From 1 February 2010 all Competent Crew and Day Skipper (Practical) courses will finish at 1800 on Friday and personnel will be required to vacate the Sail Training Craft.
Those who do not wish to travel Friday evening will need to book accommodation at Fort Blockhouse.

From 1 February 2010 and for a trial period of 3 months, the requirement to personally hand back STC on Monday morning to a member of staff will cease. Skippers will be able to clean and prepare the STC for handover before leaving JSASTC during the weekend.

It is in everybody's interest that the normal high standard of cleanliness is still maintained. Therefore specific handback arrangements will be necessary.

Full information and briefing will be provided at takeover.

Stowage on the Nicholson 55 has always been a problem, especially since we converted to the 275 Newton Lifejacket. The sheer bulk of 12 lifejackets and 12 sets of foul weather clothing plus boots makes the wet locker a battleground at the best of times. We are also damaging the lifejackets by pulling them through the hanging foulies.

Therefore we have decided to convert the mate’s bunk into a separate wet locker leaving the original solely for the lifejackets and man overboard lifting strop.

The knock - on  from this is that we have to reduce the total complement of the Nicholson to 11.  So if you intend to bid for a Nicholson STC in future, please bear this in mind.