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RYA Competent Crew

Price: from £699 (Finance now available)

Location: The RYA Competent Crew beginners sailing course starts from our base at Premier Gosport Marina, and visits different ports around the Solent and adjacent waters around the South Coast.

Duration: 5 days

The perfect sailing course for beginners, the five day RYA Competent Crew practical RYA course will give you the best building blocks to start your sailing journey with.

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the RYA Competent Crew course at Gosport Marina!

Booking details

Seamanship Training Course Information

Joining Instructions: Please click here for instructions on how to join our competent crew course

What is included in the course cost:

  • Yacht hire
  • RYA Qualified Sailing Instructor
  • RYA competent crew course materials and certificates
  • The course includes breakfast, lunches, snacks and three evening meals (One evening meal is taken ashore at the students own cost)
  • Tea, coffee & soft drinks
  • Accommodation on board
  • Diesel
  • Cooking gas
  • Wet weather kit hire (not footwear)
  • Hire of a Baltic automatic life jacket

We can accommodate most dietary requirements, such as vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian or gluten free. Just let us know when you fill out the booking form.

Recommended Reading: Sailing magazines and newspapers, but this is not essential

Course Prerequisites: No assumed knowledge

Minimum Age: No minimum but Under 16’s must be accompanied by adult. Persons aged 16+ can be unaccompanied subject to other pre-requisites having been met

Holiday Insurance: We would advise ALL our customers to ensure they have suitable holiday insurance in-place. Yachtsman’s insurance is available from a variety of souces like Topsail Insurance and can cover things like cancellations and personal effects cover.

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RYA beginner sailing course formats & details:

Sailing courses on the South Coast run in a choice of three formats:

  • 5 consecutive days: (Monday to Friday)
  • 5 consecutive days: (Wednesday to Sunday)
  • 2 consecutive Weekends: (First weekend incl a Friday)

We sometimes combine students taking their RYA Day Skipper or RYA Coastal Skipper courses alongside students on the RYA Competent Crew course, so you will get to experience a wider range of sailing.

All Students are able to live and stay on board the yacht for the duration of the course. 

Fancy going VIP and having your own exclusive private course for you and your friends or family? You can book the whole yacht just for your own exclusive course from only £749 per person. Enjoy the course in style, with up to five persons on the boat being taught by one of our friendly, experienced RYA Yachtmaster Instructors! What a way to start your sailing adventure and learn to sail the right way!

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Who is the RYA course for:

The RYA Competent Crew course is designed for a complete beginner who wants to start their exciting and adventurous sailing journey the right way. This course is the perfect way to learn to sail!

With little or no prior knowledge of being on a yacht, the five-day RYA Competent Crew course will give you the building blocks you need to start your sailing journey.

Course syllabus:

The RYA Competent Crew course is a great introduction to sailing. This course is designed for a complete beginner and teaches all the essential skills needed in order to become a competent crew member aboard a yacht over an exciting 5-day period.

On this seamnship training course, we teach you about basic yacht operations, seamanship, helming a yacht, rope handling, personal safety, the sort of equipment you find on board and all manner of other useful things you’ll to master need when you go sailing with friends.

Upon completing this course, you will become a very useful member of a yacht crew!

The RYA Competent Crew course Includes:

  • Knowledge of sea terminology, parts of a boat, including rigging & sails
  • Sail handling
  • Rigging & controls
  • Ropework
  • Fire precautions & fire fighting
  • Personal safety equipment
  • Man-overboard:
    • How to recover a man-overboard
    • Actions following recovery
  • Emergency equipment
  • Manners & customs
  • Rules of the road
  • Inflatable tenders, their safe use and operation
  • Meteorology (Weather!)
    • Forecasting services
    • Knowledge of the Beaufort Scale
    • What to do when the weather turns bad and how to prepare the boat and crew
  • Sea sickness
  • Helmsmanship, sailing and wind awareness
  • General duties on board a yacht
  • Sufficient knowledge to understand orders given concerning the sailing and day-to-day running of the yacht, including:
    • Setting, reefing and the general handling of sails
    • Use of sheets and halyards and their associated winches
    • Handling ropes, including coiling, stowing, securing to cleats, single and double bollards
    • Handling warps & fenders
  • Ability to tie the following knots and to know their correct use:
    • Bowline
    • Figure-of-eight
    • Clove hitch
    • Rolling hitch
    • Round turn and two-half-hitches
    • Single and double sheet bend
    • Reef knot
  • Awareness of the hazards of fire and the precautions necessary to prevent it
  • Knowledge of the actions to be taken in event of fire breaking-out on board
  • Safety equipment, such as life rafts, safety harnesses and lifejackets
  • Flares and when they should be used
  • Procedure for launching and boarding a liferaft
  • Environment responsibilities in the marina and at sea
  • Keeping an efficient lookout when at sea
  • The basic principles of sailing including steering and trimming sails on all points of sailing
  • Steering to a compass course/heading, under sail and power
  • Carrying out general duties on and below deck when at sea and at a berth
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The next steps:

