Sailing News
A mix of insights into our courses and trips, engaging stories from some adventures, and educational content for anyone passionate about sailing.
How Long is Day Skipper Valid For?
First Class Sailing is one of the UK’s leading sailing schools, offering the range of RYA courses, including Day Skipper practical and theory. A common question we get asked is just how long the RYA Day Skipper qualification is valid for. Your Day Skipper...
Day 11: They’re Having A Whale Of A Time!
Mate Kirstie's Log Once More Unto...
Day 10: Less Than One Thousand Miles To Go!
2nd Night Watch Interlude A good...
Day: 9 The Race Is Hotting Up
Monday 3 December Today’s main...
DAY 8: Poem from the Atlantic High Seas
At some point in an Atlantic voyage the...
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Very well organised with a top quality instructor who provided tuition tailored to our differing needs.
A fantastic option for a couple wanting an entire boat to do a mixed Competent Crew / Day Skipper itinerary.
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A game of chess with Cessna
In a few miles we'll touch the latitude of 60 degrees south, it sounds quite frightening but my cure is to remember that when I sailed the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland in 2010 we were in higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere, I guess what makes here...
Marco and Hugh- Southern ocean battle continues with light winds and iceberg sightings
Yesterday a brief email from Cessna some 50 miles to our port (to the north of us) brought home the reality of our current position on the planet. They had just spotted two icebergs, Antarctica is just over 1000 miles to the south of us and although we are out of...
Marco Nannini- Closing the gap and battling it for the lead of the Global Ocean Race
Who would have imagined that in the third and most symbolic of legs, heading for Cape Horn, we would be battling for the lead of the Global Ocean Race. The storms of the early part of this leg seem now a distant memory, two boats retired in huge seas and 50 knots...
Hard earned celebrations after crossing scoring gate
After nearly two weeks of hard core sailing, the best part of which spent beating upwind in very tough conditions, including an early force 9 storm that prompted two boats to retire, we are finally through the scoring gate taking 2nd place. This virtual line on the...
South Pacific storm brings drama to the plot
If this were a movie the last two days would have made for some nice drama on the high seas, imagine the context, a fleet of racing boats headed for Cape Horn, a South Pacific gale battering the fleet, huge waves crashing against the boat through the night, the...
Financial Crisis in every way-Spinnaker trashed in crash gybe
After what seemed like an eternal time spent beating upwind the last 48 hours have finally given us some following winds and faster sailing conditions. This came as a huge relief although sailing downwind at high speeds presents its own challenges too./p> Last night...
No respite in South Pacific horrible windward weather
This leg will be remembered as the ultimate test of patience and resilience, it's been just over a week since we left Wellington, two boats have turned around and headed back in the first big South Pacific blow whilst we pressed on with the full knowledge that it was...
A day in paradise, a day in hell
The first few days of the race, once out of Cook Strait, have been relatively easy sailing, reaching then downwind in moderate seas clocking good mileage every poll, we were happy with our choice of heading further south at the beginning which paid very well as now we...











