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Day Skipper Syllabus

The Day Skipper is a beginner skippering course for sailors with a little prior sailing experience. During this course we will develop your skills and prepare you to skipper a yacht. On completion, you will have learned how to take charge and skipper a yacht on short passages.

At a Glance

  • Day Skipper Practical

  • Pre-course Requirements: 100 miles/5 days

  • Minimum age: 16

  • Run time: 5 days tuition (1 day off or free-sail)

  • 1 week course, living aboard our tuition yacht

What you will learn

The Day Skipper course will show you the difference between being crew and being the person proactively in charge. You will learn about preparation for sea, deck work, navigation, pilotage, meteorology, rules of the road, maintenance and repair work, engines, victualling, emergency situations, yacht handling under power, yacht handling under sail, passage making, seamanship skills, and you will sail a night time passage through shipping lanes.

Experience needed

The RYA Competent Crew is the ideal pre-requisite course, but you can join a Day Skipper without it. It is recommended that candidates have done about 100 miles / 5 days on a sailing yacht as an active crew member; and that they have completed the RYA Day Skipper Theory, which can be done with our E-learning package from home before arriving. It takes about 30 to 40 hours and can be completed over a few weeks from the comfort of your own home.

If you have taken part in a previous flotilla as an active crew, you should be experienced enough to take a Day Skipper course. 

The Day Skipper course and tides

Our course covers the theory of tidal stream and height calculation. As a newly qualified Day Skipper, after successful completion of our course, we’d strongly advise gaining further experience in tidal waters before skippering any coastal passages in tidal waters.

Day Skipper Practical Course Syllabus - Tidal

1. Preparation for sea

2. Deck work

3. Navigation

The successful Day Skipper should be proficient in chart work and routine navigational duties on passage to the level of someone who has completed the RYA Day Skipper shore-based course  Core skills include:

4. Pilotage

5. Meteorology

6. Rules of the road

7. Maintenance and repair work

8. Engines

9. Food

10. Emergency Situations

11. Yacht handling under power

12. Yacht handling under sail

13. Passage making

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