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RYA Improving Sailing Skills (Dinghy Level 3)
Sailing the boat well rather than merely sailing it — and in more wind than Level 2 assumed.
Improving Sailing Skills, sometimes listed as Better Sailing, is the third level of the dinghy scheme. RYA currently describes it as a two-day course for sailors who already hold Level 2 or have equivalent experience.
It is about efficiency rather than new manoeuvres:
Sailing without the rudder is the exercise most students remember. It is not a party trick — it proves the boat is being steered by trim and balance, which is the whole point of the level.
After Level 3 the scheme opens out. The advanced modules are chosen by interest, not completed in sequence.
- Who it suits
- Level 2 holders who can sail but know they are working harder than they should be.
- What it is not
- Not a racing course, and not a prerequisite for the advanced modules.
Other RYA courses
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.
Which course should you actually book?
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.