About First Class Sailing
From 2000 to the Present Day
Established in London in 2000 by the late Saul Masson, First Class Sailing is now owned by Principal Charlie Tulloch.
First Class Sailing operates from various locations in Central London and from Shamrock Quay in Southampton on the South Coast.
London
We run the majority of our RYA shorebased navigation courses in London and specialise in going into offices in and around the City to run evening navigation classes. We also hold these courses over weekends in Rosebery Avenue, EC1 and at the Cruising Association in Limehouse.
In addition we run all the RYA supplementary 1 day courses – VHF, Diesel Engine Maintenance, First Aid, Sea Survival and Radar – in London, usually at weekends.
Southampton
Shamrock Quay in Southampton is where Head Office is located. From here we also run the full range of practical RYA courses and other yachting activities such as Boat Handling weekends and weekend Channel Hop trips over to France and back, from February through to early December.
The Team
Charlie
Charlie is an RYA/DoT Yachtmaster Ocean Instructor. His Dad taught him to sail on a Drascombe Dabber, called Yabber Dabber Doo, as a boy on the River Dart and he has since logged over 55,000 miles. Before First Class Sailing Charlie taught people to sail at several Solent-based sailing schools, worked as a delivery skipper moving boats of all sizes around the world, worked on charter boats off the UK Coast, skippered a privately owned boat to Panama and around central America for a year, skippered and worked as mate on large 80-100ft sailing trawlers such as Keewaydin, Leader and Provident taking adults and disadvantaged young people sailing, and spent a year on container ships carting anything from onions to DVD players around the world. He has his Second Mate’s ticket and a 1st Class Honours degree in Merchant Ship Operations.
Martin
Martin Joined the team in 2018 having moved down from London where he worked as a property Manager, taking care of bespoke housing. Although new to the yachting world Martin has been a Senior dinghy sailing instructor and sailed since the age of four.
Most weekends he is out on the water racing with the plan to gain more experience on the yachts in the near future.
Jamie
Jamie is an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and began his sailing career in Durban, off the east coast of South Africa, in his teens. He has since logged over 25,000nm, crossing the southern half of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Jamie has spent his entire adult life in outdoor sport education, having previously worked as a scuba and skiing instructor, too, whilst travelling extensively. He has worked as an RYA instructor in Cape Town, the Med and the Solent. Jamie worked exclusively for First Class Sailing as freelance instructor for over a year, before joining full-time in 2018.
