Channel Sailing Club is a Recognised Training Centre of the RYA. All club courses lead to the issue of the appropriate RYA Certificate. We encourage our members to gain and upgrade their qualifications in navigation, seamanship and other sailing-related skills.  Our goal is to have club boats skippered and crewed by persons with the best possible experience and ability and to foster safety and ultimately the enjoyment of the sailing environment. 

Lecture nights at the Club

In the winter months, we hold a series of training lectures on topics of interest to all of our members. These talks are presented on every other Tuesday club night starting at 8 pm and last for no more than an hour. For details see the Social page. These talks are in addition to those given by invited outside speakers who frequently entertain and educate us throughout the rest of the year.

Practical training

The Club occasionally offers RYA Competent Crew and Day Skipper practical courses. Details for the current year have not yet been finalised and will be published in due course. Informally, inexperienced members are able to learn and practise sailing skills, to an extent depending upon circumstances, on boats owned by other club members. We also organise navigation rallies and skills weekends in which all members can take part.

Shorebased training

Channel Sailing Club organises seven RYA shorebased courses, all run by RYA recognised instructors, for the benefit of its members. CSC is a non-profit making organisation, which means that these courses are run on a break-even basis. It also means that an advertised course may be cancelled if too few people apply - but this rarely happens. Non-members of CSC are welcome to join the Club if they wish to take part in any of these events and, of course, all other club activities, both on and off the water. The annual fee for joining the Club is £25 at present. Course application forms (with joining instructions and booking terms and conditions) can be downloaded from the link provided in each course description below.

RYA Day Skipper Shorebased:
This course is run by the Club in association with Skysail Training. The syllabus includes chart work, position fixing, tides and tidal streams, buoyage, pilotage, navigation, passage planning, International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea, meteorology, GPS and chart plotters. This course prepares students for the RYA Day Skipper 5-day practical course. There are homework assignments and two written assessment papers. It is a course for beginners or those with little sailing experience. The course fee is £215, which includes the Course Completion Certificate and RYA course materials. The Instructor is Keith Bater from Skysail Training. Click HERE for an Application Form.

RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Shorebased:
This course is run by the club in association with Pan Pan Sailing School. The syllabus is similar to that of the Day Skipper course but with all topics treated at a more advanced level. This course prepares students for the RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster 5-day practical course and the RYA/MCA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore practical exam. There are homework assignments and three written assessment papers. The course fee is £215, which includes the Course Completion Certificate and RYA course materials. The Instructor is Nick Pannell, from Pan Pan Sailing School.
Applicants must have already passed the shorebased RYA Day Skipper course or be able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge. This is not a course for beginners or near beginners, who should take the Day Skipper shorebased class first. If you are in doubt as to which course is appropriate for you, then please have a word with the CSC Rear Commodore (Training), John Lindsay (01372 272389). Click HERE for an Application Form.

RYA Diesel Engine: 
This course, run by club member John Lindsay, is offered twice yearly. John’s course is replete with tips that may well enable you to get home under power when your engine falters or fails to start. The course fee is £60. Click HERE for an Application Form.

RYA VHF/SRC Radio:
Instructor John Lindsay also gives this one-day course. This course not only qualifies you to be the confident, certificated operator of a ship’s radio, but it also teaches about GMDSS, the Global Maritime Distress Safety System – essential knowledge for those sailing out of local waters. Get hands-on practice with a live VHF/DSC radio set. This course is also offered twice a year. The course fee is £70. Click HERE for an Application Form.

RYA Radar:
We offer this one-day certificated course once a year. The Instructor is Keith Bater of Skysail Training. It’s well worth it to be able to act as a second pair of ‘radar eyes’ for the skipper. The course fee is £70. Click HERE for an Application Form.

RYA CEVNI:
Club member Gerry Roper runs the popular CEVNI course around the first week of March. It’s required if you go inland on European waterways. The cost is unlikely to exceed £20 for this eight-hour course. Contact Gerry for further information.

RYA First Aid:
Nick Pannell of Pan Pan Sailing is the Instructor for the First Aid course. This course is a prerequisite for the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore practical examination and the certificate is valid for three years. The course fee is £50. Click HERE for an Application Form.

Shorebased Course Dates for the rest of 2010 and early 2011:

First Aid                        6 November 2010                        (A one-day course)
C/Skipper Yachtmaster  30 October, 13, 27 November, 4, 11, 18 December 2010  (six eight-hour days)
Diesel Engine                25 September 2010                     (A one-day course)
VHF/SRC                      18 September 2010                    (A one-day course)
Radar                           15 January 2011                    (A one-day course)
Day Skipper                 22/23 January, 5/6 February, 19/20 February 2011  (six eight-hour days over 3 weekends)
CEVNI                        Early March 2011                      (Two evenings, contact Gerry Roper)
Diesel Engine                12 February 2011                           (A one-day course)
VHF/SRC                      8 January 2011                           (A one-day course)

To take part in any of these, please enrol as soon as you can....it really helps the course organiser.
Please note that places on all courses are initially provisional. A course will be confirmed when enough applications have been received to cover the fixed costs of running the course.

Contacts

Club members can contact the instructors through the usual channels.

Non-members please contact us by email, replacing the ‘#’ character with a ‘@’ character when entering the email addresses.

For all information regarding the RYA VHF/SRC and RYA Diesel Engine course contact John Lindsay directly at diesel#channelsailingclub.org

For all information regarding the RYA CEVNI course please contact Gerry Roper at
cevni#channelsailingclub.org

For all other courses and for general queries about training contact the Club’s Training Officer, Ken Hare , at training#channelsailingclub.org