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RYA Courses and Qualifications

AYE teach all of the Royal Yachting Association sailing courses in conjunction with Team Sailing at Gosport. A summary of the ladder of progression to the Yachtmaster qualification is included below. Full details are contained in the RYA logbook G15.

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Summary of RYA Qualifications

Start Yachting. This two-day course provides a short introduction to sail cruising for novices. By the end of this course, you will have steered a yacht, handled the sails, carried out some ropework and learned about on board safety.

Competent Crew Course for those who have never been on a boat before and know nothing about sailing. The course covers basic seamanship, sailing and helming skills, safety and living on board. At the end of this five day course you will be able to take your part as a useful crew member on a sailing yacht.

Basic Navigation and Safety Course. This two day course provides an introduction to the basic skills required before taking a small boat to sea or taking an active part in running a boat

Day Skipper Shorebased Theory of Navigation and Seamanship Course. This course should, ideally, be taken before the Day Skipper Practical course. It covers all a skipper needs to know about the theory of navigation, seamanship, weather and electronic navigation aids. If you attend this course before the practical, you will find that the practical makes a lot more sense and you will be able to concentrate on the boat handling aspects more fully.

GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System). A course which teaches you how to operate the new range of VHF (Very High Frequency) DSC (Digital Selective Calling) radios, with apologies for the acronyms! You are not legally qualified to talk on a radio unless you hold the short range certificate, which is what you receive once you have passed the assessment on this course. So this should really be taken before the Day Skipper Practical.

Day Skipper Practical Course. This course is for those who have some experience of sailing as crew and who wish to go on to skipper boats on short passages by day. The course concentrates on boat handling under power and sail, navigation, pilotage and the skills necessary to skipper a boat. Before attending this course, you should ideally have achieved 100 miles at sea with five days on board and carried out a night passage. This will qualify you to apply for an International Certificate of Competence, a certificate which a lot of charter companies, particularly abroad, expect you to hold before they will let you have a boat.

Yachtmaster® Coastal and Yachtmaster® Offshore Shorebased Course. This is an advanced course in navigational theory, seamanship and weather. It prepares you for the practical assessment at both levels.

Yachtmaster® Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore Practical Assessment. This course prepares you for the assessment. Four or five days will be spent with your instructor revising the skills on which you will be tested by the examiner, who joins the boat on day five or six of the course. By now you should be skilled in effective passage planning and making, pilotage both by day and night, yacht handling under sail and power, and coverage of all the "what if" situations you need to be prepared for at sea. The examiner will give each candidate a minimum of eight hours in which to show his skills as a skipper at these advanced levels. Details of the pre-assessment requirements are given in the cruising log book G15. Should you wish to be taught on your own boat, Sticky will be happy to help out provided that there is the correct safety equipment on board.

Yachtmaster Ocean Shorebased Theory Course. The course covers all aspects of astro navigation, world wide meteorology, passage planning and making, finishing with an exam paper.

Yachtmaster Ocean Passage. To gain your Yachtmaster Ocean certificate, you must complete a passage of 600 miles, lasting at least 96 hours in a sailing yacht. 200 miles of this passage must have been at least 50 miles from land. You take your sights, work out your position, and assess deviation on the steering compass. You need to have taken part in the preparation and victualling of the boat, set up and run a watch system and been responsible for the decision making on passage. At the end of the trip, take your log, sight forms and plotting sheets to an assessor who will question you on the detail of the passage.

See what we offer on the Courses and Cruises page