Skipper Your Own Yacht
Learn to skipper a yacht confidently by day. RYA Day Skipper Practical training in Antigua’s Caribbean waters.
What Will You Learn?
By the end of the course, you will be able to skipper a yacht safely and confidently by day in familiar waters.
Over five days on the water, you will learn:
- Preparation for sea
- Navigation, including Pilotage and Passage Making
- Rules of the road
- Engines, Maintenance and repair work
- Emergency situations
- Handling under power and sail
- Experience night cruising
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 Day Skipper Practical is for you if:
- You want to move from crewing to captaining
- Real, practical boat handling and navigation skills will take you to the next level
- Skippering a boat yourself sounds like perfect freedom
- Living or working on board might be a future plan
Pre-Requisites
Price and Availability
The RYA Day Skipper Practical course is 2875 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 a 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 Day Skipper Practical course teaches you the fundamentals of captaining a yacht. You can then consolidate your learning and build your experience on independent trips, charter or flotilla holidays and going out with friends and family. You might even feel confident enough to buy your own boat!
It is an internationally recognised qualification accepted by charter companies worldwide.
The RAY Day Skipper course completion certificate can be commercially endorsed by the RYA for professional work on small yachts and is accepted in many countries.
Planning to skipper in unfamiliar waters? It’s important to research local conditions you may not have trained in, such as:
- Strong tidal streams or large tidal ranges
- Different buoyage systems (IALA A/B or CEVNI)
- Katabatic or local wind effects
- Alternative berthing styles (such as Mediterranean moorings)
If further preparation seems sensible, contacting an RYA centre in that region is strongly recommended.
