Close-up of a sailing school student practising knots with braided rope

Skills & Milebuilders

Sail Squad’s Skills & Drills weeks, Boat Handling weekends, and Milebuilding trips offer hands-on, experience-based training without the pressure of an RYA assessment.

Sailing school students helming a yacht in heavy rain wearing grey and neon yellow foul-weather gear

Refresh, Practise, and Build Sailing Confidence

These sailing refresher courses cover a variety of practical skills, including boat handling, man overboard drills, passage planning, navigation, and logging miles, all under real sailing conditions.

Taught by full-time professional RYA instructors, each course takes place onboard a Sail Squad training yacht and provides structured coaching and support throughout.

Milebuilding trips, Skills & Drills weeks, and Boat Handling weekends are perfect for consolidating skills, handling a yacht in various conditions, and building the confidence needed for more advanced sailing or pursuing formal RYA qualifications.

Browse Our Courses
*

Why Choose Sail Squad?

Expert Instruction

Our full-time instructors are handpicked by our Chief Instructor for their calm, patient teaching styles.

Personalised Coaching

One-on-one support helps each student progress with confidence at a pace that suits them.

Clear, Honest Feedback

Get constructive feedback throughout the course to strengthen skills and identify areas to improve.

Supportive Learning Environment

Practice without pressure in a space where questions, mistakes, and multiple attempts are always welcome.

Modern Training Yachts

Learn on clean, well-equipped yachts that create a comfortable and perfect learning space.

Flexible Course Scheduling

Choose from scheduled dates or get in touch to arrange a course that works for your calendar.

Customer Reviews

Gave me the confidence I needed.

Joni Gibbons

I would highly recommend Sail Squad. Really professional and friendly, extremely knowledgeable.  We’ve had two great weekend courses where we’ve learned loads.

John Turner

I’ve done a few training courses with different companies, and this has honestly been the best one yet. Patient instruction and high standards of boat and abilities.

Seb

This is a class act! The quality & breadth of info, combined with so much practical tuition, means attendees leave with a really solid grounding and confidence to handle boats in many conditions. Excellent – and so much fun!

Paul Lockett

This course should be mandatory for all new day skippers! It has cemented knowledge and highlighted gaps in my ability. The instructor was fantastic. The boat was excellent. I will be back.

Ian Roberts

This course should be taken by all new day skippers. Excellent experience and a great instructor.

Sarah Roberts

Lucy was very good at putting everyone at ease with the boat. Very clear instructions and reasoning behind the theory, and lots of practice in all aspects of boat handling. Felt completely safe in her hands. Thank you for a lovely week.

Nicola Neil

I found Lucy to be a competent and experienced instructor who gave us 100% throughout the five days. A really enjoyable course, and I will certainly recommend Sail Squad and Lucy to friends and anyone else wishing to start the sailing/training journey.

Anonymous