COMPETENT CREW - RYA Practical Course

This is where you start on the RYA training scheme!

Aim

The aim of this course is to introduce the complete beginner to cruising and to teach personal safety, seamanship and helmsmanship to the level required to be a useful member of the crew of a cruising yacht.

This is the first RYA practical course. The most important thing is that you will find out what it is like to go cruising on a sailing yacht and hopefully enjoy it and want to do - and learn - more.

Previous Experience and Knowledge

No previous knowledge or experience is required, but if you do have some (e.g. if you have been on a sailing yacht before, with friends) it will be very useful and you will be able to learn more on this course. For example, you can start to learn about pilotage and other skippering skills if you want to.

What Happens on the Course?

We go sailing, visiting a number of different ports and anchorages and making a variety of passages during the course. During this we will cover all the topics on the RYA's Competent Crew syllabus, most of which is covered simply as part of the process of sailing the boat. The best way to learn things is to do them.

The instructor will explain things carefully, and after a few days you will be surprised how much you have learned.

As with all cruising, what we do will depend on the weather. We try to ensure that everyone enjoys the cruising by going to interesting places along the coast (after all, this is your holiday).

There will be an instructor and up to four students on board.

The Syllabus

This is detailed in the RYA logbook (which you can get when you go on the course), and includes the following topics, each of which will be "signed off" by your instructor:

• Knowledge of sea terms and parts of a boat, her rigging and sails

• Sail handling

• Ropework

• Fire precautions and fighting

• Personal safety equipment

• Man overboard

• Emergency equipment

• Manners and customs

• Rules of the road

• Dinghies

• Meteorology

• Seasickness

• Helmsmanship and sailing

• General duties

The Course and Logistics

The course is usually run over five days, Sunday night through Friday, although other arrangements (e.g. 3 weekends) are possible. We meet on board on the Sunday night, and after an initial course briefing go ashore for a meal.

On Monday morning we set off, returning on Friday afternoon. During the week we will generally eat on board, with one or two meals ashore.

The price of the course includes food, gas and fuel used on-board. It excludes any meals ashore, and any harbour dues or berthing fees for visiting other ports are split between the crew (we generally run a "kitty").

The Next Stage

After you have completed the Competent Crew course, we hope you will want to go on learning. You will almost certainly have enough experience to do the next practical course, which is Day Skipper. However, the RYA scheme suggests that you should first attend a Day Skipper Theory course to learn the basics of navigation, rules of the road etc. - or you can do this in our Day Skipper Combined course.

In the meantime you can consolidate what you have learned and gain experience and sea miles by joining weekend or longer cruises with Aztec Sailing.