General Interest

December isn't usually much of a sailing month, in the northern hemisphere anyway. But it's a great month to curl up in the evening with a sailing book. You can improve your knowledge or simply read about an adventure on the high seas. Books make a great present for friends or family who enjoy sailing, [...]

You may come across the terms 'tidal' and 'non-tidal' with reference to RYA sailing certificates. Here's some information about exactly what this means. I hope it will tell you a few things you didn't know before ... Most of the oceans of the world are subject to tides, which are caused by the combined effects of [...]

I'm pleased to announce that we'll be running a tidal sailing trip to the picturesque west coast of Scotland next Spring. This will follow a similar route to our successful trip last year. As previously, we'll sail with two yachts for two weeks and you can join us for either one or both weeks. Each [...]

     Day Skipper is one of the most popular RYA courses as it leads to an internationally recognised certificate. I've found that people who passed their Day Skipper several years ago are unaware that the certificate has changed.      This post tells you about the old and new forms of Day Skipper certificate [...]

One of the advantages of the RYA scheme is that you can enter at any point that is appropriate to you. You don't have to start at the beginning if you already have plenty of sailing experience. For example, George, our Principal, spent 35 years in the Royal Navy and first skippered a small boat [...]

As you may know from my last post, I prolonged my recent visit to the UK so that I could attend the funeral of a dear friend, who was well known in sailing circles in Greece, Turkey, and beyond. Ian Blayney (‘Lord’ Blayney as he was known to his friends) and his wife, Bette, sailed [...]

Most people who sail in the Saronic want to visit Hydra; few want the hassle that goes with it. Athough beautiful, it's a bit of a nightmare for yachts. A night spent in Hydra often involves fouled anchors, boats rafted up on top of each other, and generally some stress and shouting ... It's much [...]

Here's my third post about what to do once you pass your Day Skipper course. For most people the end goal in learning to sail is to be able to charter a yacht themselves. Chartering is normally sub-divided into skippered charter (sometimes called crewed charter) and bareboat charter. I'll cover skippered charter in the next post. This is about [...]

Recently several people have asked me to suggest what they should do after completing their RYA Day Skipper course so I've decided to make it the topic of my next posts. There are three main options - mile-building, flotilla sailing, and bareboat charter. Each of these has different advantages and drawbacks and you may want to try more [...]