Latest Members News

April 2013

Charity Comedy Night – Saturday 6^th July 2013

MLA member Medway Bridge Marina have teamed up with Fields of Life and aim to raise enough funds to build a well in Northern Uganda which will give access to safe, clean drinking water. All funds raised with go directly to the well project and Sam Dallas of Medway Bridge Marina will be travelling to Uganda to oversee the digging of the well. Every penny raised will go directly to the well digging! Please help them to help the communities that need it the most.

Date: Saturday 6^th July 2013
Time: 7pm for 7.30pm sit down 3 course meal
Venue: Bridgewood Manor Hotel, Walderslade Woods, Chatham, Kent ME5 9AX

Tickets on sale now and can be purchased from the marina office
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   01634 843576

 

September 2012

Media release from East Anglian Sea School

Peter and Alison Smith of the East Anglian Sea School are pleased to announce the acquisition of the Tiller School of Navigation and Seamanship from Peter and Marian Dawson on 1st September 2012.

Peter Smith commented "The addition of this new range of online distance learning courses is the final string in the East Anglian Sea School's comprehensive Royal Yachting Association certificated options for both power and sail skippers and crew in both the UK and abroad"

July 2012

Stormforce Skipper's Round the World Race Success with Clipper!

One of Stormforce Coaching's longest serving Instructors, Gareth Glover, has returned home after a year at sea, competing in the 40,000 mile challenge of a lifetime as he raced around the world in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. As the only professional onboard ʻNew York', Gareth skippered his crew to a very credible 7th place position overall, having secured 3rd place finishes in 4 separate legs of the race and only missing 6th place by 1 point!

Gareth has worked with Stormforce Coaching since the company began, in 2001, teaching across all of the RYA schemes and has an impressive pedigree, having been offshore racing since the nineties. Due to his vast wealth of experience, Gareth was chosen last year to Skipper the 68-foot racing yacht across some of the worlds largest and most challenging oceans in the year long race which started and finished in Ocean Village marina, Southampton.

Stormforce Coaching's Principal Doug Innes says "we were all very excited to welcome Gareth back to Southampton on Sunday and are extremely proud of his efforts and achievements. It's an incredible feat to have achieved what he has over the last year, so well done Gareth!"

April 2012

Stormforce Coaching Crew Set Sail for Shamrock!

Going against the tide of the current economic crisis, Solent sea school Stormforce Coaching is expanding, with a move across the water back to Shamrock Quay Marina.  The Stormforce team are packing up the classrooms and moving the entire centre and fleet to much bigger premises in the place they used to call home, many moons ago.

Stormforce Coaching's Principal, Doug Innes, explains: "In 2005 Stormforce courses were taught in a shared classroom in Shamrock Quay, so it's nice to be able to head back to the familiar surrounds of where we were based all those years ago."

With an ever-expanding fleet of yachts, RIBs and motorboats, as well as a growing team to accommodate and an ever-increasing demand for courses and charter, Stormforce simply had to up-size! Doug adds "as well as newly refurbished, larger classrooms and a workshop, our new centre at Shamrock Quay has much more to offer our customers, including a café, bar, restaurant and chandlery on site. There are also modern shower and changing facilities, as well as walk ashore, full tide access pontoons and other marine businesses. We hope that, with all this on offer, our customers will enjoy coming to visit us soon!"

Stormforce Coaching provides the full range of RYA Training Courses for Dinghy & Yacht sailing, powerboat, motorboating & PWC, as well as all shorebased qualifications from its well-equipped Southampton Centre. Stormforce Coaching also offers BSAC, BWS , HSE and superyacht courses, as well as racing and charter, sailing holidays in Greece and the Caribbean, and Trans-Atlantic racing. Visit www.stormforce.biz for full details.

Sailing To Success Leadership & Team Development Programme on the Olympic Sailing Course 

Weymouth Charters have joined forces with Sunsail , International  yacht operators and team development experts The Colour Works  to deliver  their "Great Team-Working" Programme  with the classroom being fabulous high-performance Sunsail F40 yachts and the open sea.

Racing yachts provide a unique platform to help teams improve their performance.  They require everyone to pull their weight, at times under great pressure.  It needs clear leadership and communication where trust and collaboration are a must when forced to make split – second decisions.

Andy Wallace, Business Development Manager for Sunsail Racing said "We are delighted to be working in conjunction with The Colour Works and Weymouth Charters, sailing is such a team sport and is a great platform for really developing and enhancing team relationships, productivity and bonding. Working with The Colour Works is a natural partnership, which enable us both to deliver a superior Team Development programme "

The "Great Team-Working" Programme improves team performance through a better understanding of different working styles - it's as simple as that!  By understanding why we find some colleagues really irritating (and they us!) yet still finding that others are totally on our wavelength, we can learn to value the differences and play to each other's strengths and to unleash the true power of team dynamics.

