- The goal
- Qualify to teach sailing at a club or a commercial school.
- Assumes you have
- Confident, tidy sailing well above the level you intend to teach.
- How long, honestly
- A season of consolidation, then a pre-entry assessment and an instructor course. Most candidates who fail, fail on their own sailing.
- What it is not
- Not a full-time career for most people. Instructing in Australia is largely seasonal, casual and paid accordingly.
Step by step
Get your own sailing well above the standard
Instructor courses assess teaching, not sailing — which means they expect the sailing to be already finished. Dinghy Level 3 or equivalent is a realistic baseline.
Pick the scheme you will teach in
In Australia, Australian Sailing instructor qualifications are the most widely usable at clubs. RYA instructor qualifications matter at recognised RYA Training Centres and travel internationally.
Get the supporting tickets
Powerboat handling, first aid and a working with children check are typically required before or alongside the instructor course itself.
Pass the pre-entry assessment
Most instructor courses screen candidates on their own sailing before accepting a booking. This is where the majority of unsuccessful candidates stop.
Sit the instructor course
Several days of teaching practice, assessed on how you run a session — briefing, demonstration, observation and debrief.
Log teaching hours and specialiseoptional
Senior instructor, coach and race-official routes all open up after teaching hours. This is where instructing becomes a career rather than a summer job.
Instructing is the most common way Australians turn sailing into work, and the most commonly misunderstood. The courses are not sailing courses, and being a good sailor is the entry fee rather than the qualification.
Australian Sailing or RYA?
For most people in Australia, Australian Sailing. It is the domestic scheme, clubs run it nationwide, and club instructing is where the work is. An RYA instructor qualification is the right choice if you intend to work at an RYA Training Centre, or to instruct overseas, where RYA recognition travels further.
Requirements, minimum ages and prerequisites are set by each body and change. Confirm the current entry requirements with the training body and the centre running the course before committing.
What the job is actually like
- seasonal — summer holidays and weekends, thin in winter
- mostly casual or contract rather than salaried
- long days outdoors, often with children
- far more safety-boat driving than sailing
- genuinely good for your own sailing, because teaching exposes what you only half know
Instructing is not a commercial ticket
An instructor qualification lets you teach within a scheme. It is not an AMSA certificate of competency and does not authorise you to operate a commercial vessel or carry paying passengers. Those are separate, and administered separately.
Every pathway
I want to charter a yacht
Hire a yacht without a skipper and sail it yourself.
I want to bareboat the Whitsundays
Charter a yacht or catamaran in the Whitsundays and sail it yourself.
I just bought a boat
Sail your own yacht confidently, including short-handed and in a crosswind berth.
We want to sail as a couple
Both of you able to sail the boat, including bringing her home without the other.
I want to sail offshore
Make ocean and extended coastal passages, as crew or as skipper.
I want to race
Race regularly at a club, as crew or on your own boat.
I want to work on boats
Be paid to operate or crew a vessel in Australia.
Not sure this is your pathway?
Three questions — your experience, the boat you want to sail, and your goal — give you a starting course and the schools that teach it near you.