Sailstar offers introductory and basic courses as well as certain continuation courses and training sessions. Our goal is that after completing a basic course, you should be able to rig your boat (hoist sails), launch it if it is a dinghy, sail out of the harbour (all boats), understand how to steer and trim the sails, sail around an island and return to the harbour or a natural harbour — or pull the dinghy up onto a ramp. For keelboat courses, you should also be able to handle the boat in harbour and navigate at a basic level.
The basic courses we offer range from three to six days.
Course content – Basic Course, Level 1
- The fundamentals of sailing, sailing on different points of sail
- Sailing basics: heading up & bearing away
- Sailing basics: tacking, gybing, no-go zone
- Wind, wind strength, reading the wind
- Weather reading, interpreting a forecast*
- Sailing terminology
- Safety at sea, man-over-board (MOB not included in dinghy courses)*
- Knots, coiling
- Right-of-way rules
- Rigging
- Sail care*
- Basic navigation*
- Boat handling, manoeuvring and docking, anchoring (anchoring not included in dinghy courses)*
- Practical sailing. For dinghy sailing, capsize training is included.
Course content – Continuation Course, Level 2
- Reading weather, interpreting a forecast*
- Safety at sea, man-over-board under sail and engine
- Rigging, different rig types
- Sail care
- Navigation – using charts and chartplotter
- Boat handling, manoeuvring and docking, springs, anchoring
- Trimming – sail shape, cunningham, outhaul, kicker, rig tension, boat balance*
- True and apparent wind, TWA, AWA, TWS, AWS
- Some continuation courses include night sailing (for Sailing Certificate 3)
See also information about the Sailing certificates (Seglarintyg)