Giles Miskin, Managing Director The Colour Works, comments "After a 'Great Team-Working' Workshop your team will be buzzing, talking in colours and keen to translate the learning into better ways of working.  And with the training venue being these modern, high-performance yachts and the excitement of the open sea, your team will feel especially rewarded and motivated to make a difference."

Roy Griffiths, Principal of Weymouth Charters, says "Having been through the Colour Works programme myself I know how transformational it is and am very excited about being able to facilitate it onboard the Sunsail yachts in the sailing waters of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events."

With the Olympics just around the corner, what better way to improve your team's performance than with this unique opportunity – telephone Weymouth Charters on 01305 832512 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for an information pack.

March 2012

15th Anniversary for JPMA

In April 2012 JPMA are celebrating their 15th year in the Superyacht industry.

Hoylake Sailing School was established in 1996, to run RYA shorebased courses, and very shortly afterwards the Principal, Captain John Percival, was approached to run oral preparation for Class 4 oral exams.  He formed JPMA in 1997, to deal solely with the Superyacht sector, and since then the company has gone from strength to strength.

JPMA/HSS relocated several years later, and they now have 8 training rooms, and run almost all of the modules and oral preparation for Deck (OOW and Master) and Engineering (AEC, MEOL, Y4 to Y1) CoCs. Some of their courses run in Golfe Juan, France, to cater for those students who don't have the ability to get to the UK.

In 2011 the pass rate on first attempt for Deck & Engineering written modules was an impressive 86%. The usual high first attempt pass rates for oral exams were retained in 2011 - 100% of JPMA's MEOL and Y4 oral candidates passed on their first attempt!

Anna Percival-Harris, Managing Director says: "We have overcome flooding in Golfe Juan, fire in Hoylake, and continue to weather the storm. Look out for further developments in this, our 15th Anniversary Year!" 

February 2012

Energy Charters welcomes new skipper

After impressing company directors with his extensive knowledge and experience within the industry, Energy Charters is pleased to welcome new skipper, James Beswick, to join the highly qualified crew of Sunseeker 88 Yacht "High Energy"

High Energy is Sunseeker Charters' flagship and is the largest most luxurious vessel of its kind available for charter in the UK. New Skipper, James Beswick, said, "I'm really looking forward to starting my first year running High Energy. It seems to be the perfect job with the opportunity to run and experience life onboard such a beautiful boat and not even have to leave the UK to do it!"

Having lived in the area most of his life, James is thoroughly acquainted with Sunseeker motoryachts and spent eleven years with the company as part of the test team. James is a seaman through and through and before joining the team at Sunseeker, where he delivered boats to customers in Asia, the Caribbean, mid-west USA and most of Europe, enjoyed dinghy sailing at Christchurch sailing club. 

Company director, Stefan Wertans, said, "For the past two years we've had an absolutely fantastic skipper, Peter Knight, but now that it's time for him to move on to pursue other things, we're excited to have James onboard and are very much looking forward to what his extensive skill set and experience bring to the role."

Sunseeker Charters announces launch of new vessel specific websites

Luxury yacht charter company, Sunseeker Charters, is delighted to announce that its new websites for individual boats available for charter around the globe are now live.                                                                                                         

As the only Sunseeker approved agency, the Poole based company specialises exclusively in Sunseeker motoryachts. Its new websites detail vessel specific information, destination guides, sample itineraries and testimonials, together with stunning images of the boats and their cruising areas.

Sunseeker Charters director, David Ward, said "We're really pleased with the new microsites as they give our clients an excellent opportunity to explore all the available options and really get a 'feel' for a boat before they make the decision to charter."

David added "We have taken the time to ensure that the new microsites contain the information our clients want, when they want it and is readily available for them to peruse at their leisure. The addresses all follow a similar pattern 'sunseeker + name of vessel + .net' making them easy to find, or alternatively there are links to them from our own website www.sunseekercharters.net".

Sunseeker Charters has an impressive range of models available for charter in both the UK and across the globe, from the spirited Superhawk 43 to the imposing fleet flagship, 37M tri-deck yacht.

For more information about Sunseeker Charters or their new microsites, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , visit www.sunseekercharters.net, or call +44 1202 682890.

January 2012

MLA Sailing School's receive Royal Visit at 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show

MLA Member Bisham Abbey Sailing & Navigation School were thrilled to receive a visit to their stand at the 2012 Tullett Prebon London Boat Show on Wednesday 11th January from HRH The Princess Royal.

Her Royal Highness was interested in all the activities running at the school, particularly dinghy sailing for youngsters and to hear that the school has been training some of the employees working on the Olympic site in Stratford in water safety.  Being the year of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Her Royal Highness was also intrigued to hear that the Duke of Edinburgh had visited the school at the National Sports Centre during the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

A keen sailor, HRH The Princess Royal then went on to visit MLA member Stormforce Coaching to talk about the training they offer.  Earlier in the day Her Royal Highness had presented the prestigious RYA Yachtmaster of the Year 2011 Award and trophy to Ifan (student and now a permanent staff member of Stormforce Coaching).