RYA Course - Coastal Skipper
RYA Coastal Skipper Practical Courses in Falmouth, Cornwall (minimum age 17)
This course is aimed to teach the skills and techniques required to skipper a cruising yacht safely on coastal and offshore passages by day and night.
The course is typically taught over 5 days but can also be included as an extended cruising course of either 7, 10 or 14 days.
It is run from the historic Port of Falmouth and normally will include coastal or offshore passages of over 60 miles, for example to the Channel Islands, North Brittany Coast or the beautiful Isles of Scilly. We like to organise Coastal Skipper courses around individual requirements rather than advertising specific dates. So if you would like to join a course then please contact us with your availability and we shall aim to organise one for you!
The RYA stipulates a maximum instructor ratio of 1:5 for Sail Training. At Trysail we work on 4 students to one instructor as we believe this gives the optimum ratio for student learning and makes life on board more comfortable.
Accommodation is provided on board the yacht during the course and all meals are included in the cost. All our instructors are experienced cooks and enjoy entertaining at the end of a hard day. We cater for all tastes and we are also more than happy to cater for Vegetarians and Vegans with exciting, local, home-cooked meals.
The course will commence with a full safety brief that our instructors will make fun and interesting.
While your instructor cooks you a lovely meal, he’ll assess your previous experience and then ask you to start planning the first passage of the course.
We do not set a fixed itinerary for our courses as the weather plays such a large part and changes daily.
As a Coastal Skipper candidate you will be encouraged to take full control of the boat, its crew together with pilotage and passage making responsibilities during the week. The instructor is there to guide but will let you make mistakes as long as they don’t endanger the boat. (We all learn better from our mistakes, don’t we?!)
Each passage over 60 miles as ‘skipper’ counts towards the pre-qualification for the Yachtmaster Offshore Exam. Our aim is to help and encourage each of our candidates to complete the syllabus, set by the RYA, during the course and to award a Certificate of Competency on completion. Each candidate is kept informed of their progress.
You will also learn about extended passage making, heavy weather sailing and negotiating traffic separation schemes as well as brushing up on crew handling, man overboard drills and handling the boat under sail and power.
Whatever the weather throws at you, you’ll be guaranteed a rewarding and enjoyable week on the water and will complete in the region of 300 sea miles (incorporating a minimum of 2 passages over 60 miles) and 16 night hours to add to your logbook and hopefully the confidence and accreditation to skipper your own/charter boat by day & night during coastal & offshore passages.
