RYA Day Skipper
Practical Course
Five days aboard. One life-changing qualification. Learn to skipper a yacht by day in tidal waters and earn your internationally recognised RYA Day Skipper certificate.
Course Overview
The RYA Day Skipper Practical is the bread and butter of sailing qualifications. Over five days, you'll progress from competent crew to confident skipper, learning pilotage, passage planning, boat handling, and seamanship in the beautiful waters of the Solent.
What You'll Learn
Chart work, tidal calculations, weather interpretation, and route selection.
Navigating in harbours, rivers, and coastal waters using visual references and instruments.
Mooring, anchoring, berthing alongside, picking up buoys, and man-overboard drills.
Identifying lights and buoys, night passage planning, and watch-keeping routines.
Emergency procedures, fire safety, flares, liferaft deployment, and crew wellbeing.
Taking command — delegation, decision making, and responsible passage management.
Prerequisites
- ✅ RYA Day Skipper Theory (or equivalent knowledge)
- ✅ Minimum 5 days / 100 miles logged experience
- ✅ Competent Crew level practical ability
- ✅ Minimum age 16 (under 18 requires parental consent)
What's Included
Select a Date
What Our Graduates Say
"Best five days of my life. The instructor was incredibly patient and the Solent is a fantastic training ground. I left feeling genuinely confident to charter a yacht abroad."
"Booking was seamless — picked my dates, paid the deposit, job done. The course itself was hands-on from day one. Can't recommend this school enough."