Training Course Programmes

Funding is available for members of our Volunteer Skippers team.

Certificate in Community Boat Management for experienced crew

The Pirate Club is an accredited training centre for this course. These are two-day residential courses, taking place on Pirate Princess and Pirate Viscount and are available to those people who already meet (or are close to meeting) the 'Experienced' criteria as outlined under "Levels of Qualification".

Certificate in Community Boat Management for the newcomer to boating

With identical course content, only the delivery format is new in that the two ‘formal’ days are not consecutive and there are opportunities for practice and additional learning between the introductory day and the completion/ assessment day. This suits people with less experience or who prefer to learn at a slower pace.

The introductory day is a 9.30-5.30 theoretical and practical training day; introducing trainees to the course programme log book and manual. Following the introductory day, trainees may attend our ‘regular’ practice days, or if appropriate, specific training ‘workshops’ for their benefit in order to develop their boat handling & crew management skills and indeed to progress their learning generally. The completion/assessment ‘day’ is in fact a full 24 hours, commencing/concluding at 6.00pm and wherever possible including an overnight stay.

Complete Crew Course

This is a very practical, hands-on course that will take the younger and less experienced boater and give them experience of all aspects of running our boats. You can take this course from 14 years of age upwards. The course can be run over a weekend or over 5 weekly sessions.

Training for Young People

The Pirate Club is experienced at training young people in boating skills. We run our own training at the Pirate Castle and elsewhere. In addition to the Complete Crew Course we have run our own Junior Skippers Scheme where we train youngsters from as young as 9 years of age in basic boating skills. Perhaps we could offer something like this for your club. Training could be over 5 days on board ‘Pirate Princess’ with 6 young people and two of your staff. The course could be run on a weekly basis or over a couple of residential weekends and a couple of evenings.

Call the Pirate Castle on 020 7267 6605 and talk to Giles about training or e-mail us at info@thepiratecastle.org

- Levels of qualification - About our training -