Sailing Staged Activity Badge

Sailing – stage 1

How to earn your badge

1. Identify different types of sailing crafts.
2. Name three places you could safely go sailing.
3. Take part in a warm up activity to prepare you for a sailing activity. You could try tacking and gybing, hiking out or syncro-jump to cross the boat together in a tack or gybe.
4. Dress properly for a sailing activity, showing you know the importance of buoyancy aids and how to put one on correctly.
5. Take part in a taster session that covers:
• being able to name equipment used and parts of the boat
• getting into and out of a boat safely
• balancing a boat
• manoeuvring your boat in different directions, including moving forward.

Top tips

You can complete most of these steps without actually being on the water, although it’s best to complete them as part of a sailing activity.
This is a lot more fun, and will give you a head start when you start working towards Stage 2.  

If you have achieved the RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 1 you can automatically gain this badge.

Sailing – stage 2

How to earn your badge
Before you attempt Stage 2, you need to have completed all the steps for Sailing Stage 1. You then need to complete all the tasks outlined.

1. Launch and recover your dinghy.
2. Control the direction and speed of your dinghy to steer around a course.
3. Stop your dinghy safely.
4. Capsize and get to the shore safely and recover the dinghy.
5. Show you can moor your dinghy.

If you have achieved the RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 2 you can automatically gain this badge.

Sailing – stage 3

How to earn your badge
Before you attempt Stage 3, you need to have completed all the steps for Sailing Stage 2.

You then need to complete all the tasks outlined, ideally in a different boat to Stage 2.

If you’re using a keelboat, you don’t have to complete steps 1-3.

1. Prepare, launch and recover your boat in an onshore wind.
2. Show the correct way to store your boat ashore.
3. Show you can right a capsized dinghy as helm or crew.
4. Show you know how to recover a man overboard.
5. Demonstrate an ability in:
• sail setting
• balance
• trim
• course made good
• centreboard
• taking upwind
• gybing from a training run
• coming alongside a moored boat
• picking up a mooring.
6. Learn how a sail works and its basic aerodynamics.
7. When sailing, show you can understand and use basic terminology, such as windward, leeward, and bear away.

If you have achieved The Scout Association Personal Activity Permit for Dinghy Sailing or hold the RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 3 you can automatically gain this badge.

Sailing – stage 4

How to earn your badge

1. Launch and recover your boat in any wind direction.
2. Set up your boat according to weather conditions, using sail and rig
   controls.
3. Show that you’re able to recover a man overboard.
4. Show that you know about:
• International Regulations for Preventing Collision at Sea (IRPCS)
• Beaufort Scale
• synoptic charts
• tidal ebb and flow
• spring and neap tides.

If you hold the RYA Youth Sailing Scheme Stage 4 you can automatically gain this badge.

Guidance for Leaders

See the A-Z of Activities at scouts.org.uk/a-z, for information on taking your section sailing or dinghy sailing.  For further support with this activity, contact your local Assistant County Commissioner (Activities), District Adviser (Activities/Water Activities) or your Regional Adviser (Activities) in Scotland. There may also be a County Team or Scout Active Support Unit that can provide support.

Each young person who participates in the Programme, including badges and awards, should face a similar degree of challenge, and requirements can be adapted according to each young person’s abilities.  For more information and practical tips see our guidance on flexibility.

As with all of the Staged Activity Badges, the stages are progressive to allow young people an ongoing challenge. Although the requirements for Stage 1 can completed without actually being on the water, it’s best to complete them as part of a sailing activity. As well as being more fun, this will give young people a head start when they start working towards Stage 2. 

For centres that run sailing, we have a useful list of water facilities and training centres to refer to. Some Scout Adventures and Scout Scotland National Activity Centres also run this activity. 

If running this activity yourself on class C waters, you don’t need a permit for sailing, just someone who has the appropriate skills and knowledge to lead the activity, and to complete a risk assessment.  Class C waters are ‘safe inland waters which are less than 100m wide where flow causes little effect (including swimming pools)’. If on other waters, you can find a local permit holder for this activity, via a permit holder search on Compass (for guidance click here) or by contacting your local Manager of the Activity Permit Scheme.  Take a look at this directory which shows classifications of waterways in UK.

If you have a local Sea Scout Group or Unit , why not see if you can join in with some of their activities, or even arrange a time for their permit holder(s) to take your section out on the water.  

By the time young people reach Stage 4, taking part in a sail training experience may be really beneficial in working towards some of the elements of the badge. There are some great opportunities for Explorers to really challenge themselves that are offered by organisations such as the Discovery Sailing Project and Adventures Offshore are perfect for Explorers to get involved with.