Port Edgar Marina & Sailing School

In the spirit of trying new things this year I decided to give sailing a go and signed up to a RYA Level One beginner’s course in dinghy sailing at Port Edgar. I spent a chunk of my childhood summers faffing about in boats on the west coast but I’ve never sailed before so everything was very new to me.
After getting signed in for the course at the office we met our instructor for the course, Brett, at the boat house who explained what we would be doing over the weekend. With that I was handed some waterproofs and a buoyancy aid and told to get ready for heading out on the water. The changing rooms at the Marina are REALLY warm. This is excellent as I hate being cold and when you come in off the water soaking wet and freezing cold a blast of warm air out of the changing room door is very welcoming indeed. I got a bit caught out by the lockers here, you only need a 20p to use them, I’m more used to needing 50p and £1 coins for lockers these days.
There are 2 cafes to eat at one site for lunch or snacks. Soup and tea are great for warming you back up again after being out in the cold and they have home made cakes too!
If you’re taking a training course the cost of equipment hire for things like wet suits and water proofs are included. (Though pray they don’t hand you a wet suit at this time of year as its a long walk from the dock to the changing rooms in a soaked freezing cold wetsuit.) The water proofs were actually lovely and warm and I only had to contend with cold face, hands and feet with those on… definitely my preferred choice of sailing wear.
The instructors were really helpful and patient with a complete beginner like me and didn’t even laugh at me falling over in the boat constantly. I would say though that if you dont feel comfortable doing something definitely say. There is a bit of a ‘boys’ mentality to the trainers who are probably more used to training guys as opposed to petrified girls like me so there was an element of getting thrown in at the deep end. You learn LOADS this way but you may come away feeling slightly shell shocked at the end of the first day (most courses run over 2 days at the weekend.)
Actually getting out in a boat is obviously dependent on the weather. I’m not sure what the score is with cancelations as I was able to get my RYA certificate after one days sailing even though we couldn’t sail on the Sunday. You should definitely ask when you book if you get a refund or reschedule if they have to cancel due to the weather

I went on a sailing course at Port Edgar two years ago. The staff were great; friendly and helpful.
The sailing school offers a large number of courses, from the weekend small sailing wayfayer courses to navigation exams and powerboat courses.
The school has decent facilities, with showers, toilets and changing areas to change into dry clothes after you have fallen in the forth.
The school provides you with everything you need (including lovely fishermen yellow waterproofs — very fetching!) It’s great value for money and a place to have some fun.