Private Bespoke Course

Please note these courses can only be booked by LSC members – if you would like a PB2 course for your group please contact us via email and we’d be happy to help. 

NB: to book scroll to the bottom of the page to the calendar – you are booking the date that is highlighted in blue on the calendar – red is fully booked.  (You only need to book one course date – the second day of course will be the following day)

LSC PB2 Courses:

Hopefully, you have already received an email from LSC inviting you to undertake your PB2 course.  We are facilitating and organising the courses so any queries about the course content and arrangements, please contact us.  Any queries about who is eligible, costings etc please talk to the Club office as they have set the conditions for your discount.

Please note that these courses are for those undertaking support boat duties and you may be asked to confirm your membership details.  We are providing these as an external supplier and we must meet the requirements of our certifying body, the RYA.  The Committee has decided they require each driver to have achieved a core standard set of skills to aid their support boat driver duties.  It is an exciting opportunity to not only fine tune skills but gain a recognised qualification at the same time.

What is the PB2 Course?

For further information please see either our own page or the information from the RYA

This is a two day course usually running from 9am-5pm subject to weather and tides! (It will run on two consecutives days) We intend it to be a fun and informative two days afloat, developing skills you already have and perhaps introducing some new ideas.  This is a certificated course so there is a formal syllabus and standard that we must meet to award certificates.  If for any reason we are unable to do this within the two days we will arrange further time with you and agree a plan to move forward.  It should be fun and informative, not intimidating!  Please note it is mainly a practical course so no need for reading and writing.

The course will look at core skills of powerboating including safety, weather, tides, buoyage alongside the actual driving of the boat looking at skills such as mooring alongside, picking up buoys, anchoring, holding station, man overboard recovery etc.

During this course there is no intention to enter the water and so layers of warm clothing with waterproofs will be sufficient, rather than the wetsuits that you may usually wear during support boat duties.    We will send out our standard joining information once a course is confirmed but any questions please email.

When are the courses running and how to book?

Dates of courses are given below.  We are releasing a few dates at a time to try and fill courses.  Courses will  be confirmed when we receive three bookings so please be certain you can attend a course you book and we will then send joining information and payment details. The dates below will change as other bookings come in so please sign up quickly if you see a date to suit.   The intention is to make courses available through until March subject to demand.  We intend to run courses from our base at Port of Poole Marina although we may make use of our classroom at Parkstone Bay Marina in the case of adverse weather.  Parking is available on site.   Please note courses are subject to weather, we find people learn better in calmer conditions so please be prepared for courses to be rearranged if necessary.

What do you need?

You just need to bring a positive mindset, lots of warm layers and a lunch solution – be that packed lunch or the option to stop at Poole Quay if you prefer to visit a café.  We provide lifejackets, the boat and all equipment required.  At the end in order to issue your certificate we will require a passport sized photograph.

What after the course?

The course looks at the fundamental skills required to drive a powerboat and retrieve a man overboard if necessary.  The course will be run on RIBs and to transfer the skills to the club boats we will run familiarisation sessions.  For support boat duties you will then need to develop skills for righting dinghies and race management, where to sit on the race course, how to manage competitors, how to communicate etc.  We need to start somewhere and develop a core base before we can progress onto these skills.  If you were to take the RYA Safety Boat qualification it is a pre requisite that you have already completed your PB2 course.  We are currently investigating options for providing these additional skills.  As experienced sailors you may already have many of the skills required for retrieving boats, alternatively the club will look at inhouse training to supplement the skills learnt on the PB2 course.   It is likely to be in a similar format to that provided previously in the sessions run by Dave N.

Who are we and why are we running the courses?

We, Sarah Quinn and Dom Coleman, are members at LSC as well as running Dorset Marine Training. Sarah sails a lightning dinghy and races when work permits but also goes social sailing and lagoon sailing.  Previously we had a 2000 at the club and we still have our Topper dinghy.  Dom sails a Skipper 12 dinghy or, at the other extreme, volunteers on Prolific, a 23m Ocean Youth Sailing boat.   We run Dorset Marine Training as our main business which focusses on powerboats, so if you send through any questions it will automatically come through to one of us. We are both instructors and teach full time around Poole Harbour.  We run a wide range of courses but  the PB2 is probably the most popular, followed closely by the VHF radio course.

We originally undertook our own PB2s and then Safety Boat courses when we were asked to undertake racing duties at another club and felt somewhat unsure about the duty.  We wanted to feel confident and safe so booked our courses and it grew from there. Over time we qualified as instructors working on a freelance basis across the South Coast and then after redundancy from other careers, set up our own business in 2016.  We recognise the difficulties of hopping into boats that as support boat drivers we only use a few times a year and the challenges that club members face as equipment and decisions change.  We support the club as best we can in a volunteer capacity for upskilling support boat driving skills.  We’d love to provide the PB2 courses for free but that is just not practicable looking at the time and costs we incur but we are running these courses at a discount for the club. After the formal course we will offer familiarity sessions for free on the club boats.  A huge thanks to LSC for the funding they have committed to this project which enables members to receive a discount.

Any queries call 01202 901267 or our personal mobiles given in the LSC membership list or email us enquiries@dorsetmarinetraining.co.uk