Specialist Sailing Courses

Designed as one or more weekend courses, these focus on improving the basic sailing skills you learnt during your Competent Crew or Day Skipper course. Because sailing is such a broad subject, these weekends focus on the sails and their controls, including:

• Understanding different types of sail, and their application
• Getting your tell tales flying correctly
• Travellers: purpose, operation and effect
• Halyards and outhauls: set and forget, or adjust?
• Safe downwind sailing, such as balancing your yacht, poling out headsails and rigging preventers
• Heavy weather sailing, including reefing, helming and safety

Ideally suited to a weekend, this course gives you the opportunity to practise close-quarters handling techniques, including:

• Manoeuvring a yacht in tight spaces such as marinas, locks and busy waterways, using wind, tide and prop walk
• Mooring alongside and into a finger berth
• Turning a yacht 180 degrees in a confined space
• Planning a berthing manoeuvre in a tricky situation, and always having a plan B!
• Using springs to leave a tight windward pontoon

This course is a refresher for those who want to join a flotilla holiday with confidence. It also runs on a yacht very similar to those on our flotilla holidays. You then spend the time on the water with an instructor, covering the skippering and boat-handling skills required. The content is also driven by you, so you practise the skills you want whilst enjoying a weekend on the water.

This pre-flotilla course takes you from limited or no skippering experience to the level you need. As a result, you can safely and competently enjoy a flotilla holiday on board your own chartered yacht.

Course syllabus

• The Yacht — Parts of a boat, her rigging and sails
• Preparation for sea — Safety equipment, stowage, briefing, watch keeping, engine checks
• Deck work — Reefing, anchoring, mooring alongside and stern-to, buoy work
• Rope-work — Rigging knowledge and practical knots
• Sail handling — Basic sail trimming and sailing on all points of sail
• Power handling — Anchoring, shore lines, Mediterranean stern-to mooring
• Pilotage — Harbour entry and departure plans, transits and soundings
• Navigation — Position fixing, GPS, chart reading, course to steer
• Safety — First Aid, flares, fire precautions, man overboard recovery
• Communications — VHF radio operation and etiquette
• Meteorology — Forecasting services and the Beaufort Scale

This sailing refresher course is aimed at those who have trained or gained experience in non-tidal waters such as the Mediterranean. It therefore develops a skipper’s ability in tidal waters, covering tidal theory and its navigation implications. In addition, you practise the skills needed to handle a yacht safely in tidal conditions, such as ferry gliding and tidal passage planning.

Course syllabus

• Revision & Consolidation — Procedures and routines to Day Skipper level in tidal waters
• Navigation — Visual fixes, electronic nav, waypoints, DR/EP, tidal heights and streams, IALA buoyage
• Pilotage — Harbour entry/departure plans, leading and clearing lines, transits and soundings
• Yacht handling under power — Close-quarters control, berthing and un-berthing in wind and tide
• Yacht handling under sail — Anchoring and mooring in all conditions, sailing on all points of sail
• Adverse weather — Heavy weather preparation, restricted visibility navigation
• Emergency situations — Man overboard in a tidal stream, liferaft, helicopter and lifeboat rescue

If you are not a regular sailor, or perhaps a reluctant one, you may feel overwhelmed when your partner always takes charge. Our weekends are therefore run by female RYA instructors. They help you build on your existing experience or learn new skills, so you can take the helm confidently in tricky situations.

For example, knowing how to moor alongside or stern-to in the Mediterranean builds your confidence. It also takes the pressure off the skipper, which leads to a more relaxed holiday for everyone.

Milebuilding is simple but essential for anyone working their logbook towards the Yachtmaster exam. With the guidance of our experienced instructors, skippers of any level practise long-distance passage making, especially in preparation for a Coastal Skipper course. Aspiring crew can also benefit from an adventurous trip across to France or the Channel Islands, and destinations sometimes include Dartmouth and Weymouth. However, for bigger miles in the sun, see our Corfu & Albania milebuilder.

Private tuition is available at all of our schools, so it gives you the flexibility to serve your entire group’s needs. For instance, you can choose any of our specialist sailing courses or a course from the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme. Alternatively, talk to us and we can put together a combination of RYA and non-RYA courses for your whole party.

Private tuition can take place on our training yacht by exclusive use, which often offers the best value for groups of 3–5. We can also offer tuition in the Mediterranean on our large fleet of bareboat and flotilla yachts. As a result, you can choose a newer or larger yacht that fits your requirements.

Please call or email us, so we can find what offers you the best flexibility and price.

Seafarer was established 30 years ago. Since then, we have taken thousands of people sailing and employed numerous skippers. We therefore know what it takes to work in this industry and are well placed to assist you. Please contact us for more information on our professional development programme.