ISSA courses

ISSA Rescue Skipper

Train with the International Sailing Schools Association (ISSA) and elevate your maritime skills with specialized rescue and safety expertise. The Rescue Skipper programme combines rigorous theory and hands-on practice in first aid, distress communications, and sea rescue techniques, equipping you to confidently manage emergencies, protect lives, and lead with authority on board. Whether you’re advancing toward professional instruction or enhancing your skipper capabilities, this course prepares you for real-world challenges on the water.
image of certificate sample

The Rescue Skipper Instructor programme is the first in the series of professional programmes for Instructors, Skippers, Yachtsmen and women.

The candidates for the instructor course undergo a selection process where they are verified in both physical and psychological terms.
Endurance training: swimming – 1000 m, having the injured on a tow – 100 m, staying on the water surface – 15 minutes, swimming in ABC equipment (dive mask, snorkel and fins) – 500 m, swimming underwater – 15 m, recovering items from up to 5 m depth.

Course guidelines:
Theory and practice, accident scenarios:

1. Training session: providing first aid, recovery position, protective barriers, automated external defibrillator (AED) use, providing first oxygen aid; practice.

2. Training session: providing auxiliary medical assistance, what to do in the case of bleeding, shock, spinal injury, seasickness, dehydration, sunstroke, choking, limb fracture; practice.

3. Training session: radiotelephonic communications’ rules, distress communications, urgency communications; practice.

4. Rescue session: safety measures, life protection measures, securing measures.
Development of the skills of using:
• Safety belt, life harness, buoyancy aid.
• Tying lifeline, making safety harness with a rope, tying bowline knot.
• Life ring, safety cord.
• Safety rope, danbuoy.

5. Practical skills development session:
• Practice: man overboard, manoeuvre under sail under power.
• Practice: man overboard, getting an unconscious person out of water, using life protection devices.
• Practice: getting a panicked person out of water, freeing techniques, using life

The programme was developed by Kris Buczek (TT00568), the ISSA Trainer

For inquiries, please contact: issa@sailingschools.org