How to start sailing, what to learn before your first lesson, and how the training schemes fit together.
Nobody is born knowing what a halyard is. These guides cover the decisions you face before and around your first lessons: how to actually get started, what is worth knowing before you step on a boat, and how the ASA, US Sailing and RYA training schemes relate to each other.
Once you know where you are headed, the theory itself lives in the other guide categories — and the Sailing Foundations course in the app drills the vocabulary until it sticks.
Ready to test yourself? The Sailing Foundations course turns these topics into 240+ practice questions with explanations.
Getting started
Where to begin if you have never sailed: what you can learn ashore, what needs a boat, dinghy versus keelboat, schools, clubs and crewing, and a realistic path from first lesson to skippering.
10 min read
Getting started
The vocabulary, directions, points of sail, two turns, basic safety and three knots that make a first sailing lesson easy — and the list of things you can safely leave for later.
8 min read
Getting started
How the American Sailing (ASA), US Sailing and RYA training schemes are structured, how they assess you, where each is used, what the ICC and IPC are, and why “do I need a licence to charter?” has no single answer.
12 min read
