Am I ready for Coastal Skipper?

When booking RYA courses it is important to get yourself on the right one for maximum learning. People who have completed their Day Skipper and want to do the next step often want to know if Coastal Skipper is the course for them or whether they should do some more sailing first.

The Coastal Skipper course is the course for skippers who want to go on longer passages and be comfortable with tidal calculations, trickier navigation, night sailing and running a watch system amongst other things.

It is a 5 day course and it is suggested that before the course you have a minimum of 15 days sailing, 300 nautical miles and 8 hours at night. It is also suggested that you have completed 2 days as skipper. If your sailing has been on RYA courses this means that if you have progressed through Competent Crew, Day Skipper, done a few weekends and had a go skippering for a couple of days then you have done enough sailing.

You should be at Yachtmaster theory level before this course. This means that you should be happy with secondary port calculations, estimated positions, course to steer, meteorology and collision regulations among the rest of the theory. It is not necessary to have done the course and hold the certificate but it is important to know the content.

The course will aim to do a longer passage (greater than 60 miles) with tidal considerations. Passages of this length require a watch system which will be an important component of the course. There will also be some time spent sailing at night.

By the end of the course we aim to equip you with the skills to skipper a longer coastal or offshore passage taking into account the wind and the tide, be able to deal with more serious weather, be happy in the dark and to be know how to deal with safety issues on route should they arise.

If you aren’t sure whether this is the course for you or whether you should do some more sailing first then email us at Daniel.smith@sailingintuition.com and we can talk you through it.