RYA Dinghy Level 2 - Basic Skills

The RYA Dinghy Level 2 Basic Skills course gives students the basic knowledge of sailing such that they will be capable of sailing without an instructor in light winds. This course builds upon the Level 1 Start Sailing, so students should either have completed that course or through experience sailing with family and friends have picked up sailing skills to that level.

Course details are on the RYA website here.

The course will cover:

• Rigging and reefing ashore
• Leaving and returning to a beach, jetty or mooring.
• Coming alongside a moored boat.
• Man overboard.
• The 5 Essentials.
• Tacking upwind and gybing downwind.
• Sailing a short course using all points of sail.
• More knots.
• Capsize recovery.
• Rules of he road.
• An understanding of tides and meteorology.

This course will use both single handed dinghies (Fusions) and double handed dinghies (Laser 2000 or RS Visions), because for Level 2 sailing with a crew is an important skill to cover. The number of places available will depend on the number of instructors. The course is 16 hours of instruction (mostly practical with some theory) so takes two full days. The RYA does not specify a minimum age but recommends that students under 16 consider the youth scheme instead. This course is therefore aimed at our TISC adult members.

The course clashes with the first On The Water session of the season, for which the plan is that the adult course will be run as one of the OTW groups. Avoiding collisions with hordes of junior sailors is a good skill for a level 2 sailor to have!