RYA (Royal Yachting Association)

As I have already mentioned on this blog RYA (Royal Yachting Association) is one of most world wide recognizable institution where skipper gets their knowledge about sea and boats. I would like to explain a bit about this worldwide organization.

Organization was founded in the year 1875 and was first named Yacht Racing Association. Institution was established to standardize rules to racing yachts. Later on the name and reputation from RYA spread and was named to Royal Yachting Association in the year of 1953.

RYA would like to spread the reputation even more. So they have a lot of activities and courses that you can participate. With this courses they would like to spread safety and awareness, raise standards and rank highly globally on various fields. RYA goal is definitely to be the upholder of boaters rights.

They are involved in many sports that are somehow connected with water: Sailing, Windsurfing, Motor Cruising, Sport boats, Personal Watercraft and Powerboat racing. I would definitely advise you to go to one of those courses and try to get the most from it. It is not just the prestige of the famous courses, but they also prepare you to various conditions and took care for the safety.

Organization RYA is organizing also racing events. As a RYA member you can participate in different programs such as Volvo RYA Champion Clubs, RYA Powerboat Racing, Skandia team GBR, Honda RYA Youth RIB Championship and other programs.

Skipper

I am a skipper and would like to explain what does skipper does. Being skipper is job where you control sailboat or yacht with a help of someone else or by yourself. Being skipper is a responsible task where you are responsible not just for a boat but also for all the people that are currently on the vessel.

Training for skipper is not easy. Depending on the country where skipper is located, skippered needs to pass basic skipper courses. Some countries have only theoretical exams where you become skipper for vessels as long as 25 meters without passing the theoretical exam. There are also countries where you need to pass separated courses for radio communications.

However one of the most recognized skipper courses in the world is UK RYA (Royal Yachting Association). There goal is simple and in my opinion pretty well thought of making standards for skipper license all over the world. The offer various courses for sailboat, powerboats, yachts, dinghies and so on and have already made a good name.

Skipper

However skipper is not just a "driver" of the boat. Skipper needs to take much more responsibility, sometimes you need to be also a guide, communicative person that can handle a different strange situations or person that can fix a boat when this is needed in bad weather.

Being skipper is not always easy. You need to get along with various people. From people that do not speak at all during the sailing or people who prefer to talk all the time and are sometimes more then annoying. And sometimes you are in a company of people that you do not like away from your friends and family for more then a month or two during the high season. However being a skipper is not always good.

But there are also times that weighted all bad moments with endless sunsets in an interesting company on the sailboat. Being skipper is more then a hobby, it is a life.