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RYA Keelboat Start Sailing
Learning to sail in a boat with a keel, which changes the experience more than beginners expect.
The RYA Keelboat Scheme runs in parallel with the dinghy scheme, on small ballasted boats that are stable and do not capsize in normal use.
Start Sailing covers:
Keelboat or dinghy?
A keelboat is more forgiving and more comfortable, and rewards trim rather than punishing mistakes with a capsize. A dinghy teaches balance faster precisely because it does punish them. Neither is better; they suit different people.
- Who it suits
- Beginners who want dinghy-style sailing without the swim, and anyone heading for yachts.
- What it is not
- Not a yacht qualification. Keelboats are small day boats, not cruising yachts with a cabin.
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.