All our courses are engaging, interactive and fun! Whether formal training or simply looking to brush up, we take online learning to the next level.
Sailing EssentialsFreeA free course great for anyone who spends time on the water.
Essential Navigation & SeamanshipRYA course for beginners. Learn charts, tides, pilotage, and core seamanship with simple practice tasks.
Day Skipper TheoryMost PopularRYA course for inshore skippers. Plan day passages using chartwork, tides, weather, and COLREGs.
Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster® TheoryComing SoonRYA course for advanced navigation and passage planning, secondary ports, tidal streams, and offshore weather.
SRC (VHF) Marine Radio CourseRYA Short Range Certificate radio course. Study online, then take the practical exam with an RYA assessor.Are you looking for something nautical related? Our directory is an extensive list of courses and places associated with the marine industry. Hop over and search now.
We believe every day’s a school day on a boat! That’s why we built Nautical Know-How, dedicated to answering your questions. Even better, if it can’t answer your question immediately, you can request it, and we’ll add it to our knowledge base.
Nautical Terms & TerminologyUnderstanding the language of the marine world is like trying to learn a pirate’s secret code while juggling fish. Let us explain why a sheet isn’t for your bed, why “heave ho” doesn’t mean throw up (most of the time), and why “dead reckoning” is surprisingly less ominous than it sounds.
Why do we have tides?Have you ever wondered what causes the tides? Check out this video, which introduces the forces that create the tides we experience on Earth.
What causes our weather?A video introducing the drivers behind our weather, part of our RYA Day Skipper & RYA Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster® Offshore theory courses.
Buoyage FlashcardsFlashcards designed to help remember the buoys in the IALA system. If you want to learn them in detail, our module ‘Getting in and out of harbour‘, covers the IALA system and different buoys used.
Interactive Rule Book (COLREGs / IRPCS)Whether you’re a novice sailor or a seasoned skipper, we can help you navigate the IRPCS confidently and clearly. Our easy-to-use, easy-to-understand, plain English rule book with helpful interpretations of what each rule means.
The Salty Sea BlogFrom salty old sea dogs to fresh-faced deckhands, this blog is for anyone who finds peace, adventure, and a bit of mischief on the water. So hoist the main, set your course, and let’s sail into the stories, lessons, and musings that make life on the sea so irresistible.An area of relatively low atmospheric pressure, usually associated with cyclonic circulation and unsettled weather. In the Northern Hemisphere the circulation is anticlockwise around the low; in the Southern Hemisphere it is clockwise. Mid-latitude depressions commonly include warm and cold fronts and can bring changing wind, rain, squalls, reduced visibility and altered sea state as…
The vertical distance from the water surface to the seabed or another underwater feature at a stated time and position. Actual water depth changes with tide, surge, waves and water-level variation. A charted depth is instead referenced to chart datum and must be combined with the height of tide or water level to estimate the…
A powerful compressed-air sound signal that produces a distinctive low-pitched blast. A diaphone uses a slotted reciprocating piston to interrupt the air flow. Many installations produce a characteristic descending or grunting note at the end of the blast, and paired units can create a two-tone signal. Diaphones were widely installed at lighthouses and fog-signal stations…
A small, usually open boat used independently or as a tender to a larger vessel. A sailing dinghy is a lightweight craft sailed for training, recreation or racing and may be designed to capsize and be righted by its crew. A tender dinghy carries people or stores between a parent vessel and shore and may…
To lower a vessel’s ensign temporarily as a traditional maritime salute. The ensign is lowered part-way or, where the arrangement permits, close to the deck, then re-hoisted after the salute is acknowledged. The custom is most often associated with a merchant vessel saluting a warship or with formal maritime occasions. Flag etiquette and who may…
The conventional direction used to determine the port-hand and starboard-hand sides of a buoyed route. It is generally the direction followed when approaching a harbour, river, estuary or other waterway from seaward. Where a route runs along a coast or has several branches, the competent authority determines the direction and charts may show it with…
A navigation light visible over a restricted sector and used to indicate a particular direction.
The mass or weight of water displaced by a floating vessel, equal to the vessel’s total mass or weight in equilibrium. Displacement is commonly quoted as a mass in tonnes even though the traditional word “weight” is often used. Light displacement describes the vessel in a defined light condition, while loaded displacement includes cargo, people,…
A vessel supported primarily by hydrostatic buoyancy rather than dynamic planing lift throughout its normal speed range. Its hull moves through the water and creates a wave system rather than rising substantially onto the surface as a planing hull does. Full-displacement forms include many ships, trawlers, cruising motorboats and sailing yachts, with shapes ranging well…
The measured separation between two positions or features. Marine distances are commonly expressed in nautical miles, where one international nautical mile is exactly 1,852 metres. Shorter distances may use cables or metres, while chart scales and electronic systems can use different units according to context and settings. A distance may be measured along a route,…
If you belive the Earth is flat, you're about to fall of the end...
If you belive the Earth is flat, you're about to fall of the end...
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