Frequently Asked RYA Course  Questions

This depends on what course you are trying to complete and what sort of outcome you expect.

Competent Crew - This is a course for beginners or those who have sailed a few times but want to learn what is going on. There are no prerequisites for this course, come as you are and learn from your instructor and fellow crew members.

Day Skipper (or Coastal) - You must fit the course prerequisites for mileage/days at sea and have the relevant theory knowledge. If you have completed the RYA Shorebased course, please bring the certificate as evidence. If you have not done a course and think you know the theory, you will be expected to show a full working knowledge of any theory on the practical course. If you cannot prove sufficient knowledge, you will be action planned early. Our instructors are not theory instructors and cannot teach you the theory when you are here so failure to prepare will lead to an action plan and failure of the course.

This list is just suggested and not exhaustive, remember to check the weather before you pack so you know what is appropriate. Please triple-check that you remember to bring a passport photo for your Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper certification.

Luggage should be a soft sided collapsible bag. There is nowhere to store hard suitcases onboard!

Theory Completion Certificate – if you are doing Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper please print and pack a copy or your Shore based course certificate. If you did not complete a Shore based course. You will need to prove you know the theory elements by completing an exam once you get here.

PASSPORT PHOTO for Day or Coastal skipper courses (we cannot make your certificate without this) This must be a physical photo not digital.

Logbook - If you have already been sailing for a while or have completed a course before you may have an RYA Yacht Master Scheme logbook. Please bring this so it can be signed off for your course. If you are new to sailing or do not have a logbook don’t worry, we can give you one when you are here.

You DO NOT need to bring navigation equipment unless you specifically want to use your own.

Underwear
Swimwear
Shorts and T-shirts
Long trousers for the night sail.
Long sleeve top for the night sail or to keep the sun off.
Fleece or jumper for the night sail.
A couple of evening outfits keep it smart casual most people don’t go all out here, it’s a very relaxed evening culture.
Pyjamas - remember you may be sharing a boat with people you don’t know so to save accidental embarrassments please have something to wear at night in case we have to move the boat quickly in the dark.
Non marking closed toed shoes for sailing.
Flip flops/sandals for land use only.
Waterproofs even in the summer we can have rain. If you also have waterproof trousers, they can be useful in the low season.
Hat warm one for low season and a brimmed light one for the summer.
Sunglasses!
Sailing gloves.
Toiletries –we supply ecological shower gel/shampoo in each bathroom.
Hair ties we recommend those with long hair tie it back when you are sailing.
Personal medication you may need and contact lenses/ solution.
Suncream – please don’t use P20 as it stains the deck and cushions.
Portable charger/ 12v USB adapter – in case we don’t get shore power for a few days.

Important - If you have jewellery or watches that are expensive or important to you sentimentally. Please leave them at home safe. Your instructor will ask you to remove these sorts of items while sailing and you do not want to lose them on board, in the sea or worse cause yourself an injury by wearing them while sailing.

Only about half of the towns we stop at have ATMs, and most importantly there is no ATM near our base. We suggest you bring some cash to start off and then your instructor will tell you where we might find ATMs on the course route that week. You will need cash to pay for taxi transfers to base at the very least.

The short answer is no, please bring any medication you usually take or may need during the course.

If you start to feel unwell during a course, we will make our way to a harbour with medical facilities, not every island has a full-time doctor or pharmacy. If it is an emergency, we will call out our rescue RIBs and/or call the coastguard.

All RYA Instructors have Basic First Aid training.

Please inform the bookings team or email rya@sailionian.com to see if any restrictions could affect your course. We will of course try our best to accommodate any requests.

We are in Vlicho on the island of Lefkada. If you need transfers from the airport, please let the booking team know. We can book transfers for you, but you will need to pay for it in cash when you arrive.

More information about our base here: https://www.sailionian.com/travel-lefkas/our-base/

All out Instructors are RYA (https://www.rya.org.uk/) qualified and of the highest standard. We try to match the right instructor with each group as we all have our own style but, in the end, you will learn all the same things as everyone else following the syllabus. You will meet them and the Chief Instructor, Fiona, when you arrive at the school.

For your personal safety and for our records. Your name, date of birth and contact details are used to register your certificates with the RYA. The medical information is important in case there are any incidents aboard. These forms are destroyed after you leave so we do not keep any personal medical information.

Yachts are usually ready from 1700, though of course we will aim to get the boat ready as early as possible. Usually, we like to have an informal chat at the café before boarding, get to know you and fill out paperwork. We might try to save some time by doing some of the safety brief in the café before boarding.

