Why bother with a sailing certificate?

Because if you take on Mother Nature, she will win!

By meeting established criteria, a sailing school may offer CYA certification to students.  The most rigorous of the requirements concerns the school's instructional staff.  Instructors must be certified at Instructor Qualification Clinic (IQCs) conducted by Instructor Evaluators.  The intensive, three day clinic measures the instructor candidate's knowledge of sailing and seamanship, practical sailing ability and teaching ability.  The CYA Instructor Training Program is extremely demanding because of the importance the CYA places on the professional instructor.  Only these instructors are empowered to teach to the CYA system and certify their students.

All of this quality control is designed to ensure that a student can be confident that he or she will receive quality instruction at any CYA school.  The benefits of certification are immediately obvious.  The CYA system has eight primary levels of student certification.  The newcomer begins at the CYA Basic Cruising Standard.  All standards have a written exam that tests the student at the appropriate level.  All standards, except the two navigation levels, require a practical on-the-water checkout too.  The ashore and afloat requirements for each standard are outlined in the CYA Log Book.

There is always more for a sailor to learn and the upper level standards provide a goal and a measure of the sailor's ability.  CYA certification is recognized at over 170 sailing clubs and charter companies in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Many offer rental/charter discounts to sailors who are certified above the Basic Coastal Cruising level.  The sailor's official CYA Log Book provides proof of ability that can make charter check-outs easier and less time-consuming.

For the experienced sailor, ask if you can simply pass the written and the sailing requirements of the desired standard with an instructor aboard. This enables the experienced sailor to become certified without having to take a full course at a school.