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 spar that supports the head of a four-sided fore-and-aft sail. The gaff is attached near its forward end to the mast and extends aft and usually upward. Its jaws or other mast fitting guide it, while a throat halyard raises the forward end and a peak halyard controls the outer end and sail shape….
The system of lines, wires, spars and fittings that supports and controls a vessel’s masts and sails. Standing rigging supports the mast and normally includes shrouds and stays. Running rigging moves or controls sails and spars and includes halyards, sheets, guys, lifts and associated blocks and winches. As a verb, rigging means fitting, arranging or…
The international governing body for the sport of sailing, recognised by the International Olympic Committee. World Sailing develops the Racing Rules of Sailing and competition regulations, oversees international events and Olympic sailing, supports officials and training and recognises member national authorities and international classes. Its rules govern organised sport within their stated scope and are…
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…
A sailing vessel’s tendency to turn towards the wind unless opposed by helm or trim. Weather helm arises from the relationship between aerodynamic force, underwater lateral resistance, heel, hull asymmetry and rudder angle. A small tendency can provide feedback and make the vessel round up if steering is released, but excessive weather helm increases drag…
A light pole used to hold the clew of a headsail out when sailing downwind. A whisker pole supports the headsail on the side opposite the mainsail in a goose-winged arrangement or keeps it filled when wind and vessel motion would otherwise collapse it. It is commonly adjustable in length and is normally lighter than…
In the direction from which the wind is coming, or on the side facing the incoming wind. Windward is the opposite of leeward and can describe a vessel’s side, another object’s position or progress towards the source of the wind. The windward side is not necessarily physically higher except when heel makes it so. The…
A spar set across a mast to support and spread a square sail or another transverse sail arrangement. A square sail’s head is bent or attached along the yard, whose braces rotate it horizontally and whose lifts and halyards support or raise it according to the rig. Yards may be fixed, lowered, hoisted or sent…
Lightweight streamers used to show local airflow over a sail or wind direction around a vessel. Pairs placed on each side of a headsail luff indicate attached or disturbed flow and help adjust sheet trim and steering. Leech telltales show flow leaving a sail, while shroud or masthead telltales can indicate local apparent wind but…
A line or wire supporting or controlling the height of a boom, yard or pole. A mainsail topping lift supports the boom when the sail and halyard do not and may be eased once the sail carries the load. A spinnaker-pole topping lift controls the pole’s vertical position together with a foreguy or downhaul; the…
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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