Learn to Sail with Commodore Yachting

  The course was extremely well taught by our Instructor, Lionel. Despite being worried that the course would be dry and marginally interesting (but necessary), Lionel kept us all entertained... read more and imparted stacks of useful knowledge. I even passed the exam...

  Bruce the instructor was brilliant on my 5 day day skipper sail course.
The weather was awful with two days of gales. However he worked with us to get... read more our syllabus and skills upto scratch.

The one issue I had was related to the communication with the office when we were on our course.
There were a significant issues with the lovey boat foresail rolling gear was jammed, and the instructor tried to contact the office multiple time with no success. This was very frustrating.

  I cannot fault the instructor's sailing experience, he was young but was a capable sailor who demonstrated great boat handling under motor and sail. However, the environment in which to... read more learn and prove we knew how to sail safely felt engineered for us to fail. We were inexperienced sailors in these waters taking a day skipper course and should never have been placed in situations we found ourselves in more than once.

These situations include the instructor yelling at us from below to come about at risk of running around the wrong side of a cardinal near the Shingles and having an unchecked pilotage plan without a backup at night; which, after running aground outside Poole Marina, was hastily remade while the students were holding the boat in place, causing us to drift into the mud once again. All of these experiences could have been avoided with better planning, as the course instructor should have been demonstrating.

The environment on the boat was also uncomfortable and made the learning & demonstrating experience very difficult. There were 7 on board with only one woman on board, the rest of the crew then proceeded to start telling her what to do and not allow her to demonstrate her ability. Being part of this woman's party I was also shut out of demonstrating procedures, planning passages and pilotages for half the trip. This was on top of the culture of drinking in each marina and the lack of respect during conversations. While onboard it felt like the instructor had no desire to keep the course professional or safe.

Overall the course I took with Commodore was uncomfortable; with broken equipment including stove gimble & cupboard latches and incorrectly reading instruments & full bilges which flooded below decks when underway.

Commodore did respond when I reached out and asked the instructor for comment, however my concerns were dismissed as libel when the instructor replied with justifications for the culture onboard and how we were placed in the situations we were in.

Ultimately I won't be working with this company and, given experiences friends have told me about their DS courses, would undertake any future courses with other companies in the area.

  Just completed the 9-day Combination Day Skipper course; this is a well-designed program, the four days of theory are efficiently consolidated with five days of practical boat work and sailing... read more on a comfortable, well-equipped vessel. Paul, the instructor, had a highly infectious enthusiasm that made the learning experience extremely enjoyable. He made intelligent use of the rapidly changing weather conditions to cover all aspects of the syllabus. Staff at the training school were always helpful and friendly. This was a fantastic experience and recommend it as an excellent way to achieve a Day Skipper qualification.

  An excellent mile building weekend sailing round the Isle of Wight. Great to have Paul as Skipper and the crew gelled well. For me it was also a great... read more way to get some refresher tips. Getting out to sail on the Friday evening was a bonus.

  WOW! what a great day, very informative and great instructor!
Signed up for a PB Level 2 exam (normally takes 2 days) but as I was the only student, instructor... read more Ashley said that we could get completed in just 1 day. Great 1to1 tuition, very experienced and safe and thoroughly enjoyed my day in the Rib.
Learnt a lot, and feel a lot more comfortable and confident now.
Thanks Ashley!

  Myself and my husband recently completed our RYA Day Skipper Course with our instructor Paul. I was very nervous coming into this due to having bad experiences with very bad... read more instructors. Instantly Paul put my mind at rest with his calm, friendly personality. Paul’s wealth of knowledge has really developed us into Day Skipper’s and given us the confidence to charter our own yacht. We have honestly never met such a genuine trainer that wants the best for their students, Paul went above and beyond and we are so thankful for his support he’s an absolute credit to commodore but also leading the way in the sailing instructor world!!

  Powerboat level 2 was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Perfect balance of the essential class room learning. Then straight out onto the water, putting it into practice, developing the... read more skills and having fun. Then repeat! Lionel was great with his excellent tuition and skill at bringing the best out of all of us.

  Surpassed my expectations. An amazing learning experience, turned up for a “course” received an education. Paul, our instructor, was phenomenal. Patient, positive and so keen to impart knowledge and learning... read more to make sure future sailing experiences are safe, fun and well prepared. General note, the boats are excellent, the booking process super easy and the boats really well provisioned. Thank you.

  We chartered four Commodore Yachts for our charity event for Supporting Wounded Veterans. Commodore Yachting were incredibly helpful throughout and found four skippers, all with military backgrounds, which really... read more helped our veterans settle in and enjoy the week. Three of the four skippers were exceptional and went above and beyond. The tuition they gave was fantastic. 11 of the 15 had never sailed before and by the end of the week they were helming and racing!
We'd love to work with Commodore Yachting again.