Sail Canada Intermediate and Catamaran Endorsement

The Sail Canada Learn-n-Cruise Catamaran course covers the Sail Canada Basic Cruising, Intermediate Cruising, and the Sail Canada Catamaran Endorsement. Sail Canada Intermediate Cruising is recognised by most charter companies around the world as a Captain’s Licence for charter purposes.

We run Sail Canada courses most weeks from the beginning of November through the end of April.

On account of the design, construction and sailing characteristics of a Multihull, there are certain aspects of groundwork sail training which are more easily demonstrated on a Monohull (single hull). Whilst it’s not an issue for complete novices to take our Cat cruises, if you have the opportunity to get out on a monohull prior to arrival, we strongly recommend that you do so – it will stand you in good stead.

Catamarans are a gentler introduction to life afloat than a monohull – they don’t heel (“lean over”) and have tons more deck space. They are very often also faster than single-hulled yachts. The courses run from a Sunday morning through the following Saturday afternoon, and during the week you’ll learn the basics of sailing.

Guests with zero or minimal prior sailing experience are often successful in achieving Sail Canada Basic Cruising certification at the Crew or Skipper level, and we’ve had some guests who have also completed Sail Canada Intermediate the same week – though to achieve Intermediate certification and the Catamaran Endorsement in the same week it is normally necessary to have significant prior sailing experience Most sailors who already have Sail Canada Basic Cruising and significant sailing experience are able to earn Sail Canada Intermediate and the Catamaran Endorsement in this course.

Our courses are entirely hands-on, live-aboard – no falling asleep behind a classroom desk! Because of this, you’ll find that the learning curve is steep and we’ve found over the years that the majority of our guests are surprised at how much they were able to get through.

Whilst the aim of these cruises is to offer guests the opportunity to pass an internationally recognised certification on board an ocean-going yacht, we also remember that this is a vacation – and thus leisure time will be available for swimming, snorkelling, diving, or exploring ashore. The Instructor will run the course at the pace of the guests, with their safety and comfort of prime importance and guests will have every opportunity to participate in the planning of the itinerary and daily schedule. We will do our best to match up guests with similar objectives and to enable them to achieve the level of certification that equates to their experience. Instruction is highly personalized and therefore differing levels of experience amongst the guests does not necessarily present a problem.