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.A heavy rope, wire rope or chain used for anchoring, mooring, towing or other load-bearing service. In traditional and regulatory language, an anchor cable may be chain, rope or a combination of both. The word also has electrical and communications meanings aboard a vessel, so context is important. Cable strength, elasticity, weight, corrosion, chafe, bend…
A unit of length equal to six feet, or 1.8288 metres, traditionally used for water depth and cable length. Older charts and sounding records may show depths in fathoms, sometimes with additional feet. Modern charts commonly use metres, and the chart’s unit and vertical datum must always be checked before using a depth. One fathom…
A downwind sail arrangement with the mainsail and headsail set on opposite sides of the vessel. The mainsail is eased to one side while the headsail is held out on the other, often with a whisker pole. This exposes both sails to the following wind and reduces the tendency of the mainsail to blanket the…
A naval pipe call ordering off-duty personnel below or signalling quiet and lights out. Orders aboard naval ships were traditionally transmitted by distinctive notes sounded on a boatswain’s call. “Pipe down” came to be associated with the end of the day’s activities and the requirement for silence. In everyday speech it now means to become…
The senior deck crew member responsible for supervising deck work, maintenance and seamanship equipment. The bosun normally allocates and oversees work involving mooring, anchoring, cargo or deck operations, rigging, small boats, painting and preservation. The exact duties and authority vary with vessel type, manning and organisation. Bosun is the usual spoken and informal spelling of…
Compelled or requisitioned for duty, especially when people or resources are urgently required. In maritime history, pressing most often refers to the compulsory recruitment of men for naval service under legal or asserted state authority. Vessels and material may also be requisitioned in wartime or emergency, but that is a related rather than identical process….
Pressed into service once meant being dragged off to sea whether you liked it or not. No warning, no choice, just a fast trip from the pub to a warship. Today it means helping a mate move a sofa. Same phrase, very different stakes.
The complete connection between a vessel and its anchor, made from chain, rope or both. An anchor rode may be all chain, all rope, or rope joined to a chain leader. Its size, material, length, elasticity and connections must suit the vessel, anchoring depth, seabed, wind, waves and current. Adequate scope helps the anchor pull…
Reducing a sail’s exposed area to control power and loads as wind or sea conditions increase. A slab-reefed mainsail is lowered sufficiently to secure a new tack and clew at reef points, then retensioned. Roller reefing reduces area by winding sail around a foil, mast or boom, while traditional sails may use other systems. Reefing…
A hook used to secure a mainsail’s reef tack or cringle near the gooseneck. Often called a ram’s horn, it holds the selected reef cringle at the forward end of the boom while the reef clew is tensioned aft. Some systems use a tack line or single-line reefing instead of a hook. The cringle must…
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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