Take the helm, command your own crew, and safely take control of a beautiful modern yacht with the Royal Yacht Association’s most popular course, the RYA Day Skipper Certification. Make the important transition from crew to skipper as you develop practical skills and build your sailing confidence with a fun, informative, 5-day, hands-on course under the safe supervision of qualified instructors.
This course prepares sailors to take complete charge of the yacht and the crew on short passages. You will concentrate on pilotage, boat handling, seamanship, crew handling, and navigation. Day Skipper is not a written exam. It’s a continuous hands-on course that is continuously assessed with practical instruction onboard a vessel. At its conclusion, the RYA Day Skipper Certification, along with the prerequisite RYA Day Skipper Theory Course, allows you to command a yacht and sail as far as 25 nautical miles from harbor without supervision.
You need some sailing experience before tackling the Day Skipper course. The RYA Day Skipper Theory Course is a preliminary requirement, as well as accumulating 100 nautical miles of sailing on at least five separate days with at least four night-hours onboard a sailing yacht.
If you’ve never done any yacht sailing at all, it’s a great idea to take the Competent Crew and after getting some experience come quickly back to do the Day Skipper course. Experienced dinghy sailors could go straight to the Day Skipper course especially if they have already done the Day Skipper Theory.
Sailors must be at least 16 years of age, have standard and basic sailing abilities, and be in generally good physical shape to take the Day Skipper course.
The RYA Day Skipper course prepares you to take complete command of a crew and yacht. Learn how to prepare the yacht for a passage, including the engine, sails, and gear. The course also teaches basic pilotage, boat handling, watch organisation, and provides all the skills and confidence you need to skipper a yacht on an inshore course with your family and friends for a day, a weekend, or a full holiday.
You’ll also gain experience with deck work like reefing, changing sails, preparing the anchor, mooring, anchoring, crew safety, and boat handling. Practical skills like meteorology and weather forecasting are vital to day skippers, and the course provides these fundamentals as well as practical navigation like taking and plotting visual fixes, working with electronic navigation equipment, estimating tidal heights, and steering to allow for tidal stream, leeway and drift.
You’ll also learn the rules of the road, some basic maintenance and repair work, victualling, and emergency situations like man overboard protocol, distress flares, life raft protocol, VHF radio etiquette and other emergency techniques that are vital knowledge for any day skipper.
Passage making is also a key skill that the Day Skipper course teaches, as well as the challenging elements of cruising at night. Upon completion, day skippers will know how to handle the yacht under power and under sail.
Day Skipper is the most popular RYA course because upon completion, you will be able to confidently and safely skipper a small yacht up to 24 metres in length, in familiar waters during the day. And with perfect weather and sailing conditions, there is no better place to take the course than in stunning Mallorca.
Enjoy five days of exciting adventure on the water with other sailors who also want to make the transition from crew to skipper. Spend four nights onboard the yacht and learn the fundamentals of cooking in a galley while underway, sleeping onboard, and you’ll get a real taste of the sailing lifestyle.
Sailors who take the Day Skipper course will have the experience needed to charter a yacht for a day or sail in a flotilla. As you build experience and skills, Day Skipper opens doors to more opportunities. The course is an excellent stepping stone to the more advanced RYA courses like Coastal Skipper, Yachtmaster Coastal, and Yachtmaster Offshore.
It’s time to take the helm, command your own crew, and learn how to skipper a yacht with the most popular RYA course, Day Skipper!
Discover the contrasting characteristics of sloops and ketches in terms of sail balance, ease of handling, and upwind performance. Learn about the advantages of sloops for efficient upwind sailing and the benefits of ketches in terms of balance, stability, and versatile sail combinations. Find out which sailboat configuration best suits your sailing style and goals.
Discover the ideal number of crew for a yacht based on its size, sailing experience, and type of sailing with our general guidelines. Our experts provide recommendations for crew sizes for small, mid-sized, and large yachts, as well as racing yachts.
Ensure the longevity and reliable performance of your small yacht diesel engine with these daily maintenance tips. Learn how to check oil levels, inspect fuel systems, monitor coolant levels, inspect belts and hoses, and prevent carbon buildup for optimal engine health. Follow the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule and seek professional help for complex repairs.
Tacking and gybing are sailing maneuvers used to change direction. Tacking involves turning the bow of the boat through the wind, while jibing involves turning the stern through the wind.
