Learning the Ropes with Red Cap

Watching someone sail in or out of some far-flung port is always quite captivating - it looks like an amazing way to travel. As long term boat dwellers we’ve both been meaning to try sailing for a while. Finding the wind and trimming the sails kind of sailing, not the lounging about in a powerboat driving too fast for the wildlife kind.

Gez had been doing a bit of dinghy sailing (aka boom peeping) in Devon with a few good friends recently, but I had zero relevant boat-based experience before we hit the water (well, other than an intimate knowledge of bilges and dodgy pipework, which turns out came in surprisingly handy).

Signing up for five days at sea with one instructor, a few strangers and very restricted living quarters may not sound like your idea of fun but most of you have met us already, right?

Red Cap Sailing in Langkawi was almost on our way to Singapore from Laos so we decided that this is the year to finally get on with it all, to seize the fire horse by the mane and make some radical changes.

Red Cap founder and our instructor for the week Keith Miller is probably best described as a tall Scottish sailing Yoda. The ways of the wind are strong with this one.

Keith’s sagely and consistently calm sailing advice is best not ignored, he knows these waters and really likes sailing both his boats in them.

We learn more than we hoped to in the first week, and had a lot of fun, so shortly after getting back to land we book ourselves in for a second week of mile building.

Keith only very rarely speaks in a slightly raised voice and only really if you’ve been daft enough to do the complete opposite of what he has very clearly and gently suggested will work.

If anyone else has a dram of a dream of being their own skipper one day, we can highly recommend Red Cap as a great place to start.The waters around Langkawi and southern Thailand are a pretty spectacular place to do it too.

It is safe to say that we may find ourselves back here fairly soon to tick some more RYA boxes.

We were a bit too busy to focus on taking photos, but here are a few...

Dolphins:

The one that got away - a White-bellied Sea Eagle catchng a Garfish/Needlefsh, for a while.

Fuel boat:

The ugliest boat in Asia:

Alive - Australian race yacht, recently suffered a lightning strike to the mast, was being carefully repaired in Langkawi marina, back ou just in time for the Langkawi Regatta 2026.

Langkawi Regatta:

It looks better when you can hardly see it:

Fast-food for the local eagles: