RYA Level 1 Learn to Sail Course - 2x Saturdays 28th June & 5th July

This course runs on 2 consecutive Saturdays.

This introductory course is the place to start your journey to learn to sail! The course assumes no prior knowledge, and covers topics like rigging a boat, understanding the wind and how to get power in the sail, steering the boat and getting from A to B, understanding the theory of how it all works, and associated supporting knowledge such as learning some knots and the rights of way on the water.

This course is mainly practical, with time spent moving about on the shore, putting it all in to practice on the water, and occasionally re-grouping in the classroom to try and get your head around it all. You might find muscles you didn't know you had, and sailing does require a reasonable amount of fitness and mobility. If you have any concerns about this, please do speak to us because we have various options available which we can tailor to the needs of each individual, some of which require a little planning ahead.

The club provides wetsuits, buoyancy aids & helmets. You just need to bring a sense of adventure, some swimwear or underwear to go under the wetsuit, a towel and some shoes you're happy to get wet (the club does have a limited supply of wetboots).

If you haven't tried sailing at all before, you might like to start with one of our 1.5hr taster sessions before commiting to the full 2 day course: https://members.scalingdam.org/booking/type/traini...

This is ideal for people aged 14 yrs +. Anyone younger may benefit from learning through the RYA Youth sailing scheme instead. It's not a strict limit though, and it may be more convenient for you if a parent/child combination join the same course. 8yrs is the minimum age for sailing courses.