Anchoring a yacht safely is an important skill for any sailor. Whether you are stopping for the night or taking a break during a long sail, anchoring allows you to secure your boat and rest easy. However, anchoring can also be dangerous if not done correctly. Here are some steps to follow to anchor a yacht safely:
Points of sail refer to the different directions a yacht can sail relative to the wind. Understanding the different points of sail is essential for sailing safely and efficiently. There are several points of sail, including close-hauled, close reach, beam reach, broad reach, and downwind.
There is no denying that sailing is the adventure of a lifetime. That’s why we have designed our Competent Crew course to teach you the wonders of life on a modern yacht. Our RYA-accredited Competent Crew course is the perfect springboard for those looking to get into yachting, providing a fun and safe environment for knowledgeable beginners and enthusiasts alike. The all-intensive five-day course is designed to help you on your journey to becoming a competent sailor and valuable crew member – whether you plan to take your family and friends on holiday or take the first step on your dream to travel the world. Budding crewmen will step onto our modern yacht to get a true taste of what sailing has to offer. Some prior experience is definitely desirable though not required – only the enthusiasm to learn. Those who have sailed or completed their RYA Level 1 and 2 courses will find the course more enjoyable.
The best way to learn to sail is to take an RYA course with highly-skilled instructors in a gorgeous place like Mallorca—where the weather is perfect and the sailing conditions are ideal for beginners. However, you can supplement that practical hands-on training with a few sailing books targeted toward beginners that will provide additional insight and information that you can use as you continue your sailing adventures or when you want to keep learning, but maybe the weather is not ideal for sailing.
Want to get on the fast track to feeling like an active sailor? When you begin learning the most crucial knots used onboard a yacht, even beginners will begin to feel like they are a valuable part of the crew! Learning how to tie proper knots is a crucial skill for all beginning sailors. Knots are used on a yacht for very specific purposes and learning to tie them correctly is only part of the skill. You must also understand how and when they are used. Select the correct knot for the job, then practice tying it efficiently and effectively until you have the confidence to get the job done even during unfavorable conditions at sea.
Every sail is not created equally. Some smaller yachts have only one sail, which makes sail selection a breeze. However, larger sailboats have several sails with dozens of different sail configurations. When learning to sail, it’s important to understand the different types of sails and how they are used. For example, if you want to go downwind faster, use a spinnaker. If you are headed upwind, you may want a code zero. In other words, different conditions require different types of sails with different characteristics.
Rigging and sails are closely related, and all are part of a yacht’s overall sail plan. There are dozens of types of sails and literally hundreds of various configurations. A sail rig is the way that the sails are attached to the mast. It is the setup or configuration of the sailboat and consists of the sail and mast hardware. It can get confusing. For example, the shape of sails depends on the rigging, so they overlap a bit. In this article, we will explore the most commonly-used modern sail rigs.
An introduction to sailing doesn’t have to involve boring instruction in a classroom setting. In fact, the RYA Start Yachting beginner course provides the ultimate hands-on experience for first-time sailors who need basic introductory skills but also crave an exciting adventure. It’s the perfect course to try if you are interested in discovering whether sailing is something you want to explore further.
There are many requirements for the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore certification exam, but the one that offers the biggest challenge for many sailors is compiling the necessary 2,500 miles with at least 50 days at sea. This is especially difficult if you do not own your own boat. While building these crucial miles requires effort, there are many creative ways to accomplish the high mileage mark while also adding tremendous sailing skills to your repertoire. First, you must understand the mileage requirements. Then, you can begin to find creative and safe ways to build the necessary miles.
Learn to sail on the spectacular island of Mallorca to experience ideal sailing weather, stunning scenery, and a rich and vibrant culture — setting the perfect landscape for expert RYA sailing training. Mallorca Sailing Academy offers something for everyone — from beginners getting their first taste of the basics of sailing, to day skippers who want to enhance their RYA skills on the exquisite Mediterranean coastline.
Spain has some of the highest rate sunlight hours in Europe, with the towns and cities lying on the Mediterranean benefiting from the sunshine without suffering from the infamously excessive heat of the Iberian peninsula. All year round, the Mallorcan climate is relatively mild and is therefore suitable for all sorts of outdoor recreational activities like hiking, climbing, ball sports, and, certainly, sailing.
Mallorca is the biggest of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, accompanied by Ibiza, Menorca, and Formentera. The culturally-rich paradise is a skipper’s dream, offering perfect sailing conditions for most of the year and an abundance of shoreline to trace and explore.
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