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.Signals and communication in the marine world are like a game of charades with the ocean as your stage. Picture a crew furiously waving flags screaming, “We’re out of snacks!” while another ship squints, trying to decode whether that’s a distress call or just terrible semaphore skills. Horns blast at decibels high enough to wake Poseidon, with meanings ranging from “I’m turning left” to “Move it or lose it!” And let’s not forget Morse code—nothing says “urgent message” like blinking a flashlight at a seagull for hours. Meanwhile, the VHF radio crackles with static and a dozen accents yelling about the weather, leaving everyone more confused than enlightened. It’s a symphony of organised chaos where somehow, miraculously, no one crashes into an iceberg. Usually.
Navigational and meteorological warnings, forecasts and other urgent safety-related information broadcast to ships. Usually abbreviated to MSI, it includes navigational warnings, meteorological warnings and forecasts, search-and-rescue information and other urgent messages relevant to safe navigation. The information is coordinated for defined service areas and issued by authorised providers. MSI is distributed through services including NAVTEX…
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 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…
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…
A defined geographic position used as a reference in navigation or route planning. A waypoint is normally stored as latitude and longitude and may mark a course alteration, reporting point, approach position or user-created reference. It can be part of a route without representing a physical buoy, landmark or safe-water mark. Coordinates, datum, name and…
The international radiotelephony spelling word for the letter W. It is used to spell call signs, identifiers and words clearly over voice radio. Its prescribed spoken form is represented as ‘WISS KEY’; the international spelling word is written ‘Whiskey’. The International Code of Signals assigns a separate meaning to the single flag W. That signal…
The global geodetic reference system used by GPS to express positions and related Earth measurements. WGS 84 defines an Earth-centred coordinate frame, reference ellipsoid, gravity model and associated conventions. Modern GNSS positions and many nautical charts are compatible with it, but chart notes must be checked because older or local-datum charts can require a position…
The international radiotelephony spelling word for the letter X. It is used to spell call signs, identifiers and words clearly over voice radio. Its prescribed spoken form is represented as ‘ECKS RAY’. The International Code of Signals assigns a separate meaning to the single flag X. That signal use should not be confused with saying…
The international radiotelephony spelling word for the letter Y. It is used to spell call signs, identifiers and words clearly over voice radio. Its prescribed spoken form is represented as ‘YANG KEY’. The International Code of Signals assigns a separate meaning to the single flag Y. That signal use should not be confused with saying…
A geographic or administrative region using the same civil-time offset from Coordinated Universal Time. Time zones are commonly expressed as UTC plus or minus a number of hours and sometimes minutes. Governments define civil zones and daylight-saving changes, while marine forecasts, radio schedules, tide tables and logbooks may remain in UTC or another explicitly stated…
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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