How To Sail

The NauticEd Way! We get this question above a lot. Many people are just getting started in their learn how to sail quest and so NauticEd has just the answer.

Step 1: Take our Recommended Sailing Lessons questionnaire - because every one is a little different in their sailing goals.

If the student wants to eventually skipper their own boat then we recommend starting out with the Skipper Course. If the student just wants to only follow along with, and understand what is happening on the sailboat, then the Qualified Crew Member Sailing course is recommended. The crew course is essentially a cut down version of the skipper course and so a student should not plan on taking both sailing courses if they want to know how to sail.

Step 2: Get practical sailing experience and we recommend a few things here:

• Complete the Skipper or Qualified Crew Member course. This is vitally important so that you spend more time with the sailing instructor actually learning how to sail rather than dealing with theory whilst on the boat.
• Get out sailing with one of our practical hands-on sailing schools. There, a sailing instructor will lead you through the proper way of doing things on a sailboat and you'll start to get the feel for how all your theory you've learned from the sailing courses come together.
• Join a local sailing club. There are always captains and skippers needing more crew during their race regattas. Now, racing a sailboat may or may not be your cup of tea but regardless, if you really want to know how to sail this is the best way of getting started. Yes you'll probably get yelled at a bit but it's not personal. So get out to your local sailing club and put your name on the board, look for their website to see if you can sign up on it and then go out there when their races are on and stand at the sailing club looking lost and lonely.
• Invite your self onto friends and acquaintances sailboats. The biggest reason that sailboat owners sell their boats is that they are not using them because they have not enough friends to join them when they want to go out sailing. And guess what - sailboat owners love to teach others how to sail. But you've got to invite yourself. Here's what my friend Jarad says to me: "Grant - would you like to go sailing on your sailboat this afternoon?" Just do it, call someone with a sailboat now.

As you get more and more into sailing and want to learn about sailing in more advanced area's, take the Recommended Sailing Course questionnaire again. It will probably start you on some of the other sailing courses that NauticEd has to offer. And as you go through the learning to sail process, if you want to get a sailing certification from NauticEd take a look at our sailing certification page.

But first, if you're wanting to know how to sail - we invite you to get started on the Skipper or Qualified Crew Member online sailing courses now! Or if you want to try us out first, take our free basic sail trim sailing course, you'll see why learning how to sail online is so much more interesting than a boring ol' paper book.

NauticEd How to Sail Video