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RYA Keelboat Advanced Sailing
More wind, a spinnaker, and manoeuvring where there is no room to get it wrong.
Advanced Sailing is the top of the keelboat scheme.
It covers:
Sailors who complete it usually go one of two ways: into club racing, or into the cruising scheme with a very solid boat-handling base.
- Who it suits
- Confident keelboat sailors, and crews stepping into club racing.
- What it is not
- Not a racing qualification, and not an instructor course.
Primary source: RYA training. Course structures and prerequisites can change; confirm the current version with the training body and school.
The course in context
Advanced small-keelboat training is best chosen around a specific goal: more precise handling, spinnaker work, stronger crew coordination or racing development. “Advanced sailing” is a broad description, so the named module and boat matter more than the marketing label.
Before you start
You should already handle the basic sailing routine confidently. Explain the boat you normally sail and the situations you want to improve. A course that challenges an experienced crew may be unsuitable if ordinary turns still feel uncertain.
Skills you will develop
Refined handling
Work on accuracy and repeatability instead of simply completing manoeuvres. Feedback should identify the preparation or timing that changes the outcome.
Sail and crew coordination
Explore how trimming and helming decisions affect each other. Additional sails increase the need for clear roles and tidy systems.
Performance review
Learn to separate technique from changing conditions when judging results. A faster run is not necessarily evidence of better sailing.
Training and assessment
Confirm the specific RYA module, boat, sail inventory and entry standard. There is no reason to assume all advanced packages cover every discipline or award the same certificate.
Questions to ask the school
- Which named module will I complete?
- Is spinnaker experience required?
- How is individual feedback shared?
Related learning
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.
Australian schools using RYA
These schools advertise training under the RYA system. This does not confirm that every school currently runs RYA Keelboat Advanced Sailing; check the current course list directly.
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.