Your sailing and cruising coach
Over forty years experience in sailing cruise management
Yacht & Powercraft design degree, Solent University
Yacht master since 1983
Owner of various sailing boats ranging from 30 to 50 feet
Live abroard and yacht maintenance experience
New to sailing?
Recently acquired a yacht?
Need a refresher course?
Get off to a good start and live your dreams with peace of mind
You have recently acquired a yacht and maybe started to live onboard part-time or even permanently.
You are new to sailing and owning a boat,you may have little experience or perhaps have some but don't feel 100% comfortable..
At first, it can be a steep but enjoyable learning curve, my role is to guide and coach you from; setting up and using your board electronics, to optimising your yacht for the best sailing experience. Formulating a maintenance programme and of course weather chart analyses, VHF use, and preparing you and your boat for a fun, safe, sailing experience!
Together we look at the basics from tying the right knots to understanding the sailing terminology, leaving the dockside, and manoeuvering your boat confidently and safely. Building your confidence and understanding of helming, course keeping, sail trimming and route planning. I have outlined a few common options that I specialise in.
I underligned a few option i can help you with.
Option 1 - Coaching on your own boat
You initially contact me by e-mail, and we arrange a phone or video call to get to know one another, sailing is all about confidence. My role, as your sailing coach, is to ensure you have complete confidence in my experience and ability to help you meet your goals!
If we agree, and you feel comfortable, I would then join you aboard your yacht for a period of time, usually between one and two weeks to coach, guide, and assist. I show you how to become more confident in living on board your new home. This period is often used on a maiden voyage such as to get your yacht securely and safely from point A to point B and give you hands-on sailing experience.
My knowledge and experience are extensive and cover the following sailing areas: The Mediterranean:Adriatic sea, Tyrennean sea, French Riviera, The Ionian, The Aegean, The Saronic Golf, The Dodecanese
The Caribbean, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Martiner Tyrrhénienne, French riviera Ionian Sea, Aegean Sea, Saronic Gulf, Dodecanese and the Caribbean: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Martin.
Option 2 - Coaching with Chronos
You privatise Chronos for a minimum of one week.
We'll have plenty of time to discuss your various projects and teach you navigation or perfect your skills.
Consult our cruises and pick up the week and destination suited for you.
We can concentrate on the followings:
- Marina manoeuvering, docking without bow truster
- Docking with a limited crew.
- Make a safe mooring to have a peaceful night
- Night cruising and navigation
- Trim the sails correctly
- Steer efficiently and without effort
- Adjusting the sail, reefing
- Navigation without instruments to feel. Position yourself on the water. Estimate your speed. Make fast calculations for your ETA
Option 3 - Online coaching
We can defind upfront a number of hours to cover your needs
The first half-hour consultation is free so that we can get to know each other and assess whether my services could be of use to you.
A few examples where i could be useful to you
- Help with the purchase of your dream yacht: Help with online selection, important aspects to consider, legal aspects, flags, insurance, survey and estimate of value.
- Yacht maintenance
- Theory of sailing
- Aero and hydrodynamic of sailing
- Safety on board
- And all questions you might have relative to sailing and cruising
Case study: Renate & Peter, 60-somethings with no boating experience
When I was contacted by Renate and Peter, I was a little sceptical about their project, and with good reason:
After seeing an online video of a family living and travelling with their sailboat, the couple bought a Lagoon 45S catamaran, which they christened Amira. Both had no sailing experience and no knowledge of boats. Peter and Renate are both retired. What's more, Peter has Parkinson's disease, which has motivated the couple to carry out their plan B: buy a sailing boat and sail around the world to enjoy their remaining years to the full.
They quickly realised that simply manoeuvring an aviary of this size required skills they didn't yet have and contacted me. After several telephone conversations, I realised that their motivation was boundless and that they were capable of realising their dream.
It's late October 2022. They're in Italy, in Loano on their sailboat. I suggest that together we take the boat to Corfu, where I live on Chronos, and spend the winter and spring there so that we can do some coaching days.
Their first experience was sailing through the Mediterranean from west to east in winter, with wind gusts, night sailing and much more. We're taking our time and progressing according to the weather and the couple's progress. I'm taking the opportunity to optimise the boat (reefing system settings, electronics, radar, AIS, etc.) and make a list of things to fix as soon as we get to Greece. Three weeks of sailing through and training for the couple and a lot of discussion and sharing of experience for myself.
