Home / RYA
RYA Courses in Australia
RYA training is much broader than Competent Crew, Day Skipper and Yachtmaster. It covers adult and youth dinghy sailing, keelboats, multihulls, sail cruising, navigation, racing, foiling, radio, first aid, radar, diesel and sea survival — and it has the strongest school availability of any international scheme in Australia.
RYA sail cruising pathway
For someone whose goal is cruising yachts, this is the usual order. You do not have to start at the top — Start Yachting is an optional taster, and many people begin at Competent Crew. Yachtmaster at the end is not another five-day course: it is an independent examination against a standard, taken after qualifying sea time.
Course guides are being published in pathway order. RYA Competent Crew →
The rest of the scheme
Dinghy
Start Sailing, Basic Skills and Improving Sailing Skills, then the advanced modules — seamanship, day sailing, spinnakers and performance sailing.
Youth
Stages 1 to 4 for sailors under 16, covering the same ground as the adult levels at a pace built for younger sailors, plus the racing modules.
Keelboat & multihull
Parallel schemes on small ballasted boats and on beach catamarans — start, basic skills, day sailing and advanced handling in each.
Navigation & short courses
Essential Navigation & Seamanship through Yachtmaster Ocean Theory, plus marine radio, diesel engine, radar, first aid and sea survival.
What an RYA Training Centre is
RYA courses can only be taught by recognised RYA Training Centres, and recognition is held by the school rather than by the instructor. That matters when you are comparing two schools advertising the same course name: check the centre is currently recognised, and check which vessel the practical course actually runs on.
An RYA certificate is a recreational qualification. It is not permission to work commercially — Australia’s domestic commercial certificates are administered by AMSA and sit outside the scheme entirely.
Schools teaching RYA courses
RYA has the strongest Australian availability of the three international schemes
Starting from zero experience
Whether to begin in a dinghy, a keelboat or straight onto a cruising yacht
IYT courses
Dedicated catamaran certificates at every skipper level
Australian Sailing courses
The domestic dinghy and keelboat scheme, taught nationwide
RYA vs IYT vs ASA
Three vocabularies for one pathway — and where they genuinely differ
Every RYA course, explained
Sail cruising
RYA Sailing Pathway
The whole RYA cruising route in order, and where you are allowed to skip a step.
RYA Cruising Level 1: Start Sailing
A short introduction aboard a small cruising yacht — the shortest way to find out whether yachting suits you.
RYA Cruising Level 2: Basic Skills
The follow-on from Level 1, adding real boat handling on a small cruising yacht.
RYA Start Yachting
Two days aboard a cruising yacht, for complete beginners who want a genuine taste of yachting.
RYA Day Skipper Theory
The classroom half of Day Skipper: charts, tides, buoyage, collision regulations and passage planning.
RYA Day Skipper Practical Sailing
Five days in which you stop being crew and start being the person responsible for the boat.
RYA Coastal Skipper Practical
Skippering beyond familiar water and beyond daylight — longer passages, night pilotage, heavier weather.
RYA Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore Theory
The advanced shorebased course: tidal work, passage planning, meteorology and collision regulations at Yachtmaster depth.
RYA Yachtmaster Guide
Not a course. An examination against a published standard, taken after qualifying sea time.
RYA Yachtmaster Coastal
The first Yachtmaster level: competent to skipper on passages near safe haven.
RYA Yachtmaster Offshore
The level most professional and serious cruising sailors aim at: passages well offshore, any conditions.
RYA Yachtmaster Ocean
The ocean level, and the only one that still requires you to find your position by sextant.
Dinghy
RYA Dinghy Sailing Scheme
The adult dinghy scheme in order: three levels, then modules you pick rather than climb.
RYA Start Sailing (Dinghy Level 1)
Two days, no experience assumed, and by the end you have sailed a dinghy with an instructor aboard.
RYA Basic Skills (Dinghy Level 2)
The level where the instructor gets out of the boat.
RYA Better Sailing (Dinghy Level 3)
Consolidate your basic dinghy skills and explore the next stage of sailing.
RYA Seamanship Skills (Advanced Module)
What to do when the boat, the weather or the crew stops cooperating.
RYA Day Sailing (Advanced Dinghy Module)
The module about actually going somewhere in a dinghy, and getting back.
RYA Sailing with Spinnakers
Hoist, gybe and drop without wrapping the kite around the forestay.
RYA Performance Sailing
Trapeze, plane, and get a fast boat back upright without losing the afternoon.
Youth
RYA Youth Sailing Stage 1
The first stage of the youth scheme: the boat, the water and how not to be frightened of either.
RYA Youth Sailing Stage 2
Where a young sailor first sails the boat without an adult sitting in it.
RYA Youth Sailing Stage 3
Sailing well rather than sailing at all, in more wind than Stage 2 allowed.
RYA Youth Sailing Stage 4
The last stage, and the handover into the advanced modules and the adult scheme.
RYA Youth Racing Modules
Starts, mark roundings and the rules, for sailors who have stopped wondering how to sail and started wondering how to win.
Keelboat
RYA Keelboat Start Sailing
Learning to sail in a boat with a keel, which changes the experience more than beginners expect.
RYA Keelboat Basic Skills
From crewing to helming, on a boat that stays upright while you learn.
RYA Keelboat Day Sailing
Planning a day out and sailing it, in a boat small enough that the plan matters.
RYA Keelboat Advanced Sailing
More wind, a spinnaker, and manoeuvring where there is no room to get it wrong.
Multihull
RYA Multihull Start Sailing
A beach cat is not a fast dinghy. It is a different boat with different rules.
RYA Multihull Basic Skills
Sailing a cat on your own, including getting it back upright when it goes over.
RYA Multihull Advanced Sailing
Stronger winds, a kite, and a hull out of the water on purpose.
Which RYA course should you start with?
Three questions — have you sailed before, what boat do you want to sail, and what is your goal — give you a starting course and the schools that teach it near you.