Sea, sun, and sailing – it sounds idyllic, especially when you are being paid to be there. Sailing instructing is a popular job amongst students, due to its outdoor location, prospect for travel, flexibility, and seasonal timings which align with semester dates.
However, is it all sunshine and fun? Not always.
Add a pile of ten-year-olds, a broken outboard motor on the safety boat, and force eight winds. Now look at the expectant parents who have paid hard-earned money for you to get their kids through their RYA Stage Two qualifications. It is certainly not glamorous. So why do young people go through it?
At the end of the day, it is a decently paid teaching job, except instead of the comfort of a classroom, you’re out on the water. Classroom teaching plays a part in covering theory, usually saved for the worst of the forecast.
This is followed by coaching – guiding your students as they put what they have learned to the test. There’s plenty of risk, there are scary moments, and it is physically exhausting, but the sense of achievement is huge.
A sailing course for adults or children will normally be run by three to four instructors, depending on the course size. There will always be a senior instructor, accompanied by dinghy instructors and assistant instructors.
Each team member will have gone through various mandatory qualifications, including RYA first aid, powerboat level two, and teaching qualifications.
All work and no play?
The level of fun that you have as an instructor is a matter of luck – who you’re teaching, the level and length of the course, the other instructors you work alongside, and most of all the weather.
You are at the complete mercy of the weather. It can change in a second, and it will. It is your job to be prepared to tackle it – to keep everyone safe whilst getting the students through the requirements for their certificate.
A high level of competency and confidence is vital, for your safety and others. I’ve headed home after a particularly gusty day with bleeding knuckles from the lines, and drenched head to toe in seawater from the waves.
On other days I’ve enjoyed shorts and a t-shirt, flat waters, a gentle breeze, and sunburn as my only concern – rarely a worry in Scotland.
In my experience of sailing instructing, there’s nothing better than getting a funny, chatty, and keen set of young people out on the water and watching them thrive. In five days, you can watch an anxious 11-year-old turn into a cool and competent single-hand sailor.
The last day of a course is always the best. Not because the week is over, but because you can show your students the really fun aspects that come with dinghy sailing.
Coasteering, swimming, racing, high-speed powerboating, and active games (‘Pico Parkour’ remains a personal favourite) which leave the week on a high. I’ve been pushed into pier-jumping by nine-year-olds in the past, much to their joy and my dismay (I was not in waterproofs).
In conclusion…
Sailing instructing is the perfect student summer job if you have the time and interest to become a competent sailor if you aren’t already, you like kids, have plenty of patience, and enjoy the outdoors rain or shine.
Featured image credit: Alice Pollard
Journalism student at the University of Stirling & BRAW Magazine editor 24/25 and 25/26 🙂
You can see my portfolio here: https://www.clippings.me/alicepollard
