The path
How to become a yacht skipper: you write to the school first. In the interview we name which step to take: Yacht Crew, Inshore, or Offshore. Not the paper. The step here is not a mark and not the paper. It is only which training week you start with.
If you have not had your own outing on a yacht yet, you start in the crew: Yacht Crew. The skipper runs the boat, and you help. If you have already sailed with people you know and can help with manoeuvres, mooring, and ordinary yacht work, you do not have to take the crew week. Then in the interview we may name charter without a hired skipper, Inshore Skipper, or a long passage, Offshore Skipper, when you have already sailed near the coast. This conversation is not the exam yet. The instructor who runs the exam makes the final decision.
The span here is a guide, not a date on the calendar, and not a promise that the paper will be ready by then. Full training with us starts from 7 days. If you have not had your own outing on a yacht yet, beginners often need 10-14 days: it is the same path, only longer, not a second step. If you have already travelled on a yacht, or you have your own, one or two days are sometimes enough: the instructor watches what you can already do on the boat and names the step. The date of those days is named after the interview. This page has no dates.
A week on the water and an association paper are not the same thing. The week is the training. The paper appears only when the instructor decides that at the exam. Why the week by itself does not issue the paper is on Why a training week does not guarantee a certificate or passing the exam. How an Inshore week can be arranged, and what the instructor watches each day, is on Ideal Inshore training-week plan and Daily skills the Inshore instructor watches.
- Yacht Crew. This is the crew. If you have not had your own outing on a yacht yet, start here: you help, and the skipper runs the boat. What happens on deck is written on that week's page.
- Inshore Skipper. This is charter without a hired skipper: you run the boat near the coast yourself.
- Offshore Skipper. This step is for long passages and for owners of their own yacht. The step is named when you have already sailed near the coast and the instructor allows it at the exam. If you have not had an outing on a yacht yet, this step is not the first.
How a charter without a hired skipper works, how it differs from a crewed charter, and how the first outing goes, is on Charter without a skipper: tips for a bareboat week, Yacht charter: how bareboat differs from other formats, and First bareboat after a course: how not to burn on day 1.
Back off and come in again: the mooring week and Spinnaker trim week, the drop on its own do not open Yacht Crew, Inshore, or Offshore. You come back to mooring when you need to learn to put the boat to the dock. You come back to setting the sails when you need to learn to set and trim them.
The ISSA order is on ISSA progression map. ISSA here is the association whose steps this path follows. What the document confirms, and what it still leaves out, is on Certification and ISSA fees. Other licence systems, including a state licence and the ICC, are set out on Yacht licences: ISSA, RYA, IYT, state papers and ICC. Whether you need a paper in your own case is on Do you need a yacht licence - and where to start learning.
Every training week is gathered on Courses. Dates that are already set are on Schedule. If your date is not there, the course is not cancelled: the date is named when you write to the school.
This page does not say whether a particular charter base will accept your document. What the desk usually looks at, and how to ask us for advice, is on Documents for a sailboat without a hired skipper.
Radio on a yacht, also called VHF, is not part of the skipper step. A charter desk can accept a skipper certificate and still ask for radio on a separate line. This is listening, not the association's document. It is gathered on VHF: Listen & Decode. Why radio is asked separately from the step is on Why radio is asked separately from the skipper step. The radio document is called SRC. An SRC line in the contract, and how the online course differs from this listening, is on SRC radio certificate for sailing charter: when you need it and VHF online vs free trainer: what the course gives - and what it doesn’t.