The Milebuilding Club

The great strength of the Milebuilding Club is quality training on the Solent delivered one day-sail at a time. We schedule sailing three days a week – all year-round.
No complicated formalities – just turn up and sail!

What is Milebuilding?

Milebuilding is the process of building experience, sailing skills and confidence over a period of time. Milebuilding in the Solent is an especially valuable activity because the Solent is busy, shallow in parts and strongly tidal. It is often said that if you can sail the Solent you can sail anywhere;  maybe – maybe not, but when tackled as a member of the Milebuilding club it is undoubtedly a great place to make a civilised attack on the steepest part of the sailing learning curve.

Would you like to learn to sail on the Solent? Perhaps you would like to get into sailing but don’t fancy intensive 5 day live-aboard courses – or have you taken a ‘skippering’ course only to be left feeling that you aren’t quite there yet in terms of skills and confidence?

The Milebuilding Club has a long track-record of taking not-quite-there-yet sailors and moulding them into competent, savvy skippers with the all-round skills to confidently run their own yacht or successfully tackle the Yachtmaster exam.

We sail Thunderbolt, our Bavaria 38 from Southampton. Sailing is organised by email and online calendar. Once you have joined the club there is no deposit to find and no formalities each time you sail.

The small membership means great availability and our ‘easy-in, easy-out’ terms make the club a low risk, high value route to solid all-round sailing competence.

Milebuilding Club Terms – at a glance:

• Trial sail day: £150 – £75 rebated after 3 months of paid membership
• Membership fees: £225 / month – 2 months fees on joining
  
• Notice period: 3 months

Milebuilding Club values:

The Milebuilding club is built around two simple values

• Quality, informed training
• A cordial, comfortable, inclusive atmosphere

Everything we do is informed by these core values. Consequently membership offers best value to those who are open to instruction and who enjoy the company of like minded fellow sailors.

Extra-Curricular Milebuilding

• ‘Extra-curricular’ because it is takes place outside our core Friday, Saturday, Sunday return-to-base activities
• Weekday adventures which add value to your membership
• 3/4 day trips beyond the Solent – with just a modest daily charge
• Lots of time at the wheel – lots of time to trim sails – lots of time to reflect
• An opportunity to experience passage planning – passage making
• Stay aboard Thunderbolt overnight

Who is the Milebuilding club for?

• Complete beginners who want to get it right – right from the start
• Newly minted Day Skippers, who need to put some polish on their skills prior to chartering or moving on to boat ownership
• Ex boat-owners, who will appreciate the capped costs, no compulsory maintenance commitment and not having to find crew. You don’t even have to buy milk – just turn up and sail!
• Essentially anyone who would like to sail and train with a focussed, cordial crowd

What it is:

• A way to build and consolidate solid sailing skills
• A club for new sailors who would like to sail regularly without fuss and formalities
• A club for sailors who would like to avoid a boat-ownership ‘runaway-costs’ nightmare

What it isn’t:

• Elitist
• Complicated
• Something new – this is our 9th year
• A syndicate, shared ownership, yacht charter or corporate entertainment
• Lads days out – we’re here to sail – see Milebuilding club values above
• Beer & bullsh*t – see above

If you are a new sailor go to the Sailing Projects website and take the time to read our article on sailing etiquette. It was written to bring new sailors up to speed with those crucial onboard social skills and domestic niceties that make for a painless entrée into the sexy and glamorous world of yachting…

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