Sailing

Sailing
Released		19 November 2025 (Update)
Members		Yes
Type		Utility
Statistics
Players with 99		94,045 as of 1 August 2026 - update
Players with 200M XP		216 as of 4 August 2026 - update

Sailing is a members-only skill that allows players to captain a boat and sail the seas of Gielinor. Released on 19 November 2025, it is the only skill exclusive to Old School RuneScape.

To start training Sailing, players must complete the quest Pandemonium. Players can buy boats and build facilities on them, such as cannons to fight monsters at sea and trawling nets to trawl for fish. Players train Sailing through various activities such as port tasks, sea charting, shipwreck salvaging, and Barracuda Trials. Players may encounter ocean encounters and can hire and assign crewmates to operate facilities.

Players can dock their boats at designated docking points, which include islands with resources that are accessible exclusively through Sailing, as well as access to training methods for different skills (such as coral farming, crab trapping, and lantern harpooning). Gathered items can be used to upgrade boats and make food, potions, and blowpipes.

The first step in training the Sailing skill is completing the Pandemonium quest. The quest can be started by talking to Will and Anne on the docks of Port Sarim. The quest will teach the player how to sail a boat, dock at a port, and perform other basic gameplay tasks. Upon completing this quest, players are rewarded with their first boat, a raft, and a Captain's log. After the quest, players can board their raft through the gangplank found on the east dock of The Pandemonium.

Starting out, Sailing can be trained with sea charting and low level courier tasks, which can be accepted from the notice boards at most ports. Level 15 Sailing unlocks the next rank of boat, the skiff, as well as shipwreck salvaging.

Sailing changes player navigation significantly from the typical point-and-click gameplay throughout the rest of the game. After obtaining and boarding your first boat at a gangplank at any port, the player's Combat Options tab is replaced with the Sailing Options interface, detailing useful information about the currently boarded vessel such as its name, facilities, stats, and crewmates.

Players can move around the deck of their boat normally as they would, but to begin sea navigation, players must click the helm at the back of their boat. Whilst navigating a boat, a white arrow will appear around the player's boat in the direction of their cursor which can be clicked to set the boat's intended direction. Once a direction has been decided and the boat has rotated to point in that direction, movement can be commenced by adjusting the boat's speed using the up and down arrows in the boat's navigation interface, even allowing players to move in reverse. Toggling the set/un-set sails button immediately starts or stops boat movement.

Whilst sailing, gusts of wind will appear around the sails of a boat allowing players to trim them within 12 seconds and receive a boost of speed. If a wind catcher has been built on a player's vessel, the Sailing experience upon trimming the sails is reduced by 25%, and a wind mote is generated; releasing a wind mote grants the speed boost as well as 40 Sailing experience (70 experience with a gale catcher), increasing the overall experience provided by trimming sails.

• Sailing without the sails set
• Sailing with sails set
• You feel a gust of wind while sailing
• You trim the sails, catching the wind for a burst of speed!
• 
  Interface showing remaining time until sails can be trimmed on the Official Client.
• 
  Interface when boost for trimming sail is active on the Official Client.
• 
  Interface when time to trim the sails on the Official Client.

Players can navigate anywhere they want on the ocean, though they must be careful of sailing hazards, which will damage the player's boat if they do not have the proper protection against it. The game will prevent players from sailing past the game boundaries, with a message informing the players they cannot progress if they attempt to do so.

Other players may board a player's boat in a manner similar to how player owned houses can be entered by people on their friends list.

Boats are the core method of travel in Sailing, and each player must own a boat to train and use the skill. Different types of boats have different Sailing level requirements to obtain and use. All boats have a base number of hitpoints, which can be improved through upgrading the hull. The required levels are not boostable.

Boats can be customised by talking with a shipwright at a large port. Upgrading your boat's core parts requires upgrade materials such as planks, nails, and cloth of various tiers, and will award players with Construction experience. Boats can be customised to players' specific needs depending on the activities they wish to do, with different facilities benefiting and enabling different sailing activities.

Broadly speaking:

• A raft is tiny, simple to upgrade and very cheap to teleport around for quick access to sailing in any port. But it is quite fragile and has only a single hotspot for either the cargo hold, or other facilities.
• A skiff is fast and mobile, with enough space and several facilities more than sufficient for exploring.
• A sloop is large and sturdy, with numerous hotspots for multiple seafaring activities and well-equipped for combat. It is, however, hugely expensive to upgrade or retrieve, and cannot fit in certain small spaces.

It's a good idea to own all three boat types when available, since the skiff is required for Barracuda Trials, only the raft can access certain locations for sea charting, and the sloop is a noticeable upgrade in terms of storage space and efficiency of combat, salvaging and sea trawling.

Gielinor has nine oceans: the Ardent, Unquiet, Shrouded, Western, Northern, Sunset, Forgotten, Untamed, and Eastern Oceans. Players typically start by sailing the Ardent Ocean. Oceans are divided into seas. For example, the Ardent Ocean is divided into the Bay of Sarim, Mudskipper Sound, the Kharidian Sea, and more. Some seas are hazardous, limiting player access, but some hazards' effects can be prevented with shipbuilding thereby granting players access. The Ardent, Unquiet, Shrouded, Western and Northern Oceans, and parts of the Sunset Ocean, are accessible. The Forgotten, Untamed, and Eastern Oceans, and parts of the Sunset Ocean, are currently inaccessible because they are hazardous and those hazards' effects cannot currently be prevented.

