07/08/23 – How to move up to RYA Day Skipper from your RYA Competent Crew course
A question we get asked a lot by customers surrounds how to best move forwards towards the RYA Day Skipper qualification after completing your RYA Competent Crew course.
The one thing we always advise is not to rush. Take your time. Experience and basic sailing ability is key here, the rest we can teach you. So, lets expand on your required sailing abilities and experience first.
We recommend one of our Mile Building weekends with one of our RYA Qualified Instructors/Professional Skippers at the wheel as it’s a nice way to indulge in “pure sailing”. They’ll help guide and build your confidence, as well as your sailing miles. Or, if you have friends with a yacht, why not just enjoy a few weekends afloat with them?
Either way, take some time to get out there and just enjoy being on the water for a bit. Naturally putting into action what you’ve learnt on your RYA Competent Crew is the best thing right now.
Once you feel you’ve built some confidence, honed and polished your sailing skills a little, it’s time to look at the RYA Day Skipper Theory course. We offer a few options here, and they are all down to you and how much free time you have. The options are:
Option 1 – Lets look at the RYA Day Skipper Theory online course. If you are a busy-bee and can’t spare 5 days with us down at Gosport Marina, then the online course may be for you. Carried-out in your own time with your home PC/laptop, the course is fully interactive and takes approximately 50 hours to complete. You still do the exam at the end, and you’ll have an RYA-qualified instructor helping you along, so you aren’t on your own. This is a popular way of undertaking the course and is very cost-effective. However, it does lack the personal touch you get with an instructor in a classroom.
Option 2 – The RYA Day Skipper Theory classroom-based course is spent with us down at our Gosport marina base, over 5 days. You’ll be taught by some of the best instructors in the Solent, in our dedicated classroom. We also provide free accommodation aboard one of our fleet yachts during the course (Subject to availability), so you don’t need to pay out for hotels. This is the best way of undertaking this course as you’ll have an instructor readily to hand to answer all your questions. Plus, we teach this course with a maximum of 6 students to 1 instructor – We don’t teach groups of 12:1 like some training centres do. Therefore, you get a more personal and bespoke learning experience ensuring you fully-grasp the learning material in a friendly, comfortable environment.
Option 3 – Lastly, we offer the RYA Day Skipper Combination course. This blends the theory course in with the practical, over a continuous 9-day period. The benefits of this are that you move straight into the practical course once you’ve completed the theory course. So, all the theory knowledge you’ve just learnt is still fresh in your mind. The theory course is still classroom-based, and of course we also provide free accommodation during both the theory and practical course. It’s a very popular way of obtaining the qualification but requires 9 days in a row to complete.
Timing…….
To maximise your chances of passing the RYA Day Skipper Practical course, we always recommend you complete the RYA Day Skipper Theory course beforehand, ideally with a gap of no more than six months between both courses.
Thinking outside the box……
And yes, technically you don’t have to complete the RYA Day Skipper theory course to obtain the RYA Day Skipper Practical qualification. But, if you don’t possess the knowledge that is taught in the theory course, you may not pass the practical element and could be given an Action Plan to achieve it at another time. At the end of the day, it’s your call if you think you already possess this knowledge – we just want to give you your best shot at achieving the qualification.
The above is a quick guide, based on what we feel is the best route to take, but that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone – At the end of the day it’s down to what feels right for you, and if we feel it’s reasonably achievable. We love a chat, so feel free to contact us if you’d like to talk about your RYA Day Skipper qualification or any other course you are interested in.
