The RYA Basic Skills course is a two day dinghy sailing course designed to provide the skills needed to take a dinghy out sailing as a helm in good conditions. The course will set you up to use a club boat to go sailing at Erith.
The course covers rigging and launching a dinghy and building confidence sailing in all directions. Capsize recovery and essential safety knowledge is special feature of the course.
At the end of the course is the opportunity to purposefully fall out of your dinghy under controlled conditions to ensure that you have the skills to recover and continue sailing should this ever happen.
Pre-requisites
Our volunteer instructors run the course regularly, often following on from the RYA Start Sailing course for those that are completely new to sailing. You may consider doing this qualitification directly if you have some with some existing dinghy sailing experience as there is no minimum pre-requisite. Please talk to our training team if you think this might be the case.
Qualification
Like other Royal Yacht Association (RYA) courses offered at Erith it is based on an internationally recognised curriculum. Satisfactory completion of the course will see you issued with RYA certificate. Clubs and organisations around the world recognise your your basic dinghy sailing skills with this certificate.
Cost
Level 1 and Level 2 Dinghy training courses cost £125 for members and £195 for non-members meaning that if you become a member you can save a total of £140 of your first year’s membership if you plan to do both courses.
How to book
Please email the training team if you are interested in a course have a question or wish to book. Equally, contact us if we have not advertised a course that you are interested in.
Attending the course
If you have booked a course we will send all relevant details including what to bring, what to do and anything else you will need to be prepared for the course you are undertaking. Check our training page for details on what to bring for your training course at the club and details on how to get to the club
Follow on training and further activities
Completion of the RYA Level 2 course is required to hire club dinghies at Erith. Depending on your level of confidence after completing the course at Erith as a member or prospective member you can participate in organised sailing events with safety boat by helming a club boat.
Our sailing committee is committed to helping members increase their sailing skills and experience. The RYA does offer a Level 3 Better Sailing course as a follow on to the Level 2 Course. At Erith we tend to operate more informal coaching and practice sessions as part of our Member Adult Sail Training and other dinghy sailing events.
Priority for members and prospective members
Like other courses at Erith, if you are a member or prospective member we will try you complete the qualitifcation through priority access when the course or through reciprocal agreements with other neighouring clubs. When offered at Erith members can save with a special member price.