Am I Ready for Day Skipper?
Check what you can do aboard before you book. Have a plan for the sailing that comes afterwards.
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Am I Ready for Day Skipper?
RYA Day Skipper is a practical course that teaches you to take charge of a sailing yacht and its crew on day trips in familiar waters. You need some experience before you start, and the theory knowledge to go with it. You are there to learn, but the instructor needs you to arrive able to do the crew's work.
Before You Book
Read through the requirements and be honest about where you are. The test below will help you check. If you need more time as crew, take it. If you are ready, think about when you will next sail as skipper. Passing should lead to using what you have learnt.
Quick Navigation
- 1 What the RYA Asks For The Entry Requirements
- 2 Your Theory Chartwork, Tides and the Rules of the Road
- 3 Your Crew Skills Could You Do the Jobs Unprompted?
- 4 Your Sea Time Five Days and 100 Miles
- 5 Your Night Hours Four Hours After Dark
- 6 Competent Crew First, or Straight to Day Skipper? Choosing Your Route
- 7 What the Week Asks of You The Practical Syllabus
- 8 After Day Skipper Chartering on Your Own Ticket
Day Skipper Practical at a Glance
| What the RYA Asks | |
|---|---|
| Sailing ability | Basic sailing ability |
| Sea time | Five days, 100 miles and four night hours on board a sailing yacht |
| Theory | Navigation and theory knowledge to Day Skipper Shorebased level |
| Minimum age | 16 |
| Course length | Five days, three weekends, or three days plus two days |
| What it qualifies you for | Taking charge of a 30-45ft sailing yacht and its crew on day trips in familiar waters; you can then apply for an ICC |
Source: the RYA's Day Skipper Practical Sailing course page, checked 12 October 2026.
1.What the RYA Asks For
The Entry Requirements
The RYA describes the outcome as being able to take charge safely of a 30 to 45ft sail cruising yacht and its crew. The day trips and familiar waters matter. Keep those limits in mind when you think about what you want to do after the course.
Before starting, you need basic sailing ability, five days aboard a sailing yacht, 100 miles and four night hours. You also need navigation and theory knowledge to Day Skipper Shorebased level. The minimum age is 16.
Check each requirement against your own experience. Meeting the numbers gets you to the starting point. You still need to be able to use what you have learnt when you get aboard.
Day Skipper is a skipper for familiar waters, by day.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
2.Your Theory
Chartwork, Tides and the Rules of the Road
Day Skipper theory and Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore theory are shorebased courses. You can take them in a classroom, online or by distance learning. Day Skipper theory takes about 40 hours plus an exam. The RYA recommends it before the practical course.
The practical course requires knowledge to Day Skipper Shorebased level. A shorebased certificate is not listed among the Yachtmaster Coastal or Offshore exam prerequisites either, although the theory knowledge is examined. Do not read that as permission to leave the theory out.
For chartering, the RYA says Day Skipper practical demonstrates sufficient knowledge and practical experience. It also qualifies you to apply for an ICC for sail in coastal waters. An ICC can also come through assessment. A shorebased certificate alone is insufficient.
It is the knowledge that is required.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
3.Your Crew Skills
Could You Do the Jobs Unprompted?
A Competent Crew should be able to carry out the skipper's instructions. Day Skipper asks you to put those instructions together into a coordinated sailing plan. You need to understand the crew's jobs before you can direct people doing them.
Look at your steering, sail handling and ropework. Think about man overboard and safety equipment too. These are part of Competent Crew. Be honest about what you can do when somebody asks, and where you still need them to show you.
The test below will help you think about this. Answer from what you have actually done aboard. Being able to describe a job is useful, but you need to be able to do it when it is needed.
Can you tie the bloody things in anger, from sideways, standing on your head, when they are actually needed?
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
4.Your Sea Time
Five Days and 100 Miles
Count your sailing before you book. The entry requirement is five days, 100 miles and four night hours aboard a sailing yacht. Check all of them. Having enough days does not tell you whether you have enough miles or night hours.
Put the details in your log while you can still account for them. If you are unsure about a trip, check what you recorded. Give the sailing school an accurate account of your experience when you discuss the course.
Then consider how much of that time you spent doing the crew's work. The figures matter, and so does what you can now do aboard. If you are short of the minimum, get the sailing in before starting.
Count it, log it.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
5.Your Night Hours
Four Hours After Dark
The RYA's published requirement is four night hours onboard a sailing yacht. Its public course page does not define whether those hours must be on watch. I would not claim it says something it does not.
My view is that you should count the hours when you were actually on watch. If you were asleep below, you were aboard, but you were not getting the experience I want a candidate to bring from those hours.
Look back at your log and separate the two. Tell the school what you actually did during your night sailing, particularly if you are relying on time when you were below. That gives them something useful to discuss with you before you book.
Night hours should be hours actually on watch, not hours spent aboard or asleep below.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
6.Competent Crew First, or Straight to Day Skipper?
Choosing Your Route
I call it the Day Skipper Curse. You skip Competent Crew, scrape through Day Skipper and do not sail regularly. Without a real crew at sea to test your skills, you soon lose what got you over the line. You have the qualification, but cannot take the family across to Cowes from Gosport, or lack the confidence.
James Stevens wrote in Yachting Monthly, "Come spring, when most of us start sailing again, we suffer from a bit of skill fade". I would often recommend Competent Crew first, unless you have a plan to skipper for real soon afterwards. It is not a formal prerequisite. Use the test below to check your starting point.
Coming through ASA or IYT? Our comparison chart lines up their levels with the RYA's as a general guide. None of these bodies publishes an official equivalence to Day Skipper. Look at your experience alongside the chart.
Get skippering for real as early as possible.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
7.What the Week Asks of You
The Practical Syllabus
The practical course runs over five days, three weekends, or three days plus two days. You live aboard with your crewmates and an RYA instructor. Arrive ready to learn and take part in the work of the boat.
You will be taught what you need for Day Skipper. I would expect you to bring very strong Competent Crew skills and meet the minimum requirements. If the instructor is still having to teach you the crew's jobs, you have more to get through.
Taking turns as skipper is common practice at sailing schools. You may well have Competent Crew candidates aboard as your crew. They are learning too, so think about how you will give instructions they can understand and carry out.
You are not expected to turn up knowing everything.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
8.After Day Skipper
Chartering on Your Own Ticket
Sailing in company is one of the most important safety features I would choose for your first time as skipper. You make every decision yourself, with help close by. With an instructor aboard, you know they can step in, and that takes some weight off your shoulders.
Yachting Monthly's first-time skipper piece says, "the Day Skipper qualification says that you are only competent in 'familiar areas'". Plan your first sailing with that in mind. Passing does not make every area familiar.
This is where SailChecker comes in. We arrange flotilla holidays, with yachts sailing in company and a lead boat and crew. Club events can also give you company while you skipper. Tell us what sailing you want to do. SailChecker is your companion from here on.
In company you make every single decision yourself, with help close by.
Christopher Lait, SailChecker
Are You Ready for Day Skipper?
Answer a few questions from the sailing you have actually done to see if you are ready for Day Skipper, or if you already hold it, whether you have the Day Skipper Curse.
Tell us what you have in mind and how much sailing you have done. We can help you work out what comes next.
Christopher Lait
Chris founded Drake Academy, a sailing company that provides leadership training to businesses. Now the CEO of SailChecker.com you will find him handling many of your enquiries as he attempts to drive SailChecker.com forward as the company of choice for yacht charter and sailing by focusing on quality advice and great customer service.
