RYA Competent Crew

The RYA Competent Crew course introduces the complete beginner to yachting and teaches personal safety, seamanship, helmsman ship to the level required to be a useful crew member on a sailing yacht. It also provides an opportunity to experience sailing at night, providing a totally different perspective on the tasks and hazards!

Weekend or weekday RYA training courses starting from Shamrock Quay, Southampton.

These 5 day courses are a great introduction to yachting. There are no prerequisites, simply come along, and enjoy learning to sail. Sleeping and eating on board (apart from perhaps the odd evening meal out in a pub or restaurant if you choose!) you will learn lots about sailing, life on board and how fun it is staying  at a different marina or anchorage or harbour each night.

You will have a friendly instructor keen to teach you everything you want to know and you can expect many other likeminded people having fun and enjoying the sea air. You will learn lots and go home at the end of a weekend or course feeling happy and pleasantly tired.

Each day of the course is packed with activity. No set hours as when sailing this depends on the wind and tide but at the end of the day, you will normally be in a marina ready for a hot shower and a possible trip to the pub! Sometimes you may drop anchor for the night, other times you may tie on to a buoy. On one evening of the course you will probably go sailing in the dark to see how much fun that can be.

There is no formal assessment or exam for the RYA Competent Crew course. While our 5 day sailing course will equip students with all the necessary safety skills and build confidence in crewing techniques, it is also largely about having fun but at the end of the course you should have gained sufficient knowledge to be a useful crew member.

An RYA Competent Crew certificate is awarded for successful completion of the course.