Orkney Sailing Club is suitable for beginners. The club offers adult beginner dinghy sailing courses through the RYA National Sailing Scheme, normally aiming for Level 2 during spring/summer, and RYA lists beginner dinghy and youth courses for the club.
Training
The club is an RYA training centre offering practical sailing, powerboat, shore-based and interactive online courses. The club says courses are organised to suit demand and provides adult and junior sail training registration links.
Orkney Sailing Club is the main Kirkwall sailing club and an RYA training centre, offering dinghy sailing, handicap racing, courses, regatta hosting and visiting-yacht support from The Girnel.
The club describes an informal route for newcomers: members are usually willing to take new members as crew and give them a taste of sailing. Facebook search results also show Try-a-Sail activity in 2025, but those dated sessions are stale and should not be treated as current scheduled availability.
Junior and family participation is supported. The club lists youth beginner sailing courses, junior sail training registration, and junior and family membership categories.
Access· Unclear
No current club page reviewed gave practical accessibility information such as step-free access, adapted sailing, Sailability, accessible toilets, parking, or support for specific access needs. A 2025 council document discusses inclusive/community access in general terms, but it does not confirm specific visitor accessibility facilities.
Costs
Costs, membership, and boats
Prices
Membership prices are published: Senior GBP 60, Family GBP 90, Junior GBP 20, Student GBP 20, Pensioner GBP 20, Social GBP 35, and Associate GBP 35. Some online course prices are also shown, including PPR at GBP 39 and Marine Radio SRC at GBP 135, but full practical sailing course pricing was not found.
Go Sail and local Orkney sources describe OSC as Orkney's biggest sailing club, an RYA training centre based at The Girnel in Kirkwall, with RYA-approved courses, instructors and club-owned Wayfarers/Picos.
The club says it uses club-owned Wayfarers and Picos for instruction and that these boats are often used by past students on racing nights. However, no reviewed current source clearly states public boat hire, visitor hire, member hire terms, or hire prices, so boat hire availability should not be inferred.
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