We will take you from total beginner to competent sailor, that is able to sail on the water with confidence.
Taster sessions
We offer taster sessions twice a week, which have to be booked in advance.
Option 1 is our RYA Women on the Water session which we do on a Tuesday evening from 4pm till 6:60pm every week. For more information on this please click here.
Option 2 is our Discover Watersports session that we run on a Thursday evening from 4pm till 6:30pm every week. For more information on this please click here.
Option 3 is that we run a number of free taster session throughout the year and the only way to know out these is to follow our Facebook page and that of our training centre Sail Birmingham.
Other Activities at Midland Sailing Club
We also have the opportunity to try windsurfing & paddle boarding and if you would like to know more then:
Click here for Windsurfing & Click here for Paddle boarding
Coaching sessions
You can learn to sail with the RYA Level 1 course, Start Sailing. This is a 16 hour course where you will learn how to get the boat to move where you want it to go to. As sixteen hours are not really enough to learn sailing, we encourage you to become a club member — so you can get the benefit of our regular coaching sessions for our members on a Saturday morning and other sailing sessions during the weeks and evenings.
CLICK HERE for ‘Start Sailing’ course details
Discounted members’ rate
If you are a member of the Club then you will be entitled to a 50% discount on courses as well as any instructor lead training session, this includes RYA Women on the Water and Discover Watersports. For more information on membership please click here.
Coached practice sessions
In the coached practice sessions you can potter around in a club boat to gain more confidence in boat handling and sailing. There will be instructors around to help you out if you get stuck, or to suggest to you things you can try out, and a safety boat will be on the water to make sure that help is near should something go wrong.
The next steps in our learn to sail program is the RYA Level 2 course, Basic Skills, followed by Level 3, Better Sailing. These courses will also each run over 16 hours, and will take you from knowing how to handle a boat to being able to sail confidently on your own (i.e. without anyone else helping you) in up to medium wind. That should be enough for you to enjoy cruising around, or even to start taking part in our club races on a Saturday afternoon. When you have reached Level 2, you are also able to hire our club boats.
CLICK HERE for RYA Level 2 ‘Basic Skills’ course details
CLICK HERE for RYA Level 3 ‘Better Sailing’ course details
We also offer more advanced courses for our members, including seamanship skills and power boating, so if you are keen you can further improve your skills and become an accomplished sailor.
Which sailing course is right for me?
We teach adults (16+) and juniors (up to 16) separately, as they have different ways of learning and usually different motivations.
Due to the vagaries of climate and weather, we typically run our learn to sail training courses from end of March to beginning of October. Each course takes two days (16hrs) of training, mostly spread over four weeks (Sat mornings). You will not need any equipment, apart from some old trainers (or similar) that you don’t mind getting wet. The club has a collection of wet suits and buoyancy aids that you can borrow for the duration of the course.
We are also running further learn to sail coaching sessions on a Saturday morning for club members who have gone through the courses but need more time on the water to gain more confidence, practice their skills, or prepare for taking part in our club races. Click here to view our course dates
For more information, please email the training team (training@midlandsailingclub.org.uk) or come and see us on a Saturday. We look forward to welcoming you!
Phil Reeves
RYA Training Centre Chief Instructor