The Buffalo River Sailing School is a South African Sailing (SAS) school established in 2010 by Erich Jordan. John Atterbury, who had run the New Horizons Sailing School from 1992 to 2006 when he and his wife went cruising was invited to be the principal of the school. His vast teaching and sailing experience lays a solid foundation for instruction and his many stories add colour to each lesson. Erich Jordan assists with lectures and handles the admin and bookings. The practical aspects of the courses are all done on Tenacity, a 30’ Carribea. She has a category B certification from SAMSA with thousands of miles under her keel. All shore bases classes are conducted at the Buffalo River Yacht Club who back the school and help to introduce students to the wider sailing experience.

The Courses

The Buffalo River Sailing School offers various courses from complete novices interested in sailing to the experience seaman wanting to further their certification.

The introductory course is the Competent Crew course which assumes the student has little or no experience. This course cover all the basic principles of sailing including safety and the common sense required at sea. The courses material is covered over a four week period, with lectures on a Tuesday and Thursday evening between 18:00 and 20:00 and four practical sailing sessions on Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather. No exam follows this course, but a certificate of completion is handed out to each student who satisfies the standard expected by skippers of competent crew.

The Day Skipper course follows the same format as the Competent Crew course with a view to producing not a crew member, a skipper able to instruct crew and take responsibility for the boat. What was introduced during the Competent Crew course is honed in preparation for both a theoretical and practical exam by a SAS appointed examiner. The student is also required to complete a level one first aid course, a colour blindness test and have a VHF radio licence. This allows the successful student to skipper a yacht within the port limits of any South African harbour.

The Coastal Skipper qualifies a successful student to sail between ports along the South African coast. As with the Day Skipper, both a practical and theoretical exam must be passed. A minimum degree of experience is also required as watch captain on coastal trips involving sailing both at day and night.  An up to date level one first aid course is also required for this exam and a copy of your log book will have to be submitted to SAS for examination.

Testimonials

Highly recommended, for the novice / beginner and for those of you who have been sailing for a few years, know the ropes but want to get to know the rest for a skippers license. I’m from the latter category, been sailing HOBIES and DARTS for many years and thought that it would be a cruise on a calm day. Well I was presently surprised how much there was to learn.

The sailing instruction was a mixture of class room lecture and on  board physical sailing. The majority of the instruction was given by Erich Jordan. He is extremely competent ( just as well cause I nearly wrote his yacht off trying to berth it and he managed to rescue the situation..once, twice, th…,..and again)

Eric is patient and a very good teacher. Besides this the entire course is done in a very relaxed mood and atmosphere at BRYC.
John Atterbury took lectures for a section of the course and again like Eric, he is very well qualified and practically experienced for the job.
There is lots of reading  and chart work to do in your own time so be prepared to burn the midnight oil. Our exam was conducted by Ian Williams.

Again it was in a very relaxed mood both on and off the water.  The cost of the course in today’s  economic climate and compared to other sailing schools, is well worth it.

For anyone who want to get into sailing as a deck hand or competent skipper, I highly recommend the courses offered by Buffalo River Sailing School.
I’m back for the Coastal Skippers course as soon as they offer it.

Peter Swales

(Competent Crew  + SAS Day Skipper)

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My brother and I recently completed our ‘SAS Day Skipper’ qualification through Erich from the Buffalo River Sailing School (BRSS).  Looking back, we’re extremely pleased we selected Erich and the BRSS and also the path we chose. We were both new to sailing and started off with the ‘Competent Crew’ course and then progressed onto the ‘Day Skipper’ course. All in all – the ‘Day Skipper’ content would have been too much for us to grasp during our full-time week-long course and as such, the Competence Crew course gave us the foundation from both a practical and theoretical perspective. Doing both was also more enjoyable!
 
In addition, we seriously considered just doing the RYA certification and not the SAS certification. Now that SAS is able to issue a ICC (International Certificate of Competence) and the fact you need a SAS certificate for South Africa – we ignored the RYA and proceeded with SAS. The competent crew and day skippers courses were more ‘involved’ than we initially thought  – but luckily that’s history now!
 
Our examiner – Ian Willams – was also very pragmatic and relaxed during the practical and theoretical exams – something we really appreciated.
 
To the members of the Buffalo River Yacht Club – a big thanks for hosting us during our time there ! We enjoyed your cold beer, hospitality and relaxed atmosphere. We’re also pleased to have been able to provide some entertainment on Women’s Day  - by falling into the water in front of the club!
 
We can honestly say we learned LOADS during our time at the Buffalo River Sailing School!
 
Thanks again to Erich, John, Ian and the members of BRYC!

Dieter Botha

(Competent Crew  + SAS Day Skipper)

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"17/11/2010

Hi Erich

I just wanted to touch base with you following our mileage building trip from East London down to Port Elizabeth this weekend with the Buffalo River Sailing School and say a huge “Thank You” to you for the experience.

Your calm, professional manner in challenging those conditions were very much appreciated by all the crew on board.  34 knot winds, 4m breaking waves made for some very exciting sailing!!

For my part it was great to take all those navigational skills learnt in the calm, flat safety of a classroom and apply them to the real world of sailing.  In the classroom nobody ever suggested that the most important things were to a) keep at least one elbow on the chart to prevent it from escaping out of the companionway, or b) keep a tight hold of the dividers at all times to avoid them flying across and coming to rest embedded in a sleeping crew member.

It was a fantastic trip and absolutely the best way to build up miles and experience under your guidance.  I’d definitely recommend you and the Buffalo River Sailing School.

Thanks again Erich.  I look forward to the next trip!

Kind regards

Tony Lambdon" - Tony Lamdon (Mile Builder Trip)

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"For Erich and John it is genuinely about teaching and not just the piece of paper at the end. Both the academic and practical aspects were professionally managed.  Well done." - Bruce Shenk (Competent Crew Course)

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"Thanks again to both you and John. Tammy and I thoroughly enjoyed the course and were very impressed with the relaxed yet very comprehensive format of the lectures. We looked forward to our Saturday sails all week and impressed ourselves by how quickly we developed the necessary skills and agility! Best of luck for the future and hope to see you soon for the Day Skipper course."  - Oscar Miles & Tammy Sellers (Competent Crew Course) 

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"Having never sailed before, I've learned so much in such a short time. It was a fantastic experience and I'm looking forward to the next course." - Stuart Thompson (Competent Crew Course)