Learning to sail a sailboat!

swillsy · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:23

Hey Guys, I've been on a few sailing trips (last time a 42ft sail boat in Turkey) and massively enjoyed it however I needed my mate there to actually captain the boat and tell me what to do. Now, I really want to learn how to do this myself! I was wondering what I'm best off doing as I can see different courses from the RYA and want your advice on what's best in order to get to my end goal of being able to charter the bigger sail boats.

Do I first start off with dinghy sailing? Which is good for me as I'm in the Midlands so very local and I can also get my own dinghy for regular use OR should I go straight into another course and concentrate on that?

Cheers!

Judgeneo · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:29

Dinghy sailing is ask I've captained myself, but it seemed like a pretty good place to start. I learnt at rutland water over a few days, I'd recommend it.

mattyg · 30 Apr 2014 at 23:32

Like formula 1 drivers.

Start off in a kart (Dinghy)

I think the old school way used to be

Optimist
Mirror
Graduate or Enterprise or GP14 or Laser

Or like me
Graduate then a 470.

swillsy · 1 May 2014 at 21:52

Sweet cheers guys I've also had a read up on it and it looks like pursuing the RYA Dinghy level 1,2 course would be enough to start with my own boat.