yachting nz instructor

Sailing Away Offers:

• Sailing lessons for beginners to advanced.
• Exclusive skippered charters.
• Book now for weekend and midweek sessions for summer.
• Gain international qualifications to sail a charter yacht in the Mediterranean.
• ICC - International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft is now available for New Zealanders. Contact us to book your ICC practical assessment.
• Gift vouchers available.

Sailing Away offers RYA sailing courses and lessons for all ages and all levels of experience on a modern 32-foot yacht. Learning to sail is made easy with small classes, maximum of 5 and a range of options from single sessions to five-day, 4 night away courses . See our list of courses and charter options offered by Sailing Away School of Sailing. Sailing Yacht: Take sailing lessons on Auckland Harbour aboard 'French Connection', a  modern 32 foot Beneteau Oceanis. The 'French Connection' has a tiller, not a wheel, to give a totally hands-on experience. All the equipment is modern and easy to use. Sailing Courses: The Sailing Away programmes cater for beginners to advanced sailing. Courses cover all practical aspects of helmsmenship, seamanship, personal safety and navigation. Gain an internationally recognised Royal Yachting Association (R.Y.A) qualification.  Sailing Away is the oldest Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Sail Cruising School in Auckland, New Zealand. So whether you're looking to further your sailing abilities or have an experience to remember - come learn to sail in luxury aboard the 'French Connection'. Testimonial: "Her School offers an assurance of competency for our members. Suzanne is raising the level of professionalism in sailing" - Laurie Lowther, YachtShare

Sailing Away | 09 521 2387 | P.O. Box 55205, East Ridge, Auckland [email protected] Copyright 2011 all rights reserved | Webdesign by Digizign

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See a recent issue of Boating New Zealand to read about learning to sail with Suzanne Bourke

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Amanda Swan

Great Escape Sailing – New Zealand

Meet Sailing Instructor Amanda Swan

Sailing instructors are often the most highly experienced sailors in the industry, but they all start somewhere! Gain insight into sailing from those who do it most…

Amanda Swan is a highly-experienced instructor at Great Escape Sailing, located in Opua, New Zealand (how cool is that!) – as well as – one of the best instructors in sailing! Over 380,000 ocean miles, including the first all-women Whitbread yacht, sailed from the Arctic to Antarctica, multiple Sydney-Hobart races, traversed both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and 30 years of sail-training.  Simply, WOW!

Great Escape Sailing offers a full range of sailing training, from beginner to advanced. Their program is unique and innovative: tailored to your experience, time is focused on-water, and then after instruction then you sail by yourself to hone and practice your skills. If you’ve ever dreamed of sailing in New Zealand with a pro like Amanda, we highly recommend Great Escape.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m an energetic New Zealander who enjoys applying my maritime professional experience, and leadership skills knowledge to any challenge. When not on the water I’m either ocean swimming, fishing, Celtic step dancing, sewing, knitting, or mucking around with photography. See Amanda’s full bio ›

Keelboats -or- Catamarans?

Local sailing -or- coastal/charter vacations -or- deep blue.

Deep Blue and Beyond

What’s your “Style” of sailing?

Adventure (new destinations & experiences)

What got you into sailing?

My dad started building a 16′ foot boat in our back garden shed when I was five. I was fascinated by the process and begged him to buy me an Estwing hammer so I could help.

What does sailing do (or has done) for you?

Sailing is my WORLD!

Most memorable sailing experience?

Rounding Cape Horn on Maiden in the 1989 Whitbread Around the World Race.

What are a couple of your favorite sailing spots?

Paradise Bay – Antarctica Sallyhamna – Svalbard ………and my current playground Bay of Islands – NZ.

What’s your favorite part about teaching sailors?

When they arrive at the “AH HA” moment.

What advice would you give a new student about sailing?  An experienced sailor?

New Sailor – go with the flow Experienced Sailor – don’t overthink it!

What is a random fact about yourself?

I’ve sailed to 65°S and 80°N

*NauticEd translation: that’s amazing! Simply, the 65 th parallel south is Antarctica, 80 th parallel north is the Arctic.

What’s on your sailing ‘bucket list’?

50.7447° S, 166.0564° E Motu Maha – Auckland Islands

Learn more about Amanda Swan ›

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FIGHT CHILDHOOD CANCER

NauticEd is a fully recognized education and certification platform for sailing students combining online and on-the-water real instruction ( and now VR ). NauticEd offers +24 online courses , a free sailor's toolkit that includes 2 free courses, and six ranks of certification – all integrated into NauticEd’s proprietary platform. The USCG and NASBLA recognize NauticEd as having met the established American National Standards. Learn more at www.nauticed.org .

The NauticEd Vacations team are Expert Global Yacht Charter Agents – when you book a sailing vacation or bareboat charter through NauticEd, we don’t charge you a fee – we often save you money since we can compare prices from all yacht charter companies. PLUS, we can give you advice on which destination or charter company will suit your needs best. Inquire about a Sailing Vacation or Charter .

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RYA Competent Crew Courses

The RYA Competent Crew course is for beginners and those who would like to become active crew members, rather than just passengers.

NZD $2595 (fully inclusive)

Your friendly instructor is always there to help and guide you and by the end of the course you should be able to steer, handle sails, keep a lookout, row a dinghy and assist in all the day to day duties on board. We’re pretty sure that you will also have visited some beautiful scenic anchorages and had a very enjoyable holiday.

Alternatively, if you really don’t want to learn anything, and a sailing holiday is all you are after, contact us and we’ll try and find a suitable trip for you to join us on. If there is a group of you, and you’d like to charter the whole boat with a skipper to look after the sailing, check out our skippered charter page and contact us for availability.

