On Thu, 24 Jul 2003 06:50:36 GMT, Moores Family
wrote:

G'day folks
Like a lot of baby boomers, we're planning our retirement cruising
activities. I've had a fair amount of experience bay cruising in a H28
in past years, but that was a while ago before career and kids got in
the way.

We're now looking at cruising 'round the Oz coast and S/W Pacific for a
few years in something nice and comfortable 'round 45 feet or so. I'm
perfectly happy with my standard of seamanship and we'll be doing a lot
of shakedown stuff before we go offshore too much, but I've no formal
qualifications- nor any real desire to have any, unless there's a real
good reason for same...

I've no intention of taking crew, paying or otherwise, just wife and
self. Does anyone know of requirements for licences or formal
qualifications for Oz registered international cruising? The insurance
company is happy with my current experience and isn't interested in
anything else...

Thanks
JM

We (wife and I) too are in Oz, boomers, like you spend time (Port
Phillip?) bay cruising and are currently fitting out our 44' ketch to
sail north up the east coast, turn left and come back in 5 years.

We chose to work up to our Yachtmasters because while we thought we
knew everything, it never hurts to see how other people do it. It is
also helping (a little) with insurance. Our choice tho', not becuase
we needed to.

One course we would throughly recommend is Safety & Survival at Sea.
Not only is it an interesting expeience stepping up into a liferaft,
righting it, seeing how comfortable a 6-man raft is with six men/women
in it actually is, but the theory side also covers off a lot of risk
assessment, minimisation and management aboard. If something does go
wrong, not neccessarily total loss, but, say, loss of a finger in a
winch, all the Duty of Care stuff around can mean the Skipper ends up
in court unless they can show they took clear steps to minimise such
risk.

Just some thoughts

Peter

www.oceanodyssey.net
"Do not measure your life by the number of breaths you take,
Rather by the number of times life just takes your breath away"