SailCoach’s Malta SailBase
For over the last decade, Malta has been a top training venue for both ILCA and Optimist sailors, thanks to its excellent sailing conditions and first-class facilities. This Mediterranean island was a natural choice for SailCoach, operating out of the Royal Malta Yacht Club. With a thriving local sailing community and world-renowned regattas such as the Rolex Middle Sea Race, Optimist Euromed, ILCA Europa Cup, and ILCA Masters Regatta, Malta has become a key hub for international sailing.
Our Malta SailBase offers year-round training, providing the perfect environment for sailors to fast-track their development. The island’s unique geography allows for warm air temperatures, sea sailing with waves, and flat-water conditions inside its harbours, catering to a variety of training needs. With a focus on sailing and fitness, our programs help athletes maximize their training time and improve their performance.
Regardless of your ILCA rig or age, all ILCA sailors are welcome to join our programmes. SailCoach has always fostered a strong community where sailors train together, push each other forward, and build lifelong friendships. Our Malta SailBase serves as a meeting point for professional coaches and athletes, where experiences are shared and skills are refined.
While Malta has long been famous for the offshore classic Rolex Middle Sea Race, since SailCoach’s arrival, it has also become a leading destination for dinghy sailing. Today, more sailors than ever come to Malta to experience its ideal combination of sea, wind, and warm weather, making it the ultimate year-round training base.
Why Malta
- A northwest wind (the most common): An offshore breeze that creates shifty conditions and flat water, ideal for tactical and technical training.
- A Northeast wind: A stronger breeze that generates large waves, perfect for developing boat handling and fitness in challenging conditions.
- A northwest wind (the most common): An offshore breeze that creates shifty conditions and flat water, ideal for tactical and technical training.
- A Northeast wind: A stronger breeze that generates large waves, perfect for developing boat handling and fitness in challenging conditions.
From our gallery
Getting to Malta
Malta, being a country in its own right, gives it the extra advantage of having its own airlines. Air Malta and Malta Air (a subsidiary of Ryanair) both service most European cities and the island is also served well by the low-cost carriers year-round. Malta also has twice daily flights from Istanbul and a daily flight from Dubai and Doha connecting many other parts of the world to this little sailing gem in the Mediterranean.
The airport’s name is Malta International Airport (MLA) and is also known as Luqa Airport located 6 km southwest of the Maltese capital Valletta (please note there is only one airport serving the whole of the Maltese Islands). We make airport transfers from Malta airport between the hours of 8 am and 9 pm, so please try and plan your arrival/departure between these times. Outside of these times, it will be necessary for you to arrange your own transport. The White Taxi Company has a desk to the left of the arrivals hall, and the fare to the SailCoach hotel is approximately €20. There is also the Bolt taxi company and you may be advised to download their app during your stay, as they have the most competitive fares on the island.
To help our staff plan ahead we would greatly appreciate you making every effort to arrive at the SailBase the day before your clinic starts and leave the day after it finishes.
Climate Data
Where will you be staying
SailCoach has a number of accommodation options from self-catering apartments to hotel accommodation. Therefore, during your time at our Malta SailBase, you will have a choice as to where you stay. For the older sailors, we have hostel-style accommodation in nearby apartments within walking distance of the SailBase.
If young sailors are accompanied by their parents we recommend that they stay in a local hotel or apartment. We have some discounted rates from the ST Hotel Group for the following hotels in the Sliema neighbourhood, all within walking distance of our SailBase. The town of Sliema is one of the central tourist districts with good shopping, restaurants etc. The hotels we use are the Azur Hotel and Bayview Hotel, and there is the Blubay Apartment Hotel also in the ST Group, which you’re also able to book. You can get a discount code from the SailCoach office when booking any of these hotels or apartments. Please have a look at their website at the link below.
Where is the Malta SailBase located and what facilities does it provide?
SailBase Malta is located at the Royal Malta Yacht Club in the town of Ta Xbiex, approximately 1km along the promenade from the ST hotels. No transportation is provided between the two places, sailors tend to walk or jog to and from the club. You have access to the club changing facilities, unlimited use of the gym, wifi internet and a lecture room at our Royal Malta Yacht Club base. There are a number of restaurants in the neighbourhood of SailBase where sailors can choose for lunch each day. The SailBase also has a small, but well equipped gym that sailors are welcome to use during their stay.
