Ahoy! Welcome to First Class Sailing - RYA Sailing Courses

At First Class Sailing we give you easy access to the full range of RYA yachting courses and other sailing activities.

From the moment you contact us we aim to make your whole experience fun, smooth and hassle free.

Our office team are helpful, quick to respond and show a high degree of integrity. First Class Sailing instructors are friendly, professional, thorough and passionate about sailing. So whether you are a complete novice or have some sailing experience, we give you the confidence and expertise to enjoy the ultimate get-away-from-it-all experience: the freedom of sailing.

RYA Sailing Courses
RYA Sailing courses are internationally recognised. They form part of a scheme that is both easy to follow and enter, whatever level of experience you have. We run RYA Shorebased navigation classes such as Day Skipper theory and Yachtmaster theory in London in the evenings and/or over weekends. We hold RYA Practical Courses such as Competent Crew for novices, Day Skipper for those with more experience and Yachtmaster for those with lots of experience on our yachts based in Shamrock Quay, Southampton and Althorne on the East Coast.

VHF Radio Courses
These 1 day courses are very popular. Successful completion of the VHF or SRC Radio course results in the award of an internationally recognised VHF Radio Licence. It is a legal requirement that to use a VHF Radio set someone on board must hold a VHF Radio license. So if you are planning on chartering a yacht, or buying a yacht or if you generally want to make yourself a more useful member of the crew you should do this course. We mostly hold this course on Saturdays or Sundays in London but we can hold the course anywhere in the country if you have some friends that want to do the course with you.

Sailing Trips
Our sailing trips might take you off to the west country for a week of cruising the Devon and Cornish coastlines with their pretty harbours and beautiful estuaries. Or sail over to France and the Channel Islands for a week of Moules Marinieres, French wine and pretty Channel Island anchorages and beaches. For those with less time we have weekend Channel Hops over to France, all year round, which offer the perfect opportunity to build miles and experience quickly.