Q. I'm thinking of learning to sail, but I have no experience. What can you offer me? You don't need any experience to join one of our Competent Crew courses which assumes you to be a complete novice. Over the course of 5 days and night, we'll instruct you on all the basics and at the end of it you would be a useful member of crew on any sailing yacht. If you don't want to commit to 5 days straight away, why not try a single Start Yachting weekend, that gives you a good taster of the sailing life. If you do decide you want to take up sailing, these two days count towards the Competent Crew course and we have three day weekends for you to finish off at a later stage. Q. I have done some dinghy sailing, would I be able to go straight to Day Skipper? You can start at Day Skipper level (or higher), but you should have at least some familiarity with yachts beforehand and also done some theory - rules of the road, lights/shapes/sounds, basics of navigation and the weather. If you aren't sure, join a Day Skipper course and discuss your experience with the instructor after a day or so. If you need a refresher on the basics, we could just concentrate on the Competent Crew syllabus and issue you with a certificate for that. Q. Is there a way of getting the theoretical knowledge without taking the full theory course? We would recommend the full theory course, but there is a new option to do a basic navigation and seamanship course on-line. You study at your own pace and at the end of it you'll get a course certificate. More importantly you'll have looked at all the basic areas and if you like reading around a subject, there's plenty of RYA booklets to take you further. If you can do a Day Skipper practical course soon afterwards, this will then put it all in to context. Q. What is included in the price of your courses? Accommodation on the yacht and guidance from one of our RYA approved instructors throughout the course All meals taken onboard - breakfasts, lunches and snacks, plus evening meals except for the evening that you arrive and the last night when everyone usually eats out together We provide freshly laundered pillows, but we ask you to bring your own sleeping bags for hygiene reasons. Mooring costs in our home marina - the crew will share the cost of mooring elsewhere. Prices vary from about £15 for the boat per night If you need wet weather gear, this can be hired for just £5 for a weekend or £10 for a week Q. What time do courses start and finish? Normal arrival time is from 6:30pm onwards on the evening before the course officially starts If you can't make it until the morning of departure, please let us know, the course will start around 9am, but we can delay leaving the marina until later if we know you are on your way We usually aim to arrive back around 4 pm on the last day An important part of the course is for participants to help clean and pack away the vessel before they leave at around 5pm. Q. Are there any discounts available? Discounts are available to 2 or more people booking together. If you have a group of 5 to fill all the places on a course we'll give you and extra discount and can arrange all the course details to suit your needs. Q. I need to follow a special diet, can you help with that? If you are a vegetarian or have other special dietary needs, you may want to bring some of your own food. We recognise this and therefore offer a discount. Just click on the relevant button when booking. Q. How do I book? Just follow the links to the course you want and click on the add to your shopping bag button. You can also add any extras you might want such as oilskin hire and a logbook if you need one. If you'd prefer to discuss things over the phone, please call us on the main number 08443 573 673. If we are unavailable, please leave a message and we'll call you back at the earliest opportunity. Alternatively send an email and we'll email or call you back. In any event we are always happy to talk about sailing. Q. What if the dates I want are not listed? If you have a particular date in mind where no course is scheduled, please call or email and we may be able to arrange something to suit. We need 3 people to make a course viable, so provided we have enough notice we can probably find another two to join you. Q. Do I have to take an exam at the end of a course? In most cases the answer is no, because satisfactory course completion is decided by your instructor, not by exam. Our aim is to ensure that you complete the course successfully and nearly everyone does just that, although there are some borderline cases where we might ask you to come back for an extra day to practice specific aspects of the syllabus. This applies to all courses from Competent Crew to Coastal Skipper. We also run courses at Yachtmaster level where there normally is an exam at the end of the week. Typically you'll have five days preparation on the boat that will be similar to any other course. Then on the Friday after the course finishes, an examiner will join the boat to take you through another 12 to 24 hours of sailing, but this time you are in charge. You'll sail the boat as you have all week to show the examiner that you are confident in skippering a yacht and you'll also be asked to carry out some manoeuvres to test you ability (eg man overboard recovery). There'll probably also be time for some technical questions and a passage plan or two, to test your knowledge of the theory. Being tested will inevitably make you a little nervous, but you should try to relax and enjoy the sailing. You will probably learn something from the examiner who will also be a senior instructor, and keeping them supplied with tea and coffee also usually helps. Exams are available at Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore level, with the latter being slightly more advanced. You pay the examiner directly for their time, but we give you the boat for free and the people that have been on the course with you all week will usually help as crew for free too, because they get an extra day's sailing. Q. What are your specialist courses all about? Our main course programme follows the RYA cruising scheme, but we also provide some other courses and instruction to supplement this in specific areas. Courses on spinnakers & race training, heavy weather techniques, boat handling under power, flotilla training and general refresher courses are all very popular. We also provide mile-building trips (details under 'sailing adventures'), own boat instruction and coaching for MCA sailing exams. | 