At our base in Vlicho there a couple of small minimarkets and a bakery. A few bars and tavernas. We have shower block and toilets available to customers using our quayside. A 5-minute taxi takes you to Nidri for a bigger shop or more restaurants. In the other direction a 5-minute taxi can take you to Dessimi beach for a swim and tavernas.

There is a well-stocked small supermarket around a 10-minute walk away from our base, they will also deliver your shopping back to your yacht.

If you are on a shared course, we suggest setting up a kitty between the crew members at the beginning of the week. We recommend provisioning the boat between you all, planning to eat breakfast and lunch onboard, and heading to a taverna in the evening. Remember you will need to provide your instructor with food and water.

There are plenty of supermarkets in the harbours you will visit, so you will usually only need to provision for a day or 2, your instructor will let you know if you need to provision for longer than this.

Please make the office aware of your late arrival before you travel so we know to put a member of staff on standby.

Your instructor will come and meet you in the morning. Where you will complete some paperwork and start the course!

The course technically runs from 0900 on Monday morning but we like to use Sunday afternoon to cover our safety brief and getting to know you.

The route will be arranged once your instructor meets you and assesses what skills they need to focus on, but we try to go to a harbour each day, so you get lots of different mooring experiences. If you have special requests, they will do their best to accommodate them, but the course content must come first.

Teaching usually starts around 0830 and normally you are moored up in a harbour for the evening by 1830. One night you will have to do a night sail, and this could be from sunset for 4 hours or may be the 4 hours leading to sunrise but that will be decided upon with the crew and according to weather that week.

This will be dependent on the weather conditions and whatever skills the crew need to work on. If you are all excellent sailors but do not know how to moor, we will spend more time doing parking practice to ensure that you get skilled enough to pass... etc.

Probably not, this is a course, and you should feel stretched slightly to be at the best learning point. We will make it enjoyable, but it will not be a relaxing cruise by any means. The final goal of this week is to make sure you feel confident with what you have learned and are safe being left in charge of a yacht.

Your instructor will of course try to get time for swimming, but it may not be a long, glorious dip if the course material has not been covered for that day. Often when we stop for lunch the instructor will give you a time to leave by! This is usually only 30 minutes to 1 hour which is not a long time.

Some people can swim while the others prep lunch then after lunch, the preppers can swim while those that swam before lunch clear up.

On a sailing course we need to keep the deck clear and safe so that sailing manoeuvres and emergency procedures can be taught and carried out safely. This is very difficult and adds unnecessary dangers if there are large extras onboard like SUP boards etc.

Also, as with swimming, breaks during the day may be time limited due to the syllabus requirements of your training course.

Remember: Every yacht has a dinghy and outboard as standard that can be used for training and for fun little adventures, once the instructor has taught you how to use it!

Fully Competent crew courses will finish on a Saturday afternoon. However, if you are on a course with a Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper candidates your yacht will return to Vlicho around 4 to 5pm on Friday.

You will have time to tidy the yacht and then you will meet with your instructor for a final debrief and certification.

If you are passing your Day Skipper, you will return to base on the Friday. The certificate will be made, providing you have brought a passport photo, and new boat papers will be written with you or someone else as the Skipper.

You may then go from Saturday morning for the rest of your time with Sail Ionian after making an approved plan with your instructor. Returning before 1700 on Saturday or 0830 on Sunday morning.

If you are not going to attain the Day Skipper, your instructor will set up an action plan with you on the Friday when you return. This will be discussed and sign by you, your instructor and the chief instructor and will allow you to complete your qualification with Sail Ionian within 12months without doing the whole course again.

If no one on your yacht is qualified by the end of the week, we will try our hardest to find a skipper to take you out for the day sail on the Saturday, but we cannot guarantee this.

The Saturday will not be another teaching or assessment day.

Failure to prepare is usually the culprit for failing a course, for example, not having the theory, or prerequisite knowledge.

Occasionally the weather can be to blame if it is so stormy, we cannot leave the harbour we are not able to complete the number of miles required. This is no one's fault but must be considered when booking a course of this nature.

The night sail at competent crew and day skipper level is just a taster of what it would be like to get caught out and stuck out of harbour in the dark. It should be a fun experience, and the instructor will usually be in charge but may have you helm or navigate in the dark.

At Coastal level, instructors will expect you to sail in the dark so you must know how to sail very well already as you will be doing it without being able to see anything.

If you have booked a cabin, you will be in a cabin with a door, and this can be nice private space.

