Tideway offers a good environment to learn to sail for those people who, for whatever reason, are not suited to conventional sailing courses.

 

We will always prioritise any person aged 6 or over who is interested in learning to sail and who has a disability, learning difficulty or any similar impairment. Our boats are well suited to “learning by doing” as they are stable, forgiving and don’t need specialist clothing.

 

To help the learning process, we have written our own “Learn to Sail" Guide . This is available as a pdf e-book for download or as a hard copy to buy (£5) in the clubhouse. Our aim is to achieve independent sailing as soon as is reasonable, which will obviously depend on the individual. One of our volunteers will accompany the sailor in the boat  until you are ready to sail independently.

 

For your first sail, have a look at this short document- it will give you a taste of what is involved in learning to sail the Tideway way.

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Prospective volunteers will also be helped to develop your skills, with coaching by our experienced volunteers and time to practice. We can get complete beginners, in suitable conditions, sailing independently in 15 minutes. Most of our new volunteers will then reach a standard where they are capable and confident enough to take out one of our assisted sailors within a few weeks. In the meantime you can also help with everything else that needs doing.

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For juniors aged 6 to 8 who are too young to go on conventional RYA courses, or who would benefit from a more relaxed start to their sailing journey, our boats allow them to sail independently very quickly.

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