17/09/2026
Most of the time, your navigation systems work exactly as they should.
The value of proper training becomes very clear when they don’t.
After completing her RYA Day Skipper training with Ocean Star Sailing Academy, Melissa joined the Oyster World Rally in Australia. Just ten days into the journey, she found herself on night watch when the boat suffered a complete loss of power.
No electronic navigation. Heavy traffic. Narrow channels through the Great Barrier Reef. 30 knots of wind.
The solution came back to fundamentals: steering to a bearing, identifying vessel lights, maintaining situational awareness, understanding the traffic around her and applying the navigation principles she had learned during training.
The fault was eventually identified and power restored. But for three hours, the theory stopped being theory.
At Ocean Star Sailing Academy, we teach the technical foundations of seamanship because competent skippers cannot depend on electronics alone. Navigation, collision regulations, pilotage, weather, passage planning and practical boat handling are skills that need to be understood, practised and retained.
Because the equipment may change.
The principles don’t.
Train for more than the certificate. Train to understand why you need it.
Ocean Star Sailing Academy
RYA Training in Cape Town
