Irish National Sailing School
2027 Powerboat | National Powerboat Certificate | Course 6 | Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st February
Overview
Two days – different boats. One certificate that lets you take the helm with confidence.
Over two full days (9.30am–5pm) in Dún Laoghaire Harbour, you’ll go from learning the controls to handling a powerboat calmly in the places that test skippers most: tight marinas, crowded moorings and busy harbour traffic. You’ll train on a range of boats, from nimble tiller-steered Yak boats with 15hp engines to RIBs of up to 175hp, so you’ll understand how different boats behave, not just one.
Boat handling: the skills that make you look like you know what you’re doing
- Leaving and coming alongside a pontoon smoothly, in different wind and tide
- Tying up securely once you’re there
- Turning in confined spaces and manoeuvring through a busy marina
- Picking up and securing to a mooring
- Anchoring: choosing your spot, setting it and getting it back up
Safety: what to do when it matters
- Recovering a person who has fallen overboard, practised until it’s second nature
- The Rules of the Road, so you know who gives way and why
- Safety and passage planning before you leave the pontoon
Ashore and alongside
- Launching and recovering a boat from a road trailer
- The knots every boater should know, including the round turn, reef knot and bowline
That’s just a taste. Our instructors cover far more along the way, and the aim is simple: to give you a solid foundation to keep building on, whether you’re heading out for a day on Dublin Bay, renting a boat overseas or moving on to more advanced powerboating.
Cancellations
Our cancellation policy for this course can be viewed here:
Why do we have this policy?
As a small business, we plan every course around the bookings we receive. Once you book, we schedule instructors, prepare boats and undertake other preparations. We want sailing and boating to be accessible to everyone, so we keep our fees as low as possible. That means there’s no margin to cover late cancellations, and we can’t make exceptions to this policy.
Please only book once you’re sure you can make your chosen dates. We look forward to seeing you on the water!
What To Bring
We provide waterproofs, lifejacket / buoyancy aid and all other safety equipment but it is necessary to bring the following:
- Warm layers to wear underneath water proofs.
- Grippy footwear that you don't mind getting a splash or two, old runners are ideal.
- Sun cream and hat (for sunny days) or
- Woolly Hat (for the colder days)
- Change of clothes, you're unlikely to fall in, but better to have them just in case.
- Shower Gear - Towel, Shampoo etc - for the same reason.
- Packed lunch, sandwiches are available from our onsite Café, or Monkstown Village is close by.