Following completion of your RYA Competent Crew course, you may be thinking about your next steps and how to best put your new skills into action.

Depending on where you want to eventually go with sailing, we’d heavily recommend the following:

  • Go sailing! -Yes, just get out there and go sailing with friends. Enjoy it and get some experience under your belt. We also offer our very popular Mile Building weekends which are great fun, and you’ll get to meet other like-minded sailors, all under the watchful eye of one of our RYA qualified instructors
  • VHF/SRC course. Well worth doing, as this will give you confidence and a whole range of new skills to properly operate a VHF radio. Carried out over one day in our dedicated VHF classroom.
  • RYA Day Skipper Theory. This can be done in the classroom over 5-days, or as part of the very popular 9-day RYA Day Skipper Combination course, which includes the 5-day practical side of the course. The theory course can also be done online.
  • RYA Day Skipper Practical. This is done over 5-days, either over two split weekends or 5-days in a row. Once you’ve qualified you can also apply for your ICC with the RYA, which you’ll need if you want to charter a yacht abroad.

From there on, the sky is the limit!

You may want to go all the way up the sailing ladder to RYA Yachtmaster, or perhaps even become an RYA Cruising Instructor which we can advise you on.

No matter what you want to do in sailing, we love a chat and will give you the best advice possible. So please either give us a call on 023 9250 4443 or contact us via email.

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Our Chief Instructor says this about the RYA Competent Crew Course:

This beginners sailing course is a fantastic entry into the world of sailing, enabling you to become a safe and competent member of any yacht crew. You’ll learn to sail in the vibrant and varied waters of the Solent, the heart of sailing in the UK, you’ll get to visit lots of different marinas and experience yacht sailing at its best. You’ll be in safe hands throughout the course with one of our Yachtmaster Instructors on hand to ensure you get the best out of your five days with us. So what are you waiting for? 

Booking details

Please select your preferred start date below.

Related courses

RYA Day Skipper Practical

The RYA Day Skipper Course runs over five days and brings students with at least the RYA Competent Crew qualification and some sailing experience, up to skipper level.

Take a look at our live day skipper practical course calendar for dates for the RYA Day Skipper Practical course!

Learn more

RYA Day Skipper Theory

The RYA Day Skipper Course is the most popular sailing course in the UK. Running over five days, this course brings students with at least the RYA Competent Crew qualification and some sailing experience, up to skipper level (Theory only).

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the RYA Day Skipper Theory course!

Learn more

RYA VHF/SRC Radio

The RYA SRC/VHF Radio Course is minimum qualification required by law to operate the VHF or VHF Digital Selective Calling (DSC) equipment on any British flagged vessel carrying a radio.

 

 

 

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the RYA SRC/VHF Radio course!

Learn more

Customer reviews

A fantastic weekend of sailing, almost 130 NM in all, with a relaxed, but fully engaging skipper. Great set up and brilliant on the admin. Thanks Stef, Tom et al!

Nick B Avatar Nick B
23rd April 2024

I did a weeks coastal skipper course getting ready for my yacht master and I have to say it was one of the best training weeks I’ve had - our training instructor was superb, exactly the sort of person that you want. He could inspire, provide discipline and impart knowledge as well as let you learn through your own mistakes. Tom and Steph run an excellent operation there and I highly recommend it. They’re flexible and very helpful when it comes to your journey into being a qualified sailor.

Nigel Frith Avatar Nigel Frith
29th February 2024

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