Essential Navigation & Seamanship

The Basic Navigation and Safety course has been renamed to Essential Navigation and Seamanship. With the new name comes a new way of taking it…

The course has been available in the classroom for a few years, but now it is possible to take it online too through our RYA Interactive e-learning site.

However you decide to take the course, it offers a great introduction to navigation and safety awareness for new, inexperienced or rusty skippers and crew.

This course is for anyone interested in sailing, motor boating, sea angling or diving. It's also the perfect stepping stone to the more in-depth Day Skipper shorebased course or our on-the-water courses such as the Intermediate Powerboat, Start Yachting, Helmsman or Day Skipper courses.

This is a highly informative course with lots of opportunities for you to put your new found knowledge into practice. If you decide to take the course online, you will find many interactive exercises to help reinforce the information and lots of chances to try out what you've learned.

In the classroom, the course is taught over 16 hours with exercises to complete along the way. It can be covered as a series of short sessions or over two full days.

Online the course will take around five to six hours, but the beauty of it is that you can work through it at your own speed, whenever and wherever you like. All you need is internet access and your course pack.

You will receive a course pack which includes a chart, plotter, dividers, course handbook, exercises and an electronic chart plotter CD.

Course topics include:

• charts and publications
• safety
• engine checks
• buoyage
• tidal awareness
• visual and electronic navigation
• pilotage
• rules of the road
• anchoring
• weather forecasts
• passage planning

Day Skipper

A comprehensive introduction to cruising for inexperienced skippers.

This course equips you with enough knowledge to navigate around familiar waters by day. A basic knowledge of lights is also included to introduce you to night cruising.

We are continually updating our courses to take into account developments in technology and the electronic navigation aids now available on most cruising boats.

In conjunction with the UK Hydrographic Office we have developed a chart plotter specifically for use on training courses, giving you a realistic insight into electronic navigation. Use of this plotter is an integral part of our Day Skipper shorebased course.

We have northern and southern hemisphere versions of our training materials. So, no matter where you are in the world, our course can be tailored to you.

The course is taught over 40 hours with two exam papers. It can be covered as a series of short sessions, as an intensive week-long course, or by distance learning.

Course topics include:

• the basics of seamanship
• the essentials of coastal navigation and pilotage
• chartwork
• electronic charts
• position fixing
• plotting a course to steer
• weather forecasting and meteorology
• tides
• collision regulations
• construction, parts and equipment of a cruising boat
• emergency and safety procedures including distress calls,use of flares, safety harnesses, lifejackets and liferafts

Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore

Advanced training for more experienced skippers building on the Day Skipper course.

This course equips you to navigate safely on coastal and offshore passages. It allows some time for revision of the basics and then moves on to advanced navigation techniques.

This course will take your theory knowledge to the standard required for the Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore practical exams, concentrating on advanced navigation and meteorology skills.

As with the Day Skipper shorebased course, the RYA’s specially designed chart plotter software will be used during the course to give you a realistic taste of modern electronic navigation.

Students in the southern hemisphere can take advantage of the southern hemisphere version of our training materials, ensuring that your course is relevant to you.

The course is taught over 40 hours with three exam papers. It can be covered as a series of short sessions, as an intensive week-long course, or by distance learning.

Course topics include:

• position fixing
• course shaping and plotting
• tidal knowledge
• use of almanacs and admiralty publications
• electronic position finding equipment
• taking and interpreting forecasts
• plotting weather systems
• weather predictions using a barometer and by observation
• collision regulations
• customs and excise regulations for cruising abroad

Yachtmaster Ocean

Unravel the mysteries of astro navigation, using a sextant, ocean passage making, worldwide meteorology and electronic navigation aids.

This course is for those aspiring to blue water cruising and is ideal for holders of theYachtmaster Offshore certificate who are preparing for their first ocean passage.

Topics covered include:

• The earth and the celestial sphere
• Practical guide to use and care of sextant at sea
• Meridian altitudes
• Sun, star and other sights
• Ocean passage planning

On-Line Theory

Perfect wind conditions, blue skies, the draw of the Atlantic and two fantastic yachts berthed in the marina is usually enough to convince most students that they don’t particularly want to sit in a classroom here. So, although we do occasionally run theory courses, we have researched for a viable alternative to suit busy modern life.

We are therefore proud to wholly recommend Chichester Maritime who offer first class on-line theory courses.

They have taken classroom instruction into the twenty-first century by becoming the first truly online shorebased school. Combining professionally written, interactive courses with modern communications, they now offer individual and up-to-date tuition at a fraction of the cost of hiring a personal tutor. Their qualified RYA instructors are enthusiastic small craft sailors with a wide knowledge and clear teaching style that is second to none.
Their courses can be completed in your own time and at your own pace meaning that your valuable holidays can be spent on the water rather in a classroom! We have taught practical courses to many of their theory students and without exception we find their knowledge to be excellent. . They join us keen to demonstrate how much they have learnt and tell us how much they have enjoyed their course and that the support they received was excellent. For more information take a look at – www.cmonline.co.uk 

The Principal of the school is Sue Fletcher (FRIN). Besides being a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation she is also a qualified navigation instructor and SRC Course Assessor (VHF); and a writer on nautical subjects. Amongst other work she was a yachting correspondent for Practical Boat Owner magazine and is author of 'Reed's VHF DSC Handbook', the RYA recommended text for the new VHF Short Range Certificate Course.
Rod Fletcher, a qualified RYA navigation instructor and an instructor/assessor for the SRC, has been sailing since the mid 1960s, starting in dinghys but soon moving into offshore sailing. He was the youngest skipper to be appointed to the Lloyds Bank yacht the 'Dark Horse' in 1976 and has extensive yacht delivery, cruising and racing experience including the Fastnet Race and Tall Ships racing.