Learn to Sail Confidently
Build real sailing skills with the RYA Competent Crew course in Antigua. Ideal for beginners and aspiring yacht crew.
What Will You Learn?
By the end of the course, you will be able to contribute meaningfully on board, not just watch from the sidelines.
Over five days on the water, you will learn:
- Personal safety and safe movement on deck
- Basic seamanship and ropework
- Sail handling and deck duties
- Helming (steering) a cruising yacht
- How to live and work as part of a yacht crew
Read the full RYA syllabus
During the course we sail to different locations around Antigua, click HERE for a chart of the island.
Our student instructor ratio is 4:1. This allows us to give you maximum individual attention and for our instructors to create a bespoke sailing experience for each and every one of our students. However, we can accommodate private groups of up to 5 people.
Who Is This Course For?
RYA Competent Crew is ideal if you:
- Are completely new to sailing
- Want practical, hands-on experience on a cruising yacht
- Plan to crew on friends’ boats or charters
- Are considering progressing toward skipper or instructor training
Pre-Requisites
- Minimum age: 12 (under 16s must be accompanied by a parent/guardian also enrolled on the course; under 18s require a signed waiver from a parent/guardian)
- No prior sailing experience is needed — but if you have some experience, that’s ok too!
- Recommended: Purchase the RYA Competent Crew Skills book and a Logbook
- Optional: Complete the online RYA Essential Navigation and Seamanship course
Price and Availability
The RYA Competent Crew course is 2750 USD per person. You can find the availability on our online booking platform here. If you don’t see the dates you want, contact us and we may be able to move course around or put you on the waiting list for your specific dates.
This is course in on one of our monohull sailboats. If you are interested in Catamaran courses, we have those too!
What To Do Next?
The RYA Competent Crew course helps equip you to crew on a variety of vessels. You can join a racing crew, go cruising with friends or family or be an active crew member for a captain that needs a spare hand.
You can join us sailing on Mile-Building trips, or Race Training and Regattas
When you are ready to start to take command, you can take the RYA Day Skipper Theory course (available either as a classroom course or online) and then the RYA Day Skipper Practical course, which is a 5-day liveaboard course.
