Linda from Cheshire Cat Training very patient and explained everything clearly and in a way we could understand her instructions, i didn't want it to end so now house on sale we can't wait to get our own boat, years in coming but at last we can see light at end of a very long tunnel.

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Willow Wren ?

 

 

http://www.willowwrentraining.co.uk

 

 

Daniel

I can thoroughly recommend Willow Wren. I got a day's inland waterways helmsman course from them as a freebie from work whilst training as a Boatmaster (having steered narrowboats for ten years), and I was very impressed with the course.

 

Enough practical things from traditional practice (boatman's hitch!) and teaching a lot of good skills- springing off, sensible lock use, winding- with a good ratio of trainees to instructors, and a good variety of scenarios and practice, with everyone having a go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would like to go a helmsman course, would be fun

 

It would indeed be great fun, attending training courses in a subject that you are expert in is really interesting, and you will learn something too. Its very difficult to attend a course and not learn anything at all. In my field of work I once, and only once, attended a course where I learnt nothing at all, but even then I learnt something about the mentality of the company that was running the course, I also learned that a course run by people who know their stuff but perhaps do not present it perfectly is still much much better than a course run by "professional trainers" who know nuffin and just work from a script.

 

...............Dave

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It would indeed be great fun, attending training courses in a subject that you are expert in is really interesting, and you will learn something too. Its very difficult to attend a course and not learn anything at all. In my field of work I once, and only once, attended a course where I learnt nothing at all, but even then I learnt something about the mentality of the company that was running the course, I also learned that a course run by people who know their stuff but perhaps do not present it perfectly is still much much better than a course run by "professional trainers" who know nuffin and just work from a script.

 

...............Dave

Well said Dave, driving a NB and not least everything around it, is very different from what I do.

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Sorry for not getting back quicker about our helmsman course, we had an absolutely fantastic time for two days with Linda from Cheshire Cat Training very patient and explained everything clearly and in a way we could understand her instructions, i didn't want it to end so now house on sale we can't wait to get our own boat, years in coming but at last we can see light at end of a very long tunnel.

 

 

 

Good for you. We sold our house 18 months ago and bought a boat, haven't looked back since.

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Well house sold just final paperwork, starting to get into swing of things again now we know we are so close to doing it after years of reading up looking at boats having made friends with boats and picking there brains, all very helpful can't wait, exciting times ahead.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Canal Experience, Jan Knox. Google it.

 

Southern GU

 

Someone contacted us for training handling a wide beam boat, particularly on the Grand Union. As we train for handling barges in France we are not particularly relevant to him. I'm very out of touch with things like this in the UK. The Canal Experience website is rather basic - does anyone have any experience with them? Are there other instructors West London/Southern G.U.?

 

Tam

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Terry Robertson at www.trboathandling.com. We did his three day course on the Shropshire four years ago and are still benefitting from it. Lots of practical advice and just the right balance of instruction and letting you get on with it.

Edited by Patrick_C
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