We continue our coaching in Corfu as soon as the weather permits. Mandraki is an old port that requires skill and know-how to 'bring' the yacht back into place. We spend several days on the water perfecting the manoeuvres in port and under sail. Time well spent and when Renate and Peter set off in the spring to sail, I felt they were much more confident and at ease with their yacht, which, after all, is almost 9 metres wide!
I can only thank them for the trust they have placed in me and the wonderful times we have spent together.
Renate and Peter have become friends and I'm really enjoying following their journey. They are currently in the Caribbean after a trouble-free Atlantic crossing.
They were also the ones who convinced me that I should do more coaching.
Their testimonial
It's not enough to take a course and get a sailing licence: if you buy a yacht without ever having sailed, you need a skipper. A good skipper, a professional skipper who not only sails, but also knows how to explain in an understandable way what to do, when and under what conditions, to sail around the world with the wind. Stephan Rauer is such a professional skipper. He sailed with us and our Amira, a Lagoon 450S, from northern Italy to Greece. A training trip and transfer to the winter camp in Corfu.
In 21 days, from 30 October to 19 November 2022, we set off from Loano in northern Italy to reach Préveza in Greece, via the island of Elba (Portoferraro), Salerno (near Naples), the Aeolian triangle with the islands of Stromboli, Lipari and Vulcano, and Catania in Sicily. We then sailed to Corfu (Mandraki Marina) via the island of Paxos (Lakka).
We moored our catamaran in harbours with mooring lines, docked 'Roman Catholic' and dropped anchor. We sailed with mainsail and genoa and with a parasailor. We sailed in rather stormy weather and had to motor in calm conditions. We learnt how to navigate with a plotter (Navionics), how to use radar when sailing at night and how to interpret weather charts (Windy, Predict Wind) beforehand. And, and, and...
Stephan is a passionate and energetic sailor who has also helped us to fine-tune our boat, from correcting the reefing line to maintaining the sails and setting up the router. A polyglot (English, French, German), he also accompanied us to appointments with craftsmen and a boatyard, so that we now have a generator on board, among other things.
Stephan is not only a magnificent and enthusiastic navigator, he's also very good at explaining things. Not everyone has this gift. And not all skippers have the patience to sail with real 'greenhorns' who still have no idea what a halyard, sheet or shackle is. Stephan has the necessary calm and serenity. He was always cheerful, straightforward and content. 21 days in a small space was no problem at all. We learned a lot from Stephan and we also had a lot of fun together. What could be better than a training cruise like this on your own boat? We now feel equipped for longer cruises and we've already sailed alone in the Mediterranean.
Renate et Peter Rueger
S/Y Amira
Translated from german
Case study: Jon Treanor, SY Hineni, new Jeanneau 440
I've known Jon for several years now. We met in Amorgos in October. I was the skipper of a private yacht and was stuck in the harbour following engine damage, with no way of repairing it on the spot or getting out of the bay under sail. At the end of the day, I saw a sailboat being towed and helped it to moor alongside the quay. There are two of them, Jon at the helm and a woman in her thirties at the moorings. I can see from the way she's tying the cleat knots that she doesn't know a thing about it. Jon tells me his story. He bought his yacht in Turkey, a Sun Odyssey 43, at the end of the season and decided to take it to Greece. He hired a woman who claimed to have several years' experience to help him. He trusted her and the two of them set off in October to sail through the Aegean Sea from East to West. They encountered strong conditions, which is normal for the season, and Jon had to manage the boat alone. It turns out that the person he has hired has no ocean experience and quickly becomes a liability. The result is two Pan, Pan. I help him sort out the problem and we become the best of friends. Having a bit more experience than him, I coach him and regularly work on his new yacht.
In the meantime, he has become an experienced skipper and organises cruises like mine in Greece with his new yacht, a Jeanneau 440.
His testimonial
“Stephan is one of those rare individuals that literally shows you the ropes simply and easily! He is without a doubt the best sailor and coach I have ever met. Whether preparing you for formal sailing qualifications or helping with setting up your boat, I found Stephan to be knowledgeable and fun to be around! I have learned so much, that they don’t teach you in sailing school, just by simply having him on board. We discovered so much together about a newly designed boat that to me was an invaluable experience.”
Traduit de l’anglais
Jon Treanor
BA Hons, Dip Psych, EMCC, UKCP, BACP, FILM, FRSA.
S/Y Hineni, www.wouwei.net
Contact
Stephan’s mobile: +33 602 011 895 (Also WhatsApp)
Email: stephan{at}sailanddiscover.com
You could also fill up the from below and we will come back to you as soon as possible.
Looking forward to meet you