List (Vessel Stability)

Bottom-up or top-down? After several practical courses with skippers trained elsewhere, I saw the same pilotage problems: plans too long to read or too thin to protect the boat. Here’s how to choose a format, avoid left/right flips, and build a cockpit-ready plan that works by day and at night.

Start right, save time. New to yachts, do RYA Competent Crew. Already crew with ease and want to lead, take Day Skipper Theory, then the Practical week. This guide shows who fits each path, the skills you need, common myths, and clear next steps.

Build a digital passage plan an RYA instructor can read in 60 seconds. Show “decisions for reasons” with clear evidence. • What they check: clarity, safety margin, reasons, alternatives, backup. • The 4-page pack: route overview, tides and streams, pilotage, weather and limits. • Prove your sources: chart edition, model run time, reference and secondary ports. • Keep it simple to share: GPX, PDF, and one printed summary. • Finish with a checklist you can copy. Read the full guide and make a plan that stands up to inspection.

Fastnet ’79 changed sailing. A sudden August storm, five yachts lost, lives cut short—and safety rules rewritten. We’ve pulled the lessons skippers still use today: heavy-weather choices, DSC/MAYDAY drills, horizontal recoveries, and practical prep you can do this week.