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RYA Competent Crew course
Learn to sail! Beginner
Thinking about sailing but don’t know how to start? The RYA Competent crew course is a perfect fit for you. It is designed for beginners and lays an excellent foundation for your further sailing development. Also, you’ll spend five days on board a cruising yacht and visit stunning bays and places of the Adriatic sea.
Duration: 5 days (Sunday to Thursday)Availability: March to NovemberAge: Min 12 (12 - 18 only accompanied by parent/guardian at all times)Language: EnglishStudent - Instructor ratio: 5 – 1Daily schedule: 9 – 17 h (some night cruising possible)
RYA Competent Crew – Course Description
We promise to teach you how to sail during the RYA Competent Crew course. And we promise you’ll quickly get hooked and realise that sailing is even better than ever imagined!
This course is an excellent choice for beginners who would like to discover the magic and the adventure of sailing and enjoy it safely. You don’t have to have any previous experience or knowledge for the RYA Competent Crew course. You only need to be willing and open to learning and enjoying your first sailing holiday.
Our experienced and patient RYA instructors – who firmly believe that anybody can learn how to sail – will help you achieve your goal of becoming a sailor. They have thousands of miles under their belt and enjoy teaching sailing.
You’ll spend five days living on board a brand new, perfectly clean, heated, spacious and fast sailing yacht, fully equipped for comfortable cruising. We’ll also anchor in stunning bays perfect for swimming in crystal clear azure – hazards free – Adriatic sea. During the RYA Competent Crew course, we’ll visit picturesque islands and cosy Dalmatian villages with great local food and culture.
We sometimes combine students on a Competent Crew and a Day Skipper course as it represents a realistic onboard situation. With that, you’ll be able to see and participate in some Day Skipper training!
The accommodation is on a shared cabin base, but Single-use of cabin is available upon request.
What will you learn:
- Sea terms, yacht parts, rigging and sails
- Wind awareness
- Sailing points & manoeuvres – close haul, beam reach, broad reach, run, tack, gybe
- Hoisting, lowering, reefing sail
- Knots – bowline, clove hitch, cleat hitch, figure of eight, round turn and two half hitches, reef knot, sheet bend, rolling hitch
- Safety – Man overboard, fire precaution, personal safety
- Helming – under sails and motor
- Preparation for docking, anchoring, buoy catching
- Basic meteorology
- Basic rules for avoiding collision
- General duties of living on a yacht
- Manners and customs
- How to operate a dinghy
Ability after the course:
To confidently and safely sail on all points of sailing, tie knots, hoist and lower the sails, reef, and helm, cover general duties of living on a yacht, operate the dinghy, assist the skipper with docking, anchoring, buoy catching and enjoy in a sailing adventure
Certificate:
- RYA Competent Crew (for successful students)
- 100 Nautical miles in the RYA logbook
Location:
Jezera and surrounding islands, bays and villages.
Although we’re trying to show you the most of our sailing area during the course, the exact route is not set,
but your instructor s call with priorities being safety, programme, weather conditons, berth availability and the crew’s ability. If all of these conditions are met he ll try to meet the crew s wishes as well.
Included:
- Brand new and perfectly clean, heated, spacious and fast sailing yacht, fully equipped for a comfortable cruising
- Accommodation on board (shared cabins) – single-use of cabin available
- Free unlimited wi-fi on board
- RYA Instructor
- RYA course materials and handbooks
- RYA certificates, after successful completion of the course
- RYA log books with mileage signed in
- Use of self-inflatable automatic life jacket
- Docking fees in the base marina - ACI marina Jezera
- Fuel
- Cooking gas
- Bed sheets, covers, duvets, pillows, pillowcases, towels (beach towels included)
- Cleaning utensils, kitchen towels, bathroom soap, mosquito repellent
- Plates, glasses, cups, cutlery
- Coffee, tea
- Final cleaning
- Tourist tax
- VAT
Not included:
- Flights and travel costs
- Travel and medical insurance
- Docking/buoy fees in other marinas/bays
- Food & drinks – for the crew and the instructor
Prerequisites
- Pre-course experience: No experience is required
- Assumed knowledge: None
DEHLER 38 SQ - Blue Eye
Speed meets quality and comfort
Dehler 38 SQ is the newest model from a famous German shipyard Dehler, traditionally known for their quality built yachts. A "true performance cruiser", says the renowned Sail magazine. That means the boat is fast but has everything needed for comfortable cruising. Another review says Dehler did a great job with this model while "keeping the boat as simple to use and fun".
We needed only one short sail with our Blue Eye to confirm that all these reviews were accurate. And we're sure you'll quickly realise why she's a perfect yacht for learning sailing. She has performance Quantum sails and a sleek, sharp, sporty line, so she sails well even on light wind.
Two very responsive carbon wheels enhance the manoeuvrability and provide a good feel of the boat's movement, even more so because they control only one deep rudder. The stern is spacious and broad, so there's enough room for a swimming platform with an integrated ladder.
The cockpit is spacious, with a fixed foldable table that enables the crew to enjoy their meals and drinks on the deck under the shade of a large bimini top. It also provides enough room for active sailing, and three winches on each side - a rarity in the class - prove the yacht is made to perform. Teak wood covers the cockpit deck, and the rest has a non-skid finish.
BLUE EYE is our training yacht registered for the RYA courses, so you can be sure she has everything needed for safe sailing. Also, a radar and an active radar reflector – which makes the yacht more visible to big ships - enhance her safety. She has the latest B&G chart plotter and instruments.
She has 38 feet, around 11,4 meters. The interior has three roomy double cabins, a cosy saloon, a foldable dining table, a chart table, and a fully equipped kitchen with a sink, stove and a large fridge. There's also a bathroom with a toilet and a shower, and all wastewater goes to a holding tank. Large windows in the saloon and cabins allow natural light below the deck. The shipyard used only fine woods - teak, mahogany and oak - for the furniture, which matched perfectly with the bright upholstery.
Additionally, BLUE EYE has a hot air heating system installed to keep the crew comfortably warm after sailing in spring and autumn. She also has substantial autonomy with a freshwater tank of 295 litres, a fuel tank of 160 litres, and service batteries of 160 Ah, so she stays comfortable even on a more extended cruise.
Yvan Bodart
Yvan comes from Belgium and started sailing in 2014. He loved it so much, that he knew it would change his life. Until recently, Yvan had a job as a consultant for wide format printers for a well know company, covering Belgium and Luxemburg. After Covid, the traffic jams in Belgium seemed to get worse than before. Once, being stuck in such a traffic jam in the neighbourhood of Brussels, he said to himself that doing the same distance while sailing, would even be faster. That made him decide that it was time for a 180° change in his life. Since then he became a cruising instructor and is eager to teach people the joy of sailing here in Croatia during summer and in the Canary Islands during winter season.
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