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RYA Multihull Start Sailing
A beach cat is not a fast dinghy. It is a different boat with different rules.
The RYA Multihull Scheme covers small catamarans, and runs alongside the dinghy and keelboat schemes rather than after them.
Start Sailing covers:
Why tacking gets its own session
A catamaran loses drive through the tack and will sit in irons if it is rushed. Getting a cat round reliably is the first genuine skill of the course, and the one that surprises dinghy sailors.
- Who it suits
- Beginners drawn to catamarans, and dinghy sailors moving across.
- What it is not
- Not preparation for a cruising catamaran — that is the IYT or RYA cruising route.
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.