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Getting started

How to start sailing, what to learn before your first lesson, and how the training schemes fit together.

Getting started

How to start sailing: a beginner's roadmap

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

What should I know before my first sailing lesson?

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

ASA vs US Sailing vs RYA: what's the difference?

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

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