YOUR SAILING STORY STARTS
ON AN X-YACHTYOUR SAILING STORY
STARTS
ON AN X-YACHT

Competent Crew — no experience required. This is where most sailors begin. Day Skipper — you should have the equivalent of Competent Crew level ability: roughly 5 days at sea, 100 nautical miles, and 4 night hours as crew. You do not need the certificate itself if you have equivalent time on the water. Coastal Skipper — built for sailors who already have skippering experience, not just crewing. Without it, you won't get full value from the course. Yachtmaster Preparation — you should already be competent and confident in navigation, boat handling, and passage planning. The course sharpens what you already know rather than teaching it from scratch. For the Yachtmaster Offshore exam itself, the RYA requires a minimum of 50 days at sea, 5 as skipper, and 2,500 miles logged, including 5 passages over 60 miles, two of them overnight and two as skipper. If you're unsure where you fit, tell me your real experience when you get in touch — not the certificate you hold, but the time you've actually spent on the water. I'll tell you honestly which course is right for you.

So every crew member is genuinely involved in every manoeuvre, every navigation decision, every moment on deck — not watching from the side. It also means the skipper is managing a real, workable crew, the way it happens on an actual passage, not an oversized group built around the boat's capacity.

We sail. Weather is part of seamanship, not an interruption to it — and spring and autumn in the Adriatic give exactly the changing conditions that teach the most. The skipper adjusts the passage plan and the sailing area to the forecast, which is itself part of what you are learning. In genuinely unsafe conditions we stay in harbour and use the time ashore for navigation, passage planning and boat work.

Yes. RYA qualifications are recognised by training centres, charter companies, and maritime authorities worldwide, and form the basis for the Competent Crew through Yachtmaster pathway used internationally.

Consolidate it — skipper in waters you already know. The RYA's own guidance is specific about going further: before sailing an unfamiliar area, check whether it has characteristics you did not meet on your course — katabatic winds, a different buoyage system (IALA A/B or CEVNI), large tidal streams or range, or different berthing arrangements such as Med moorings — and if it does, train there. Two of those meet you on your first day in Croatia: the bora, which is a katabatic wind, and stern-to berthing in almost every harbour. If you normally sail IALA B waters, the buoyage changes too. The next certified step is Coastal Skipper.

Coastal Skipper. In the RYA's own words it is “the highest certified course within the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme”. Above it there are no further courses — only Certificates of Competence: Yachtmaster Coastal, Yachtmaster Offshore and Yachtmaster Ocean. Those are not completed on a course; a Certificate of Competence is awarded after an independent examination conducted by an RYA/MCA-appointed examiner.

30 days at sea, 2 days as skipper, 800 miles and 12 night hours, on vessels under 24 metres. If you hold an RYA Coastal Skipper Practical certificate that reduces to 12 days and 400 miles. At least half the qualifying sea time must be in tidal waters, and all of it must have been gained within the ten years before the exam. Minimum age 17.

50 days at sea, 5 days as skipper, 2,500 miles, and 5 passages over 60 miles — including two overnight and two as skipper. At least half the qualifying sea time must be in tidal waters and on vessels under 24 metres, all of it within the ten years before the exam. Minimum age 18. The Coastal Skipper reduction does not apply here — Offshore keeps its full criteria.

The definitions are stricter than most sailors expect, and worth knowing before you log the wrong thing. A day on board is eight consecutive hours, the majority of it at sea — sixteen hours still counts as one day. Miles are those logged outside harbours, in water where a yacht could be left anchored unattended. Night hours are hours spent on watch, or actively navigating or handling the boat, between sunset and sunrise. The yacht must be over seven metres LWL. And an area counts as tidal only where published stream, current or tidal-range data exists and is significant enough to plan around — which is why time in the Adriatic and most of the Mediterranean does not count towards the tidal half of a Yachtmaster requirement.

