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 satellite-based system that provides positioning, navigation and timing information to compatible receivers. GNSS is the collective term for constellations including the United States GPS, Europe’s Galileo, Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou, together with augmentation systems and regional services. A receiver measures signals from multiple satellites to calculate position and time. Accuracy and integrity depend…
A berth arranged in the after part of a vessel, commonly extending beneath a cockpit side deck or cockpit seat. It is often a single narrow sleeping space entered from the cabin, although size, side and arrangement vary. The surrounding volume may share space with lockers, machinery, steering gear or service runs depending on design….
An RYA training publication containing simulated nautical-almanac and pilotage information for shorebased navigation exercises. Northern and Southern Hemisphere editions are paired with the appropriate RYA training charts and course exercises. They provide practice tables and information resembling real navigation publications so students can learn chartwork, tides, pilotage and passage planning in a controlled fictional setting….
A fictional non-navigational chart produced for teaching and practising RYA navigation and chartwork exercises. Training charts reproduce many conventions of real paper charts and are paired with specified RYA course books, exercises and training almanacs. Different numbered charts cover the northern or southern training schemes and must be matched to the intended material. They are…
A dimensionless factor describing how satellite geometry amplifies ranging and timing errors in a GNSS position or time solution. Satellites spread widely across the sky usually give lower DOP and stronger geometry, while clustered satellites or poor vertical distribution give higher DOP. Variants include geometric, position, horizontal, vertical and time DOP according to the components…
A two-masted fore-and-aft sailing rig with a small mizzen mast stepped abaft the rudder post or steering axis. The mainmast carries most of the sail area, while the smaller mizzen helps balance, steering and manoeuvring and may steady the vessel at anchor. The precise steering reference matters on modern craft whose rudder arrangements do not…
The international radiotelephony spelling word for the letter Z. It is used to spell call signs, identifiers and words clearly over voice radio. Its prescribed spoken form is represented as ‘ZOO LOO’. Zulu is also used informally for Coordinated Universal Time in military and aviation time-group notation, and the International Code of Signals assigns a…
The part of a rope that is not being actively manipulated while a knot, bend or hitch is formed. It usually leads away from the working area towards the load, coil or fixed remainder of the rope. The working end moves around or through it to form the structure of the knot. ‘Standing part’ is…
The portion of a rope or line that is not being actively manipulated while a knot is formed. It lies away from the working end and often carries or leads towards the main load. The boundary between standing and working parts depends on the operation being described rather than on a permanent marked section of…
The end of a rope actively manipulated to form a knot, bend, hitch or splice. It is passed around an object or through loops and turns while the standing part leads towards the rest of the rope or load. Some instructions call it the running end, although that phrase can also describe a freely moving…
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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