Day Skipper Syllabus

The Day Skipper is a beginner skippering course for sailors with a little prior sailing experience. During this course we will develop your skills and prepare you to skipper a yacht. On completion, you will have learned how to take charge and skipper a yacht on short passages.

At a Glance

Day Skipper Practical
Pre-course Requirements: 100 miles/5 days
Minimum age: 16
Run time: 5 days tuition (1 day off or free-sail)
1 week course, living aboard our tuition yacht

What you will learn

The Day Skipper course will show you the difference between being crew and being the person proactively in charge. You will learn about preparation for sea, deck work, navigation, pilotage, meteorology, rules of the road, maintenance and repair work, engines, victualling, emergency situations, yacht handling under power, yacht handling under sail, passage making, seamanship skills, and you will sail a night time passage through shipping lanes.

Experience needed

The RYA Competent Crew is the ideal pre-requisite course, but you can join a Day Skipper without it. It is recommended that candidates have done about 100 miles / 5 days on a sailing yacht as an active crew member; and that they have completed the RYA Day Skipper Theory, which can be done with our E-learning package from home before arriving. It takes about 30 to 40 hours and can be completed over a few weeks from the comfort of your own home.

If you have taken part in a previous flotilla as an active crew, you should be experienced enough to take a Day Skipper course.

The Day Skipper course and tides

Our course covers the theory of tidal stream and height calculation. As a newly qualified Day Skipper, after successful completion of our course, we’d strongly advise gaining further experience in tidal waters before skippering any coastal passages in tidal waters.

Day Skipper Practical Course Syllabus - Tidal

1. Preparation for sea

The Day Skipper should be able to carry out the proper preparation of a yacht prior to departure, this includes; checking the engine, selecting the appropriate sails, securely stowing all gear both on and below deck.

2. Deck work

A Day Skipper candidate should be proficient in sail handling and will be taught and practice how to reef, shake out reefs and change headsails to suit the conditions.
Can effectively prepare the anchor and mooring lines prior to berthing and take charge on deck in the following situations; mooring alongside, picking up a buoy, anchoring, weighing anchor and slipping warps when leaving a buoy or from a pontoon berth

3. Navigation

The successful Day Skipper should be proficient in chart work and routine navigational duties on passage to the level of someone who has completed the RYA Day Skipper shore-based course Core skills include:

Taking visual fixes and plotting these on a chart
The use of electronic navigation equipment for fixing your position
Using electronic waypoints
Working up deduced reckoning positions (DR) and developing estimated positions (EP)
Calculating tidal heights and tidal streams
Working out course to steer to allow for the offset of tidal streams and leeway
A working knowledge of IALA buoyage system
Maintaining efficient navigational records
Use of echo sounder and lead line

4. Pilotage

A Day Skipper should be able to prepare and effectively use a pilotage plan for entry or departure from harbour. This includes an understanding of the use of clearing lines, leading lines, transits, soundings and other aids to pilotage

5. Meteorology

Is aware of the common sources of weather forecasts
Can interpret shipping forecasts and use a barometer as a forecasting aid prior to undertaking a Day Skipper passage

6. Rules of the road

The Day Skipper should possess a working knowledge of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea

7. Maintenance and repair work

Understands and is able to carry out basic maintenance tasks
Knows the properties of common synthetic ropes and understands their use on board a yacht

8. Engines

Understands the importance of checking and knows how to change water filters, fuel filters, cooling pump impeller, alternator belts and to bleed the fuel system

9. Food

Understands how to provision a yacht, often called victualling

10. Emergency Situations

An effective Day Skipper should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the correct action to be taken as skipper for recovery of a person overboard
Understands distress signals and flares and knows how to use a liferaft
Can operate a VHF radio in an emergency, send a digital distress alert by DSC and transmit a Mayday call
Understands how to effectively secure a tow
Has an understanding of the procedures employed by rescue vessels and helicopters, including hi-line rescue techniques

11. Yacht handling under power

Can safely bring a boat to and from an alongside berth, mooring buoy and anchor under various conditions of wind and tide

12. Yacht handling under sail

A Day Skipper should understand how to bring a boat safely to and from a mooring buoy and anchor under various conditions of wind and tide under sail
Can trim sails and steer a yacht effectively on all points of sail

13. Passage making

Can effectively plan and undertake a coastal passage, taking into account all relevant navigational hazards and understands the limitations imposed by the type of boat and the strength of the crew