Courses for Youths

Sailing is an excellent sport for kids! Not only does it get them outdoors, but it also helps teach self-reliance, water confidence, teamwork, and much more. 

At SESCA, we follow the RYA Youth Sailing Scheme, which consists of four stages. Each stage builds on the previous one, leading to a certificate that allows young sailors to track their progress. As a RYA Recognised Training Centre, SECSA is authorized to run RYA courses and issue certificates.

Additionally, the scheme includes continuous assessment. If a child masters a skill from the next level, their instructor can sign it off, even if it's part of a higher stage. Once all components of a stage are completed, a prestigious RYA certificate is awarded!

RYA Stage 1 & 2 courses

For complete beginners, these stages cover the fundamentals of steering, launching, tacking, controlling speed, and avoiding collisions. At this level, children typically sail optimists or toppers. We prefer to combine these stages, allowing children to develop a solid foundation of sailing skills, which they can then build upon with guidance from either parents or instructors. RYA Youth Courses 

RYA Stage 3 course

We recommend that children practice before progressing from Stage 2 to Stage 3, especially if they have had a break from sailing during the winter. This stage builds on previous skills and introduces rigging, capsize techniques, and some theory. By the end of the course, the child should be able to sail around a triangular course in moderate conditions. RYA Youth Courses 

RYA Stage 4 course

This course sharpens technique and expands skills to include sailing a double-handed dinghy, taking on both crew and helm roles, recovering a man overboard dummy, and picking up a mooring. By the end of this stage, your child will be capable of participating in a club race and ready to move on to the Youth Improvers and Advanced courses. RYA Youth Courses

Booking a course

For Stage 1 and 2 courses, we typically accept children aged 8 and above. However, if your child has previous water experience, we may be able to accommodate them. Please email SESCA admin to discuss.

Dates can be subject to change due to weather conditions or insufficient enrolment

Our courses are run at weekends over 2 days and have a minimum duration of 16 hours.

• Go to the Training Calendar for current course dates

• If you have any questions please email SESCA training or at the club speak to the Training Principal David Grimmond or any of the training team

• To find out more about RYA courses for children, visit the RYA website.