Every course runs aboard Xara, our X-Yacht X4³, based at Marina Frapa. She's not a rotating fleet boat — she's the one yacht you'll train on, maintained to the same standard we hold ourselves to. See Xara →

Xara has three cabins. Individual students always have their own; the fourth place is kept for a couple, who share the owner's cabin A1 with its own head. That is why a course week takes three students, or four when two of them are travelling together.

If you already own one — good instinct, that's one point earned for choosing safety before anyone told you to. On board Xara, our X-Yacht X4³, everyone trains in the latest generation Spinlock lifejackets, the choice of professional sailors worldwide, kept current to the newest safety standard. Consider it an upgrade, not a requirement.

Yes. Alongside X-Sailing's RYA courses in Croatia, Dobo delivers private tuition, deliveries, and instruction for individual owners and other training centres across the North Sea, the Mediterranean including Greece, the Canary Islands, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean Windward Islands. These are separate from X-Sailing's RYA-recognised courses, which are run exclusively from Croatia.

X-Sailing trains on one yacht — Xara, our X-Yacht X4³ — with a maximum of four students to one instructor, taught by the centre's own RYA Yachtmaster Instructor rather than rotating staff. To our knowledge it is the only RYA Recognised Training Centre operating on X-Yachts. Ten training weeks run each year, in the shoulders of the Croatian season.

Every X-Sailing instructor holds an RYA Yachtmaster or Cruising Instructor certificate — which is not a one-time achievement. It must be revalidated every five years through a full practical, on-the-water reassessment: three days with one RYA Examiner, followed by a second, independent examiner joining on the final day to verify the assessment. First Aid certification is renewed every three years, and instructors must hold a valid medical fitness certificate. This is not the case at every training centre. Anyone can put "instructor" in their email signature. Very few can prove it, on the water, to two independent examiners, every five years, for their entire career.

Everyone who trains with X-Sailing keeps direct contact with their instructor afterwards, and people use it — equipment choices, passage planning, a second opinion on a boat they are considering, or a decision that has to be taken at sea. There is nothing to subscribe to and nothing to renew; it is what one instructor teaching forty students a year can do that a fleet cannot. Past students also hear about new equipment and products worth knowing about through our continuous work with the marine industry, with a discount where one is available.

X-Sailing is based at Marina Frapa, Rogoznica, Croatia — our single RYA Recognised Training Centre location, as required by RYA regulations. All RYA courses run aboard Xara, our X-Yacht X4³, in the Adriatic.

Arrive at Marina Frapa on the Sunday before your course starts, from 14:00 — this is a welcome-aboard day with a safety briefing and course overview, no sailing. Training runs Monday to Friday, 09:30–18:00, finishing around 17:00 on the last day. You're welcome to stay aboard until 08:30 Saturday morning. Flying into Split? It's about 35 minutes to the marina, and we can arrange a transfer for you.

Yes. You are responsible for your own travel and medical insurance, and we recommend cover that includes water sports and cancellation protection. Travel insurance is not included in the course price.

Split Airport (SPU), approximately a 35-minute drive to Marina Frapa, Rogoznica.

Yes — that is the Premium Week. The entire yacht and the instructor for you and up to four guests, on your dates and at your pace, with airport transfers and a massage in the marina included. The same RYA course and the same certificate. €10,500 for the week.

Everything from the moment you step aboard: accommodation in your own cabin on Xara, our X-Yacht X4³, all food and drink while sailing, dinner ashore together on the last evening, freshly laundered bedding and towels, Spinlock lifejackets and safety lines, all training materials, mooring fees, fuel and gas, and your RYA certificate on completion. A hostess handles provisioning and keeps the boat in order, so no part of your week is spent on domestic work. Your flight to Split, travel insurance, and evening meals ashore other than the last one are the only things to arrange yourself. If you would rather have the whole yacht to yourself, the Premium Week adds private airport transfers, your own dates and pace, and a massage in the marina after a day on the water.