Skipper

Learn theDay Skipperby doing it.

Give way, read the marks, work the tide, and make the call. A course for the Day Skipper theory paper and the VHF radio exam.

Coming soon to iPhone and Android

The theory, at the helm.

Every lesson puts a situation in your hands. You steer, choose, read, work and call, the way you will on the water.

Rules of the road

Steer a meeting.

Head-on, crossing, overtaking, and sail. Decide who gives way, then turn the boat to do it.

A head-on meeting lesson in Skipper
Buoyage

Choose a side of a buoy.

IALA buoyage in Region A and Region B. Helm up a buoyed channel and pick the side to pass each mark.

A Region A port-hand buoy lesson in Skipper
Lights, fog and sound

Read a vessel from its lights.

Sidelights, masthead, sternlight and anchor light. Work out what she is and which way she is heading, at night and in fog.

A lesson on a power vessel's lights at night in Skipper
Chartwork and tides

Work a tide sum.

Distance, bearings, variation, deviation, and course to steer. Height of tide, drying heights, the rule of twelfths, springs and neaps.

A course to steer lesson on the chart in Skipper
The VHF radio

Build a Mayday call in the right order.

Mayday, Pan Pan, the distress button, channel 16, and the phonetic alphabet, for the VHF short-range exam.

A DSC distress button lesson in Skipper

Fifty-four short lessons.

Each one is the same three steps, a few minutes long. Short enough for a commute, a lunch break, or the night before your course.

  1. LearnOne idea, drawn as a scene you can read at a glance.
  2. TryA hands-on step: steer, drag, tap, or work the sum.
  3. CheckA question to prove it stuck.

Miss it, and it comes back.

Tomorrow, then in three days, then in a week, until it is yours. The passage chart shows how far you are.

Missed Tomorrow In three days In a week
Skipper home screen with the passage chart and the next lesson
Your passage, lesson by lesson.

What you practise.

The Day Skipper shorebased syllabus and the VHF short-range exam, laid out as a passage. Each light on the way flashes its real character.

  1. F WThe rules of the road

    Head-on, crossing, overtaking, and sail.

  2. Fl R 4sIALA buoyage

    Lateral, cardinal, isolated danger, and safe water marks, in Region A and Region B.

  3. Fl(2) G 6sLights, fog, and sound signals

    Read a vessel at night, and know her by her sound in fog.

  4. Q WThe chart

    Distance, bearings, variation, deviation, and course to steer.

  5. Iso Y 4sTides

    Height, drying height, the rule of twelfths, springs and neaps.

  6. Oc W 8sWeather

    The sea breeze, the Beaufort scale, and where fog comes from.

  7. LFl R 10sThe boat and safety

    The parts of the boat, person overboard, and an engine-space fire.

  8. Fl(2) W 5sThe VHF call

    Mayday, Pan Pan, the distress button, channel 16, and the phonetic alphabet.

Arrive ready.

For your Day Skipper week, your bareboat charter, or the radio exam.

Independent prep.

A training centre issues the certificate after their exam. Skipper is not an official course, and it does not use a training centre's materials.

Your progress stays on this phone. There is no account.