Pre-course experience:

Assumed knowledge:, minimum duration:, minimum age:, rya competent crew course content:.

• Knowledge of sea terms and parts of a boat, her rigging and sails
• sailhandling
• fire precautions and fighting
• personal safety equipment man overboard
• emergency equipment
• meteorology
• seasickness helmsmanship
• general duties
• manners and customs
• rules of the road

Ability after the RYA course:

What people have said about our competent crew course, a very good course.

A very good course; Jiri was to the point, so there was no misunderstanding as to what you would achieve from the course, depending on experience…… he also could cook! Lol

Great quality instruction

Great quality instruction. Jiri really helped explain issues clearly and with enthusiasm

Great tutor, extremely patient

Excellent, full content, great tutor, extremely patient. Great course. Spending time/sleeping on the boat allowed for great ability to gain confidence

We saw Hectors Dolphins

It was an amazing adventure. Lots of different things to see and do. I can’t wait to start sailing again. We saw Hectors Dolphins which was incredible!

A huge amount of knowledge

Gained a huge amount of knowledge, good course structure. Good teamwork on board. Kat was an excellent instructor

Great mix of fun and sweat

Was a great mix of fun and sweat. We learnt a lot, both theoretical and practice. Felt well supported through the whole experience. Dave was fabulous. Easy company and also an excellent instructor who was always in control. Dave was magic with the kids. This was such an amazing experience. I was really worried, but keen. After the course I feel so confident in my ability to learn more and I have fallen in love with the ocean.

Dave inspired confidence

I really appreciated Dave’s calm, cheerful and positive approach. He inspired confidence. I felt free to ask lots of questions, his experience is obvious and his enthusiasm for what we were doing felt genuine. I’d definitely recommend this course and look forward to more.

Expectations exceeded!

Expectations exceeded! Highly knowledgeable instructor & the course was the ideal experience to get a taste of the sailing lifestyle. Highly recommended

Great instruction

…Many thanks to David for his great instruction & excellent teaching & to Chris for his help with our pre-course questions. Meals, particularly dinner were great…

Safe learning environment

…a safe learning environment, practical experience gained was wonderful & there was much time for practice and repetition to practice all the skills, leaving me wanting to sail more and learn more.

Sailing in some stunning locations

Had a great time this week sailing in some stunning locations…. Dave has excellent teaching methods and made the whole week a fun experience.

Brilliant!! Awesome 5 days! Good food! Good company!

Awesome!! First time sailing, loved it! Chris was awesome. Learnt heaps!! He made everything easy to understand. Brilliant!! Awesome 5 days! Good food! Good company!

Great experience

Gave myself a better knowledge of sailing… very good… very patient, great experience of sailing the world’s oceans, great teacher. I feel the course covered everything I needed to make me a better sailor.

Not the course for you? Head back to the RYA Cruising Scheme Explained page.

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Learn to Sail

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Sailing is a sport for everyone, whether it be family cruising or the thrills and spills of racing. Sailing is the most accessible sport - you can do it no matter your physical ability, age or budget.

Learn to sail courses for a variety of ages and types of sailing are offered by Yachting New Zealand affiliated clubs and sailing schools. Clubs and sailing schools provide you with a good experience, a nationally-recognised programme delivered by trained coaches.

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Race officials make a huge contribution to yacht clubs around New Zealand. Whether helping out with local club racing or running an international regatta, neither would be possible without dedicated race officials.

• Learn to sail adventures
• Introduction to sailing
• First Voyage
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Competent Cruising (Level 2) Yachting New Zealand

Coaching sailing skills aboard a Noelex 25

This Great Escape Adult Learn to Sail Course is a Yachting New Zealand Level 2 intermediate qualification.  At the end of the course, you should be competent and confident to undertake an overnight voyage in sheltered waters.

Course Content

• Safety checks including weather interpretation
• Use of VHF marine radio
• An understanding of a marine engine, carrying out pre-start motor checks, starting and manoeuvring
• Berthing and mooring
• A range of anchoring techniques
• Person overboard exercises under power and under sail
• Hoisting and setting the jib and main, changing the headsail, tacking and gybing and sail trim in all crew positions
• Helming a boat through all basic sailing manoeuvres
• Reefing sails
• Planning a voyage and use basic navigation skills
• Experiencing a night sail (optional)
• Good boat keeping.
• ‘Rules of the Road’ on the water
• Tow and row a dinghy safely including coming alongside and transferring passenger

Instructor and sailors aboard Davidson 20 Carnival

Course delivery – Accrediting Sailing Holidays

This qualification is obtained from our six-day holiday or the five-day adventure if you have previously completed the two-day introduction level one with Great Escape or have suitable prior experience.  It is delivered aboard either the Davidson 20 or the Noelex 25.  Our instructor ratio is 1:2, usually a couple, two friends or an adult and child.  (We can also cater for solo sailors, small families and groups of up to four on request).

• Six-day sailing holiday.  Three days with an instructor then three days sailing by yourselves and applying the knowledge.

YNZ Level 2 Practical on the water assessment during the course by your instructor

Sailors completing the six-day holiday to obtain the Yachting New Zealand Level 2 certification may choose to also qualify for the IYT International Crew qualification (eLearning and theory exam required)

Included in your course

• Yachting New Zealand Level 2 Certification
• Yachting New Zealand Level 2 workbook and logbook
• Opua Cruising Club guest membership
• Accommodation aboard
• Accreditation to bareboat charter with Great Escape post course

We operate all year and courses start on demand.  Contact us to check availability of boat and instructor for your preferred dates  Click for our quick enquiry form

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/// Floating Office , A Pier, Bay of Islands Marina, Baffin Street, Opua, Bay of Islands

PO Box 461, Paihia 0247, New Zealand