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.Marine navigation has its own secret language, and let’s face it—half of it sounds like someone making things up after too much grog. You’ve got your ‘dead reckoning,’ which isn’t nearly as ominous as it sounds, and ‘bearing,’ which has nothing to do with polar bears but everything to do with pointing the right way. Don’t even get us started on ‘knots’—why measure speed like you’re tying a shoelace? And then there’s ‘fix (not for your engine) and ‘DR’ (spoiler: it’s not a doctor). If you’re baffled, don’t worry—we’re here to help you decipher this nautical code so you can sound like a pro, not a landlubber who’s lost their compass.
The downwind direction or the side away from the wind. The lee side of a vessel is the side towards which the wind is blowing, opposite the weather or windward side. A person, object or shore lying downwind may similarly be described as being to leeward. The word also conveys shelter: a vessel may seek…
A shore lying downwind of a vessel so that wind tends to set the vessel towards it. A lee shore reduces the room available to recover from loss of propulsion, steering or sail control. Waves may steepen or break as they approach shallow water, and an onshore current can worsen the set even when the…
In the direction towards which the wind is blowing, or on the side away from the wind. Leeward describes direction or relative position and is the opposite of windward. A vessel’s leeward side is normally the side away from the incoming wind, while an object may create a sheltered lee extending downwind of it. Shelter…
Unable to complete a tack because a sailing vessel has lost drive while pointing into or very close to the wind. With the sails luffing and little water flow over the rudder, the vessel may stop turning and begin to drift or make sternway. It commonly results from insufficient speed before the tack, excessive rudder…
In the phase of a tack while the bow is passing through the wind. The expression describes a normal transitional state, traditionally while the headsails and stays are close to the wind, rather than necessarily a loss of control. The sails luff briefly and the vessel relies on momentum and coordinated helm and sail handling…
Situated, moving or operating relatively close to the shore. The word is relative unless a regulation, forecast area, routeing measure or local publication gives it a defined boundary. It may describe waters, a direction towards the shore, or the landward side of another vessel or feature. Inshore water is not necessarily calm, shallow or safer…
The intergovernmental organisation that develops international guidance and cooperation for marine aids to navigation. IALA produces standards, recommendations, guidelines and model courses covering buoyage, lights, vessel traffic services, digital services and related systems. Its work promotes harmonisation and supports authorities, manufacturers, service providers and mariners, while legal implementation remains the responsibility of states and relevant…
The specialised United Nations agency responsible for global standards concerning the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping. IMO provides the forum in which member states develop and adopt international conventions, codes, recommendations and other instruments on matters including ship safety, pollution prevention, liability, facilitation and maritime security. Those instruments take legal effect through…
An aid to navigation placed on or moored above an isolated danger with navigable water all around it. Under the IALA Maritime Buoyage System it is coloured black with one or more broad red horizontal bands and carries two black spheres as its topmark. Its light, when fitted, is white and shows a group of…
A rhythmic light whose periods of light and darkness are equal within each cycle.
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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