Conversion Course, Gosport
Part of the requirements for doing the first bit of training in Singapore is that crew must do a three-day conversion to big boats course before level two. What that turned out to mean was that I spent what was supposed to be three days essentially re-doing my level one training, just on a Clipper 68 instead of the Beneteau 40.7 (I was on CV11, Visit Finland).
The group in that course (they were all doing their level one training, mostly for the first time) was fantastic. We connected as a team nearly immediately, which is hugely helpful in doing any maneuvers. I was one step ahead in many respects, having already done my bit in Singapore. The two boats are very similar and use basically the same skill set.
The course taught me much more about life on board (especially during previous races - thanks to the skipper for indulging our love of gossip and drama), using backstays, different types of sails, and things like that.
One of the highlights was being able to stay on board an extra day to do an overnight sail with them. We mostly just sailed back and forth in the channel, which was a bit of a bummer, but we didn't have that many crew members to begin with (it was worse when seasickness took its toll). It's very difficult to operate a watch system when you're shorthanded.
I'll go into the training more in detail in subsequent posts.
