Sara Hopkinson – författare

If coastal cruising still feels like juggling tides, COLREGs, and crew nerves at once, this book turns Day Skippering into calm, repeatable routines.This instructional sailing and seamanship guide builds RYA Day Skipper competence in boat handling, coastal navigation and pilotage, weather decisions, and onboard safety. It lays out step-by-step procedures and checklists for passage planning with tides and under-keel clearance, close-quarters manoeuvring, sail handling and reefing, anchoring and mooring, and emergency drills from MOB to VHF/DSC distress calls. It also teaches core rules and calculations—chart datum, COG/SOG, spring vs neap tides, and the COLREGs reality that there is no absolute “right of way.” This book covers:- Pre-departure routines: engine checks, briefing, roles, and fender/warp setup for departures and arrivals.- Close-quarters handling under power: pivot point awareness, propwalk in reverse, and using bursts with neutral to control momentum.- Coastal navigation and pilotage: CADET, EP, tidal vectors, CTS planning, transits, clearing bearings, and night-entry light recognition.- Emergency procedures: MOB immediate actions, DSC distress alert and Mayday format, diesel troubleshooting (bleeding, impeller), and fire/first-aid priorities.A Day Skipper-level manual that replaces guesswork with checklists and drilled procedures, raising safety and confidence for beginner-to-intermediate skippers and crews on coastal passages.

VHF Companion 2nd Edition features 24 splash proof cards covering every type of radio call - from Mayday to calling another boat or shore station. Also Sara Hopkinson covers DSC - by pushing the red button you can automatically summon help and transmit your position encoded in the message. This 2nd edition contains all relevant updates including the latest technology developments and VHF protocols.

Obtain your radio license and operate a VHF radio set on your yacht or motorboat.  This book explains how to use a VHF radio on your boat. It covers licensing the boat and the operator, then takes you through each type of call, and its ‘standard procedure’. You can also call using Digital Selective Calling (DSC) and the book has photo sequences of how to do this.Each procedure is illustrated using the story of the yacht Sierra making various passages and communicating with other vessels, the Coastguard and other VHF operators such as yacht clubs. Probably the most important section is sending a Mayday - the nautical call for help. This 3rd edition contains all relevant updates including the latest technology developments, and VHF protocols. Recommended for the Short Range CertificateHelps you pass the examExcellent reference book to keep on boardFully illustrated step-by-step guides to every VHF procedureFun animations to describe new topics and conceptsCovers DSC, SARTS, EPIRBs, NAVTEX and CG66

Navigators have only 2 questions: Where am I? Where do I go now? This book shows the simplest way to answer these questions. It starts from scratch, uses no jargon and features graphics instead of words wherever possible. This bestselling book has been updated to cover all modern navigation. It is recommended by Fernhurst for beginners and Day Skipper students. Explaining how to look at charts, find your position, look at tides, plan your passage and determining the course to steer. It will help you find out where you are and how to get to where you want to be.

VHF Afloat explains how to use your VHF DSC radio. It covers licensing the equipment and gaining the operator certificate, and then takes you through each type of call.Each procedure is clearly illustrated using the yacht Sierra, to show how the radio is used on a passage to communicate with marinas, other vessels and the Coastguard, including how a MAYDAY is managed by the rescue services.Use VHF Afloat to help pass the assessment, and then keep it on board when you need to make a call - the facts will be right at your fingertips.

Get to grips with navigation at sea. This best-selling book gives you all the information you need to know to do just that! It starts from scratch, uses no jargon and features diagrams and pictures, instead of words, wherever possible.It covers all modern navigation and has been updated to reflect upcoming changes in Admiralty charts. It is recommended by Fernhurst Books for beginners and Day Skipper students. Written by an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and Examiner who runs her own RYA Training Centre which specialises in navigation, it is the perfect place for newcomers to navigation to start.It explains simply how to look at charts (paper or digital), find your position, look at tides, plan your passage and determine the course to steer. It will help you find out where you are and how to get to where you want to.

A pocket database containing everything a busy skipper or their crew needs to know but might find hard to remember.It is easy to take for granted how much a skipper needs to know: Navigation, how to pilot the boat into a new harbour, using the radio, checking the engine, keeping an eye out for things that need repair, monitoring the weather, feeding the crew and much, much more!This pocketbook is designed as an aide-memoire with checklists to make life easier for busy skippers and a must-have reference for first-time skippers. It should also prove an invaluable reference book for the RYA Yachtmaster and other RYA course syllabi. The book has been helping skippers for over 25 years and has been edited and thoroughly updated by Yachtmaster Instructor and Examiner, Sara Hopkinson. It has been streamlined to focus on the key things a skipper needs to know, making it quicker to find what you need and all for less than £10. (RYA and Yachtmaster are registered trademarks of the Royal Yachting Association.)