ISAF Offshore Safety

Price: from £125 (Finance now available)

Location: Starts at our base at Premier Gosport Marina

Duration: 1 day

The perfect accompanying course to the RYA Sea Survival course, the ISAF Offshore Safety Course is an essential for any sailor. A very informative course and a prerequisite for longer passages and those wanting to get into offshore racing!

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the ISAF Offshore Safety course!

Booking details

Course Information

Joining Instructions: Please click here for course joining instructions

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

People wearing life jackets stand by an indoor pool. One person steps into the water, suggesting a safety or survival training exercise.
People in life jackets participate in a survival training drill in a swimming pool, using inflatable rafts and gear for practice.

Who is the course for:

The RYA/ISAF World Sailing Offshore Safety course is for both racers and cruisers with the skills and knowledge necessary to both prevent and deal with some emergencies situations offshore.

This one day course really does help give you ideas and familiarisation with equipment and techniques to help deal with those more unusual situations off  shore.

This course satisfies the training requirements for many offshore races, but it is equally suited to those who undertake blue water cruises and may be beyond immediate help and aid.

With covering situations that you may come across in the open water with ideas and discussions on how to deal with them.

 

 

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What we cover on the course:

The course satisfies the training requirement set out by ISAF Offshore Special Regulations 6.01 for category 0, 1 and some category 2 offshore races.

The RYA/ISAF Offshore Safety Course is split between both theoretical and practical hands on training.

Areas covered include:

  • Care, Maintenance and appropriate stowage  of Safety Equipment
  • Storm Sails, rigging and styles
  • Damage Control and limitation
  • Crew Routines in an emergency
  • Man Overboard Prevention and Recovery
  • Giving Assistance to other craft
  • SAR Organisation and Methods
  • Practical Fire Precautions and Fire Fighting
  • Distress Alerting and Survivor Location Aids
  • Rudderless sailing
  • Where possible live flare use
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Four people in life vests practice survival skills in a pool with an orange life raft. No recognizable landmarks present.
A sailboat with people navigates near Fastnet Rock lighthouse at sunset, with dramatic clouds overhead and waves below.

Course formats & details:

Courses run in a choice of two formats:

  • 1 day: (Saturday or Sunday)
  • Also available mid-week

In order to obtain the full ISAF World Sailing Offshore Safety Certification students will need to complete both this course and the one day RYA Sea Survival course.

There are a few other courses that really compliment this course. We would also strongly recommend attending the one day RYA First Aid course.

Whilst this is not a requirement for the actual ISAF certificate or regulations it is required to be held by a certain number of crew on some races for someone to be trained in First aid.

The SRC/VHF course is also very useful to be able to call for assistance if you get asked to use the radio.

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Our Chief Instructor says this about the ISAF Offshore Safety Course:

This is an amazing course for any sailor.

Covering some of those situations where you just need to talk it through and pull in knowledge from other sailors, and find out how they coped with the situation.

From learning how to sail rudderless, to making emergency steering systems, setting up storm sails and live use of the flares it’s a great practical experience so you know what to expect if you have to use this equipment in anger.

Its one of the best days for trying equipment you normally wouldn’t use, we really recommend this course for anyone looking at offshore sailing.

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Two sailboats with colorful sails race on the sea under a partly cloudy sky, with multiple people aboard, cliffs in the background.

Booking details

Please select your preferred start date below.

Related courses

RYA Sea Survival

The RYA Sea Survival Course is an essential for any sailor. Teaching self-help survival techniques and what to do when all is lost, it’s a prerequisite for longer passages, offshore sailing and those wanting to get into racing like RORC Fastnet.

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the RYA Sea Survival course.

 

Learn more

Marina Skills & Boat Handling

Our very popular Marina Skills & Boat Handling course is a real confidence-builder for any sailor who has to deal with tight or difficult marina berths. We also cover things like adverse weather and tide whilst berthing, along with picking up mooring buoys too. A must-have for skippers and crew alike, you’ll feel your confidence grow after doing this course.

Take a look at our live course calendar for dates for the Marina Skills & Boat Handling course!

Learn more

RYA VHF/SRC Radio

The RYA SRC VHF Radio course is the minimum qualification required by law to operate VHF or Digital Selective Calling (DSC) equipment on any British flagged vessel. This RYA VHF SRC radio training covers marine VHF radio operation, DSC distress calling, and routine communication procedures.

RYA VHF SRC radio course training at Gosport Marina

Anyone who operates a marine radio at sea needs this qualification whether you are on a kayak, paddle board, RIB, jet ski, or yacht. Our RYA VHF SRC radio course runs in a single day at our Gosport Marina base on the Solent.

RYA VHF SRC radio training on a Bavaria sailing yacht

After completing this course you will be able to take the next step in your sailing journey with our RYA Day Skipper theory or practical training courses. For official course details visit the RYA radio courses page.

Learn more about our one day courses or view our full course calendar for available dates.

What you will learn on the RYA VHF radio course

The RYA VHF SRC (Short Range Certificate) course covers everything you need to legally operate marine VHF and DSC equipment on a UK-flagged vessel. You will learn how to make distress calls, communicate with coastguard stations, and use Digital Selective Calling to contact specific vessels.

The course runs from 9am to 5pm at our Gosport Marina training centre. The morning covers VHF radio theory, channel frequencies, and communication procedures. The afternoon is hands-on with DSC simulators practicing distress, urgent, and routine calls. The written and practical exam happens at the end of the day — results are immediate.

The RYA VHF radio course is the minimum legal requirement for anyone using marine VHF on a British vessel. It is also a prerequisite for the RYA Day Skipper theory course and is included in our Yachtmaster Fast Track programme. No previous experience is needed — just a good understanding of spoken English.

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Customer reviews

Exciting Channle islands exploration!! This will be my third time with Commodore, no regrets. 😁 Such a great trip exploring the Channle islands and northern France. We got to see lovely towns in Guernsey and Jersey as well as a fab market in Cherbourg. The sailing was so great! Over 350 miles covered and well over doubled my night hours. Big shoutout and thank you to our amazing skipper Ed who always had to the best recommendation and was so flexible to what we wanted to do as a group. He was an amazing support through out the trip, gave great MOB training and help in passage planning. Boat was great as always. Amazing experience and can’t wait to go on similar trips with the company.

Orla Simpson Avatar Orla Simpson
29th August 2025

We did a mile builder channel crossing with Karen. She was absolutely brilliant, a great combination of confident and relaxed to help us build our feeling of confidence. Would highly recommend the mile builder with her. Overall a tiring but extremely rewarding experience. Thank you Karen!!

Ana Sofia Almagro Avatar Ana Sofia Almagro
25th August 2025

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