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Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced & RYA

Courses

Course to suit all levels, including our free Sailing Essentials course.

Alongside our free course, we have an RYA-accredited Day Skipper course and offer the RYA-hosted Essential Navigation course. Our Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster® Offshore course is in development and will be available soon.

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£295 – Lifetime Access
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RYA Day Skipper

The Day Skipper theory course is the most popular RYA navigation course. With no previous experience, this will prepare you for the practical course and provide a solid foundation for starting your yachting journey.

RYA Day Skipper theory

  • I passed my Day Skipper theory course!

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RYA Hosted
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RYA Essential Navigation & Seamanship

The Essential Navigation & Seamanship course is an entry-level RYA theory course. Ideal for those wanting to use RIBS or Jet skis or as a light introduction before taking the Day Skipper course. This course introduces some basic navigation concepts and techniques.

RYA Essential Navigation & Seamanship theory

Coming soon!
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RYA Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster® Offshore

The RYA Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster® Offshore theory course is for more advanced skippers who have clocked up a few sea miles and want to extend their horizons. It covers longer-distance navigation techniques as well as tests your knowledge of rules & regulations.

RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster® Offshore theory

FREE!
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Sailing Essentials

The fundamentals of sailing including; safety, seamanship, rules of the road and the environment. This course is a must for anyone wanting to spend time on the water.

Free for members

£1000
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Water Rescue Boat Operator

This online theory course prepares you for the Professional Rescue Module 4 Water Rescue Boat Operator course. You will cover essential knowledge needed before practical training, including COLREGs, basic navigation, and weather awareness. The focus is on safe boat handling, sound decisions, and operating confidently in dynamic rescue environments.

Water Rescue Boat Operator Prerequisites

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FAQs

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10 reasons to learn with us

Want to find out why our students love what we do? It only takes two minutes to find out why we’re different from the rest.

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We have taught the RYA Yachtmaster scheme in a classroom for over ten years, always with 5-star reviews.

We took everything we’ve learned and applied it to when building the online content for our course. Simply put, it’s as close to a classroom course as online gets!

To pass, you have to finish the course!

It’s easy to say online provides ‘flexibility’ and ‘you can do it in your own time’, it’s harder to construct engaging course content to overcome specific digital learning challenges and keep students motivated. Through thorough testing, using our classroom students as guinea pigs*, we have structured a course to support how you learn online, building confidence in each topic, tool and skill at every stage.

* No students were harmed in the testing of our content!

Content designed to provide support at every stage

We questioned why the other providers put so much emphasis on their instructor support. Our view is simple: the better the content, the less support a student should need. We are here to support you at every step of your journey but have fed ten years and hundreds of students’ worth of understanding into building content that teaches, supports, reaffirms and checks the knowledge of a topic, tool or technique. And, above all, fun!

Everything you need is included – no hidden ‘extras’

We are the only provider that has no hidden extras. Everything you need to complete and pass the course is included.

  • No hidden extras
    Everything you need to complete the course is included.
  • No course extension fees
    Once you sign up, you control when your instructor support starts and can pause it (in fact, if we don’t see you for a while, we’ll pause it automatically so you don’t accidentally run out of time).
  • Lifetime access
    You retain access to the content for as long as you need it. You can use it for revision, particularly useful before taking the practical course or perhaps before you embark on that charter holiday.

Day Skipper theory is a RYA shore-based qualification and the required level of navigational & sailing theory for anyone intending to take the Day Skipper Practical course. It provides an excellent foundation and platform for learning how to put out to sea safely.

The course includes everything you need to earn the Day Skipper theory certificate successfully. The only thing you need to provide is your time.

Course pack

You’ll be sent a course pack (dispatched the same day if ordered before 3pm weekdays) that contains everything you need to complete the course.

Instructor support

You’ll get 12 months of unlimited support from RYA-qualified instructors 365 days a year; all managed using your briefing room.

Course content

You’ll have immediate, lifetime access to over 50 hours of engaging, interactive teaching content with practice exercises providing debriefings and support.

Social group

You’ll have immediate access to the Day Skipper social group, where you can meet and connect with like-minded people at the same stage of their journey as you.

Downloadable & support content

You’ll have access to our downloadable & support content. We have over 50 supplementary downloads to help you learn the topics and techniques.

See the ‘What’s included?’ tab on the Day Skipper theory enrolment page for more details.

The Day Skipper theory course is a minimum of 40 hours of teaching. Additionally, there are two assessment papers, each lasting 1½ hours.

You can complete the online course at your own pace; everything is stored so you can take a break and return anytime. There isn’t a time limit, and you get 12 months of instructor support spread over any timeframe you like.

However long it takes you to complete the course, you will retain access to the content allowing you to revise before your practical course.

Lifetime access!

You have access to the course content for life!

12 months of instructor support on your terms

Once enrolled, you get 12 months of instructor support, but you are in control of when this starts and can pause it should you need a break.

The Day Skipper theory certificate is valid for life. However, like many things, brushing up and learning new skills is continuous. Anyone who thinks they’ve completed their learning is probably not best suited to skipper a boat!

No! Any progress in Sailing Essentials is migrated to your Day Skipper progress, so you won’t have to do it again.

In fact, we know that most students ask to help when doing the navigation modules, so your 12-month instructor support time only starts once you start the ‘How to read the map!’ module of the Day Skipper theory course.