If you have booked the saloon, you will be sleeping in the open living area of the yacht, all crew members will try to respect this space, except for bathroom visits, at night but during the day your things must be put away to allow living space for the crew.

The instructor must have a cabin as they must have private space to contemplate lessons and be rested well enough to teach properly. When they get off the boat on Friday our domestic team will clean the cabin and the saloon berther may take it.

Yes, we provide sheets, blankets, pillows, and towels. If you will want a larger beach towel, bring it with you.

This is a sailing course, and we are operating large vessels. No one is allowed to consume alcohol before the boat is moored up for the end of the day. If there is a night sail taking place no alcohol is to be consumed before this. Students may bring alcohol aboard for sundowners or after-hours drinks.

Remember the Legal drink drive limit applies to you if you are a skipper, and in Greece it is 0.05g/l which is nothing. Do not risk it!

If you are a smoker you cannot smoke below decks. We also tend to allow the nonsmokers aboard make the decision as to whether smokers may smoke on deck as it is only respectful. It is easier to wait till we are in harbour at the end of the day, or row to the beach during a lunch stop.

Boats are dangerous places for feet, so we ask that you wear closed-toed shoes when walking on deck while sailing. Flip-flops or sandals add to the slip and trip factor by being slippery and not protecting your toes. You may bring them but only for use when the yacht is moored up in harbour. Although even when stationary there is no guarantee that you won’t stub a toe if you are not protecting your feet.

Anything that may become caught on a rope or in machinery should be removed before sailing. Rings and bracelets especially. Watches may be worn if they have a quick release mechanism or are extremely low profile. But it is safer to leave anything you care a lot about at home, so it does not get lost at sea or on the yacht.

The short answer is Yes. We follow the RYAs policy that you will always wear a life jacket unless it is completely safe to take it off. So, assume you will be wearing one when you are sailing.

We have a limited quality of child sized lifejackets; it is always better for your piece of mind to bring your own kids lifejackets. We do find that most kids of 11/12 or older fit into adult jackets.

That totally depends on the kids and the course. All our instructors are happy to instruct children who want to be involved and will teach them to the appropriate level for their age. If a child shows no interest in sailing or learning our instructors will more likely, try to focus their attention on the parents so they get the correct qualification at the end of the week.

From experience, forcing children to be involved in every aspect when they do not want to can build a resentment of sailing that can be long lasting and spoil future holidays.

Instead, if you think they kids will only want to be involved sometimes make sure they have lots of activities to do; colouring, eye spy and of course the promise of a swim at the end of the day usually helps too.

We absolutely love it when we get enthusiastic children who want to know every knot and nautical term!

Children from age 8 and up can work towards their Start Yachting Certificate.

Children from age 12 and up can work towards their Competent Crew Certificate.

Children over 16 can technically do their Day Skipper if they have enough experience and all the prerequisites just the same as an adult.

But remember this is a lot of pressure to put on a teenager who may be better honing their skills so they can come back at 17/18 and be an excellent Day Skipper with a deeper breath of knowledge and more respect for the responsibility. You cannot charter a boat till 18 anyway.

Under no circumstance should a child under 18 be left alone in the company of our staff. The instructors are not babysitters. This follows RYA safeguarding policy and is there to protect your children as well as protect our staff.

Sail Ionian Staff are briefed on Safeguarding for children and vulnerable adults and our policies must be respected by all parties.

Please speak up, we cannot try to solve problems if we are unaware of them. If it concerns other members of crew or the course content, talk to your instructor quietly or send them a text/WhatsApp to have a private chat.

If it concerns your instructor and you do not want to talk to them directly, please contact fiona@sailionian.com the Chief Instructor, or if she is your instructor contact chris@sailionian.com the Principal of the school.

A full copy of out complaints procedure can be sent to you whenever you need.

We are a learning organisation and as such want to know what we are doing right or not so right. At the end of your course, you will get a feedback form from us.

If you also want to leave feedback with the RYA, the website to do so is

https://www.rya.org.uk/training/course-feedback

And finally, we pride ourselves on our excellent TripAdvisor rating we would love to hear from you about how your week went.

Our instructors never expect tips on a course, but if you want to it is very much appreciated. Please however do not try to tip your instructor before getting a qualification as this could be seen as a bribe.

If you are happy once you have completed the course that is a suitable time to show your appreciation.

You need to vacate the yacht by 9am on the day of your departure.

Please put linen in the laundry bags, fill the water tanks, put the lifejackets back in the bag, do any washing up and take out the garbage.

Transfers should have been arranged on the Friday.

You can leave your bags on the main Quay and the relax at the Café while you wait for your transfer.