PASSAGE PLANNING · Lesson 1 of 5
Appraisal: Gathering Information
25 min · Beginner friendly
You’ll learn toState what SOLAS V requires of small-craft skippers · Gather chart, tidal, weather and pilotage information · Assess crew, boat and skipper limitations honestly
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Everything you have learned so far — charts, tides, weather, pilotage, collision rules — comes together in one skill: planning a passage. A is your considered answer to one question: how will we get this boat and this crew from here to there safely? This lesson covers the first stage of that job, and the legal duty that sits behind it.
Take a guess
Decide before you read on. Tomorrow you skipper three friends on a 15-mile coastal hop in settled weather. Does the law require you to plan this voyage?
Commit to an answer before reading on — a wrong guess here helps the right idea stick.
The APEM Cycle
Skippers organise the planning job into four stages with the acronym APEM: Appraisal (gather the information), Planning (turn it into a and schedule), Execution (prepare and go), and Monitoring (check reality against the plan and adapt). This lesson is about appraisal — building a picture of the passage before you sail a metre of it.
What the Law Requires: SOLAS V
SOLAS is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Chapter V covers safety of navigation, and one of its regulations requires a voyage plan before any vessel proceeds to sea — small pleasure craft included. So what must that plan actually contain?
Knowledge check
Which set of things must a voyage plan genuinely consider?
The requirement is proportionate: for a small craft on a short trip the plan can be simple and need not be written, though writing it down is strongly encouraged and is the habit this course teaches.
- SOLAS Chapter V
- The part of the international Safety of Life at Sea convention that covers safe navigation, including the duty on every vessel — pleasure craft included — to plan its voyage before going to sea.
- Appraisal
- The first stage of passage planning: gathering and weighing all relevant information about the route, weather, tides, boat and crew before committing to a plan.
- Passage plan
- The output of planning: a route with courses, distances and timings, plus tidal calculations, dangers, ports of refuge and contingencies.
Sources of Information
Your turn
Before reading this section: you are appraising a 30-mile coastal passage to a harbour you have never visited, departing tomorrow morning. Jot down at least six specific pieces of information you would gather, and name the source for each — then compare your list with the table that follows.
Work it through on paper first — then check yourself against the solution. Reading a worked answer feels like learning; producing one is learning.
| Source | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Small and large scale charts | The route, depths, dangers, buoyage and anchorages |
| Tide tables | Times and heights of and : depth over sills, bars and shallows |
| atlas / diamonds | Direction and of streams hour by hour: passage timing |
| Almanac | data, channels, lights, tide tables, safety information |
| Pilot book | Local detail: approaches, dangers, sills, shelter, facilities |
| Marine forecast | Wind, sea state, visibility and the outlook beyond arrival |
- Charts come at two scales: small-scale (zoomed out) for the whole passage, large-scale (zoomed in) for both ends and any tricky stretch — corrected and up to date, electronic charts updated too, with a paper backup that would get you home if the screen died.
- Tidal sources — tables, stream atlas and the diamonds on the chart — drive the single most important decision in the plan: when to leave.
- Weather means a proper marine forecast, not a beach app — and read the outlook in case you are delayed. Wind matters twice: it sets your point of sail, and wind against tide kicks up short, steep seas where wind with tide flattens them.
Knowledge check
You are planning your first visit to an unfamiliar harbour. Which source is most likely to warn you that the entrance becomes dangerous in strong onshore winds?
Boat, Crew and Skipper
Knowledge check
Tomorrow's crew: you (up since 0500 for work), one experienced friend, and a first-timer who is nervous about seasickness. Whose limits do you plan the passage around?
- Boat: is everything working — engine, rigging, sails, navigation lights, VHF? How much fuel and water, and what is the motoring ?
- Crew: how many, how experienced, who can helm and navigate, who gets seasick? Could someone take over if you were incapacitated?
- Skipper: are you rested? Is this passage within your experience, or a stretch? A stretch is fine in good conditions with margin; not with a poor forecast and a tired crew.
- Daylight: does the passage fit inside the daylight hours with room to spare?
Key points
- places a legal duty on every skipper, including pleasure craft, to plan the voyage before going to sea.
- The plan must consider weather, tides, vessel and crew limitations, navigational dangers, and a contingency — in a form proportionate to the trip.
- APEM structures the job: Appraisal, Planning, Execution, Monitoring.
- Appraisal draws on charts at two scales, tide tables, a tidal stream atlas, the almanac, the pilot book and a proper marine forecast.
- Assess boat, crew and skipper honestly, and plan around the weakest link on board.
Finished this lesson?
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