Once you have taken your practical Day Skipper course, you might wonder what you can do next that will help build your skills on the water. Chartering a boat in the Med with you as skipper is a good start. You will have learnt a lot already. As soon as you are the real skipper and there is no instructor you will learn a whole lot more.
But not everyone is ready, or indeed wants, to go and charter a yacht as skipper. You might want to get more experience, particularly if you are wanting to take family and friends sailing. You’ll want to be confident in what you are doing. And you will want to have experienced a good variety of sailing conditions. As well as our other RYA courses, (the next step after Day Skipper is Coastal Skipper, we would recommend a mile building trip.
After earning your Day Skipper qualification, mile building becomes the next step in developing your sailing proficiency and confidence. Our mile building trips vary from a weekend trip over to France or Weymouth and back and a 7 day ‘Channel Triangle’ to more holiday type trips to the West Country or Norway.
Mile building trips are intended to deliberately accumulate you more nautical miles, therefore experience, through planned voyages that will expand your skills in various sailing conditions.
Mile building after Day Skipper won’t just build skills and confidence. Our mile builders are also great fun and sociable, as you join others on-board wanting to increase their experience under the guidance of one of our expert skippers. The trips will help you prepare for further qualifications including Coastal Skipper or Yachtmaster.
The importance of mile building as practical experience
RYA Day Skipper provides an essential sailing foundation, but by spending even more practical time onboard, you can increase your confidence into instinctive skills. The more time you spend on the water, the more you will build the muscle memory and situational awareness that only comes with experience.
Sailing more miles on extended passages will expose you to changing conditions that can help develop critical decision-making abilities. You’ll learn to assess weather patterns, manage your fatigue, and handle unexpected situations with increasing aptitude. You’ll see things go wrong, bits of the boat wear or even break. All good stuff to experience first time round when you are not the skipper!
The key benefits of mile building after Day Skipper include:
- Develops intuition
- Enhances ability to anticipate potential problems
- Improves boat handling in challenging conditions
- Better crew management skills
- More experience of navigation under pressure
- Increases your physical stamina and mental resilience, essential qualities for longer passages.
Mile building trips after RYA Day Skipper should include experience across various conditions: different tidal patterns, weather patterns, and navigational challenges. The goal of mile building should extend beyond just accumulating distance; it’s about gaining quality experience that develops practical sailing skills.
On most of our trips there is usually the opportunity for at least 2 people to have a go at skippering a 60nm passage. You will also get some night sailing in.
Our mile building trips
Our mile building trips take place in the English Channel and in selected locations abroad. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced sailor, these mile building weekends offer valuable miles, a chance to improve your navigation, night sailing and hands-on experience in different conditions once you have completed RYA Day Skipper.
Choose from a range of mile builders to gain the confidence you need for your next sailing challenge. They currently include:
- Norway sailing adventure to the fjords
- Weymouth and back in a weekend
- Channel hop to France or the Channel Islands
- Dorset’s Jurassic Coast
- Channel Triangle sailing
Book your mile builder today
Choose First Class Sailing, and build miles in the Solent and beyond. Handle real-world sailing situations under our expert guidance.
