Caprera Sailing Center’s new C5 offshore course kicks off in the Aegean

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Caprera Sailing Center's new C5 offshore course kicks off in the Aegean

pogo 12.50

 

The Caprera Sailing Center’s new offshore course starts in the Aegean. We interviewed Carlo Castelli, veteran instructor and tour leader, who, together with Enrico Bertacchi , secretary of CVC, unveil the new features of the Cabinato 5 level course. The goal is to teach independent offshore sailing, and prepare the best kids for the AEGEAN 600 in 2025.

 

Why is the Altura C5 course different from all others?

Carlo Castelli replies: In the C5 course we will return to sailing in Greece, covering about 600 miles in a week in continuous sailing, aboard a Pogo 12.50, thus getting out of the comfort zone of the Maddalena archipelago, with the aim of teaching students to go out to sea independently to discover new horizons, grinding out miles, safely.

Adds Enrico Bertacchi: There is a proverb that says “few people can give the sea a thou, and those few who could, do not.” If in the drift courses we learn how to play and have fun on the sailboat, and in the C1-C4 courses we learn sailing technique on cabin cruisers to basically do coastal cruising, it is only through the direct experience at sea of the C5 Offshore course that we learn how articulate offshore sailing is. Those who enter C5 complete a course of training from the Sailing Center and will be ready to learn, for a lifetime, from the sea.

 

To go 600 miles in a week, what boat will you have?

Carlo Castelli: We will have a very fast Pogo 12.50, which we rent from FastSaling.gr our established partner. It is the boat that allows for a technical progression from the boats used at the C4 course, armed with a full set of sails, in addition to the mainsail and jib we will have as many as two gennakers and a code0 on board.

 

Why do you sail in Greece and no longer in the Tyrrhenian Sea?

In the Aegean, there is more wind in summer than in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Departure and arrival are from the port of Lavrion, from Olympic Marina, which can be reached by plane faster than Athens. We decide the route according to the weather conditions. The idea is to sail at full speed, day and night. Since there are 8 of us on a boat without a watermaker and generator, we normally have to make at least one or two stops.

Lavrion’s Olympic Carina (Laurio) home base for the Caprera Sailing Center’s Altura C5 course

For the best students, the AEGEAN 600

Enrico Bertacchi : The big news is that at this year’s Altura C5 course, we structure the course to prepare and select the best students for the 2025 AEGEAN 600, the most beautiful and challenging offshore race in the Mediterranean. This race starts from Lavrion like our course, has a couple of gates passing the volcano of Santorini, passing under Rhodes, coming up from the Turkish coast, passing under Mykonos covering, as in our course about 600 miles. We will have a boat available for two weeks; those selected at this year’s C5 will be on board the first week to prepare the boat and the second week to race.

Adds Carlo Castelli: Tomorrow, our students could, why not, wear the CVC pennant at the ARC as well….

An image of the AEGEAN 600 that well represents the context in which the C5 course takes place (source aegean600.com)

 

So each week of the course has a variable itinerary?

At the C5 course we teach our kids to make strategic choices based on the weather, take advantage of the wind and currents plan their course and route. Thus, there is no fixed itinerary, but rather, it is precisely a feature of this course, to modulate the teaching activities and route constantly, according to conditions.

You can go down the for the for the Cyclades, go to Rhodes and come up along the Turkish coast, because even in case of Meltemi, along the Turkish coast you can go upwind. Other times it may be convenient to go toward the Peloponnese. Last year,for example, in the first week of the course, we did Lavrion, non-stop to Rhodes and back to Lavrion, sailing between the islands.

The route of the AEGEAN 600, indicative of the navigation area of the Altura C5 course, the itinerary will be variable depending on weather conditions

From a technological point of view do you use electronics?

Without forgetting our origins, so paper, ship points made with surveys and estimated navigation, we teach navigation using all technologies to the best of our ability, in addition to the GPS plotter of course we use weather forecast models, GRIB files, and all on-board electronics.

 

What shifts do you make, and how do you manage the boat?

Boat management, and rostering, are one of the defining themes of this course. There are eight of us on board, including two instructors and six students (C5 is the only CVC course to have 2 instructors on board).

We make two shifts of four people, and on each shift there is the shift leader and his second, who will be the Watch Leaders. The four on deck outside take care of navigation, the others alternate shifts between rest and below-deck activities. For example, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. those on rest will sleep until about 11:15 a.m., and they will activate 45 minutes before the shift change by preparing lunch, eat, and leave lunch ready for the outgoing shift.

 

What are the roles of those on duty on the deck?

In navigation, the roles are Navigator, Helmsman and two tailers. If necessary then hands are called on deck, for example for a sail change or a more challenging wind situation, there are six of you on deck, and you avoid being eight all together so as not to reduce mobility in the cockpit. Compared to C4 the really new role compared to the other courses is that of the Navigator, because he is the one who then studies the course and studies the weather.

 

All of your courses devote a lot of space to safety, what do you learn again at C5?

In safety briefings we explain well that on the high seas everyone has to know how to do a little bit of all the roles, There can be the paradoxical situation where out of 7 people, only one is able to operate, so every crew member has to know safety procedures perfectly, especially the radio communications part, satellite EPIRB, raft, grab bag etc.

The safety-oriented forma mentis is then made up of lessons given by the sea from which a lifetime is not enough to learn, but also by sharing the experiences and choices made by those who have milled many miles. The goal is to mature peace of mind and awareness, especially to also be able to choose when to sail and when it is best to wait in port for better conditions. C5 deep-sea sailing is certainly challenging, but CVC students are really taught to step out of the comfort zone gradually, so that they can then fend for themselves in difficult conditions. We would like to emphasize that the message we pass on to C5 is not “we are brave captains and we go out in any wind,” far from it, we teach humility and respect for the sea, and that awareness of well-considered choices, combined with technical preparation made through experience at sea, are the basis of risk reduction to always have the situation under control.

What does one need to do to be eligible for C5?

Only trainees coming out of the C4 course with a passing grade can enter the C5 course, which is our apex course. Nearly 1,000 trainees come out of our C4 courses each year, so we expect large participation, especially from those who want to become independent tomorrow. The C5 course is the natural evolution of the C4 course also from the point of view of boats: the recent acquisition of Pogo 30s for the itinerant course actually prepares for the Pogo 12.5 we use on the high seas.

The Navy also chose our c 5 course, so we will have two aspirants on board. From the Livorno Naval Academy who come to learn more about their sailing techniques on board with us.

 

The course has just started, are there still places?

Enrico Bertacchi: Yes there are still places from the last weeks of July, on the Sailing Center website you can find all the information and the various availabilities. By the time this interview is published, Carlo Castelli will already be in the Aegean with students from the first weeks of the new Altura C5 course sailing!

 

Carlo Castelli, veteran instructor at Caprera Sailing Center is a professional sailor on sailboats(only those). He has on his resume many cruises and regattas in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean, and a dozen or so Ocean Crossings. Commanding, among the best known in chronological order, Edimetra(formerly Rrose Selavy Frers 65) Virtuelle(Vallicelli 80) My Song(Reichel/Pugh 85) Stealth(Frers 93) Indio(Wally 100)

Astra(J Class) Tonemai (Wally 80)

 

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