RYA Competent Crew

RYA Competent Crew beginners sailing training course formats & details:

Sailing training courses from our south-coast base are run in a choice of three formats:

• 5 consecutive days: (Monday to Friday)
• 5 consecutive days: (Wednesday to Sunday)
• 2 consecutive Weekends: (Usually over a bank holiday & one other weekend)

During your RYA Competent Crew Practical Course, you’ll cover essential hands-on skills including practical navigation, pilotage, boat handling, seamanship, and watchkeeping techniques. We sometimes combine students taking their RYA Day Skipper or RYA Coastal Skipper courses alongside students on the RYA Competent Crew training course, so you will get to experience a wider range of sailing on one of our owned boats. This blend of abilities on board means you’ll gain insights from both sides: learning from those with more advanced skills and sharing the excitement with fellow beginners as you all develop your confidence and competence at sea.

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

Fancy going VIP and having your own exclusive private training course for you and your friends or family? You can book the whole boat just for your own exclusive sail training course from only £649 per person. Enjoy the training 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!

Maximum Group Size for Your Training

For each RYA Competent Crew practical course, we follow the official RYA guidelines and welcome up to five students per yacht. This ensures everyone has plenty of hands-on time at the helm—or, if you prefer, enough space to stretch those sea legs and swap stories over a hearty one-pot dinner.

If you fancy a more personal experience or you’d prefer not to share a cabin with a stranger, you’re welcome to book the entire boat as a private course for just your own group. That way, you and your friends or family can enjoy exclusive use of the yacht, guided by our friendly and experienced RYA Yachtmaster Instructor, and shape your learning adventure just how you like it.

Which marinas might you get to visit during your course

When you join us for the RYA Competent Crew training course, your adventure sets sail right from our Gosport marina base in Gosport Hampshire. Over the five days, you’ll spend your nights on board at a variety of fantastic marinas dotted along the Solent and South Coast. Depending on the week and the weather (and perhaps the mood of the crew!), your floating home might visit marinas such as:

• Ocean Village Marina
• Yarmouth harbour
• Cowes
• Chichester
• Southampton Town Quay
• Hamble River
• Lymington town

Each of these spots offers excellent shoreside facilities—think cosy bistros, cheerful bars, shops for any forgotten essentials, and the always welcome hot showers and laundry rooms. Of course, your yacht has all the comforts you need on board, but it’s always a treat to step ashore and explore somewhere new each evening.

Training Course syllabus:

The RYA Competent Crew training course is a great introduction to sailing. This training 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 training course you’ll gain valuable experience and confidence in how to sail, and become a useful crew member aboard a sailing yacht.

On this RYA 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 training course, you will become a very useful member of a yacht crew, and be able to be active in sailing the boat!

The RYA Competent Crew training 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 on the boat

Our Chief Instructor says this about the RYA Competent Crew training course:

This beginners sailing training 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 be learning to sail in the vibrant and varied waters of the Solent, the heart of sailing and boating in the UK, you’ll get to visit lots of different marinas and experience yacht sailing at its best.

Learning to sail in the Solent is both challenging and rewarding. The ever-changing conditions and the bustling waterways of Portsmouth, Southampton  and the Central Solent offer a truly unique environment. Each day brings new sights—busy shipping lanes, picturesque harbours, and lively marinas—so there’s never a dull moment. You’ll gain hands-on experience navigating the area’s famous tides and currents, all while building your confidence and practical skills as part of a supportive crew.

 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? Set sail on your boating adventure to sail the seas!

Remember, unlike a lot of training centres in the Solent, we provide food during your course. So you’ll get breakfast, lunches, snacks and three evening meals (One evening meal is taken ashore at the students own cost, along with unlimited tea, coffee, water, hot chocolate and soft drinks, squash etc.

Our boats also include heating – we still aren’t sure why other training centres don’t want warm happy customers! So not only do we feed you (overfeed usually!), we also make sure you’ve got a warm comfortable boat to sail in.

Ask other centres what they provide against what we give you. You won’t find better value in the Solent for a comprehensive course package.