JKU BLUE WATER WORKSHOP for SERIOUS PASSAGE MAKING
The Blue Water Workshop at John Kretschmer Sailing University is all about you getting real experience. Let’s be honest, most cruising seminars present general information and are as much a forum for hawking products as for serious learning. They’re overcrowded and frequently boring. We promise you, JK Sailing University will not be boring! However, it will be a lot of work.
Some of the Topics Covered
This is truly a hands-on workshop. There will be as much time spent on boats as in the classroom. The workshop will have you crawling through bilges to learn about boat structure, and esoteric things like why bilge pumps are often installed to set up dangerous back pressure flows. We will teach you how to bleed a diesel engine, because every cruiser has to know how. You will make sail repairs and rebuild a winch. In this experience, you will even launch a life raft from a boat, not on a classroom floor, and “step up into it” from the water. Too often, cruisers build a false sense of security by only learning these skills in the classroom. This stuff is easy in the classroom. Undeniably there are a lot more variables involved in–and leading up to–these scenarios in the real world.
Logistics of the JKU Blue Water Workshop
It is not easy. Lively discussion is a key component of the workshop. You don’t sit and listen, you participate. This is the workshop serious potential cruisers have been longing for and I am really quite excited to present it to you. This is a weekend when it is okay to talk endlessly about boats, cruising, storms, etc. The four-day format allows enough time to cover topics in detail and is also manageable to schedule as a really long weekend. Additionally, by starting at 1300 on day 1, folks can fly in early that morning and avoid a fourth night in a hotel.
A Few More Perks for You
Captain Bob Pingel, an experienced sailor who writes the Boat Doctor column for Sailing Magazine, assists me with the workshop which adds great value for you. Course materials include a complete manual and a tee shirt. You will also qualify for free access to my consulting service.
- Day 1: 1300 – 1800Introduction –
The Truth about Passage Making
What makes a boat blue water capable
Outfitting: Necessary, nice, extravagant
Hands On: Sails, discussion, repairs - Day 2: 0900 – 1700Planning Passages
Your First Passage
Mechanics,
Wrinkles
Lunch
Hands On: The diesel, discussion, maintenance, bleeding
Hands On: Winch rebuilding
*1900- 2200 Barbecue, dinner and discussion, and
meet world cruisers
- Day 3: 0900 -1700
Safety Issues:
Situational Awareness
Man Overboard
Abandon ship
Go Bag thoughts
Lunch
Hands On: Life raft Launch
Heavy Weather Tactics - Day 4: 0900 – 1500
A Navigator’s Day
Chart work in the electronic age
Hands On: Plotters, Radar, and AIS
Lunch
Communications, SSB or Sat Phone?
Cruising Today – The State of the World
John Kretschmer Workshop Schedule 2024
Best viewed in landscape mode on mobile devices. Scroll right to left to see full table.
John Kretschmer Workshop Schedule 2025
Best viewed in landscape mode on mobile devices. Scroll right to left to see full table.
My wife and I attended the JKU class in Ft. Lauderdale, We were fitting out our boat and preparing for a cruising life aboard. John’s class provided us important knowledge that prepared us well. His excellent storytelling and hands on approach works perfectly. How many people have actually jumped in the ocean to test a life jacket or deployed a life raft off a boat? We would highly recommend this course to any person thinking of going to sea, especially aspiring cruisers.