RYA DInghy Instructor Course

the instructor course isnt to hard u have just got to know your stuff & be very good at the presentations.

i found that the on the water stuff was very easy try and play games with the kids & adults, games like tag or football is very fun and they can lean quite alot!

have fun hope u pass and keep us informed!

Being a good sailor is a definate advantage. The course focuses a lot on teaching skills so if you are relatively confident (confidence grows throughout the course anyway) and know your stuff, it isn't too hard. Revising the sylabus for the course content you are going to teach makes things so much easier. Also try and get familiar to the boats you are using in the course, ie if you have to do a Man over board demo on a Wayfarer, be aware the boat carries more momentum than racing boats. On my course, it was suprising how many instructors had to get used to the Wayfarers again because they don't stop as easily as the lighter boats we race.

It can be on any aspect of dinghy sailing. When Mark took his instructor's course in April, he was asked to talk about assymetric dinghies: presentation, particularities, performances, etc. Another student had to talk about the effect of the tides on sailing. There are no trick questions, but you need to show you can stay calm and level-headed in all situations.

Mark spent a week in Cobnor and didn't want to leave! It's rather and intensive course (when you're an old man like him ) but there were plenty of games, good fun and a great atmosphere! I only wish I could sail well enough to do it too.