Docking points are placed on various islands and landmasses to embark and dock your boat. There are 56 docking points accessible with associated level requirements to dock at them. Most docking points generally have several facilities. Developed cities and settlements such as Port Sarim and Deepfin Point are more likely to have more facilities, such as notice boards, ledger tables, and Salvaging stations. Remote locations, such as small settlements, are likely to have some facilities missing, while obscure locations, such as unsettled islands, will only have a docking and mooring point.

While most docking points only have a level requirement, a few also have quest requirements in order to utilise facilities in the area. For example, a player can dock at Port Tyras after completing Regicide, but will be unable to utilise its notice board until Song of the Elves is completed.

There are 27 islands unlockable through Sailing where players can dock their boats. After docking at an island for the first time, some islands have alternative transportation options available such as spirit trees and fairy rings. These islands feature rocks, trees, chests, and Slayer monsters, and activities that are exclusively accessed by training Sailing.

After building cannons on their boats, players fight sea monsters such as sharks, monodons, krakens, and more. To engage in combat with a sea monster, the monster must be positioned within 180-degrees of the cannon. Players can engage in combat up to 15 tiles; players who are too far away will receive the message, I can't reach that!. Upon engaging in combat, the player's hitpoints are replaced with the health of the boat. If the player successfully lands a hit on the sea monster, the player will receive a scaled amount of Sailing experience, depending on the amount of damage dealt to the monster. Players can repair their rafts/boats with repair kits, restoring some or all of the raft or boat's health during combat. However, if the raft or boat loses its entire health, the player(s) and crewmate(s) will be teleported to their set respawn dock point. This is set by clicking the "dock" option on the nearest buoy on their selected pier.

Unique drops include the echo pearl from orcas, swift albatross feathers from albatross, the narwhal horn from narwhal, ray barbs from various rays, the broken dragon hook from great white shark, and the bottled storm from armoured and vampyre krakens. These unique drops are used to build various facilities including the fathom pearl, gale catcher, chum spreader, cotton and hemp trawling nets, dragon salvaging hook, and greater teleport focus.

Should the player's hitpoints reach zero while on a boat for any reason, the player's gravestone will be located at the last gangplank they set sail from. It is important to note that if the player sets sail from an island that only has a mooring point and not a gangplank, their gravestone will be at the previous gangplank instead. The gangplank the player respawns at persists through sessions.

Should the boat the player is riding on have its hitpoints reach zero, their boat will capsize. The player will be transported to the last gangplank they set sail from and will keep their inventory. Capsizing is safe for hardcore ironman accounts. Please be aware capsizing will not cure poison, venom, or disease.

If a player dies on their boat while at sea, a boat capsizes, or a player teleports from their boat while at sea, all courier crates, bounty items, shipwreck salvage, trawling fish, and fish-filled crates will be lost from the cargo hold. Other items such as cannonballs, repair kits, fish offcuts, and empty fish crates will be kept.

Port tasks is a low to medium-intensity, medium xp/hr activity where players complete tasks obtained from notice boards located at various ports. These tasks are divided between courier tasks, which involve delivering cargo between two designated ports, and bounty tasks (unlocked at level 30), which involve handing in a certain quantity of an untradeable item from killing sea creatures.

Completing any port task awards the player with Sailing experience, coins, and occasionally resources such as shark paint. These tasks can be cancelled at any time. Players may initially only have one active task, but this number increases at higher levels:

Sea charting involves performing bespoke tasks in various parts of the sea and is intended to have players explore Gielinor's oceans and reward them with once-off experience for doing so. These tasks vary from simple exploration to puzzles and even data collection, many of which require specific tools to complete. Most charting tools can be collected from your boat's cargo hold or from the associated task NPC, other than the crowbar and current duck, which are rewarded upon completion of the quest Prying Times and Current Affairs, respectively.

Rewards include bonus sailing XP and unlocking rapids that allow faster travel for completely charting seas and entire oceans. Additionally, after charting certain numbers of seas, players can speak to Charles in Pandemonium Cave to obtain ales with special effects. These ales can be stored in a keg on a boat for additional effects.

Salvaging is a low-intensity, low xp/hr gathering activity in Sailing where players will move adjacent to sunken shipwrecks across the ocean, deploy their salvaging hooks, and collect resources for small amounts of Sailing experience. Salvage collected comes in several varieties and can be added to your boat's cargo hold if the facility has been built. Salvaging hooks themselves come in various metal tiers, with associated Sailing level requirements which allow for gathering at higher tier locations and with greater success.

Salvage range is 7 tiles from the edge of the shipwreck and based on the location of the salvage hook. Because some wrecks are less than 14 tiles apart these areas allow salvaging from two wrecks in one spot. This does not increase loot, but reduces having to move your boat around.

Once collected, salvage can be automatically sorted and processed into items at a salvaging station found at most ports or a salvaging station aboard your boat. This process awards some token experience and returns potentially useful or valuable items.

Barracuda Trials is a high-intensity, high xp/hr race-against-the-clock activity where players navigate obstacle courses at sea to deliver rum and lost supplies to the Barracudas as quickly as possible. Each completion grants a chunk of Sailing experience, offering the highest xp/hr for Sailing currently.

There are three Barracuda Trials: The Tempor Tantrum unlocked at level 30, The Jubbly Jive unlocked at level 55, and The Gwenith Glide unlocked at level 72. Each trial has three ranks of difficulty (Swordfish, Shark, and Marlin), with increasingly strict time limits and collection requirements. The first completion of each tier awards additional bonus Sailing experience and unlocks the ability to attempt the subsequent tier. Your fastest completion time and achieved ranks are tracked by the scoreboard.

Rewards include the stormy, fetid and serrated keys, Ralph's, Gurtob's and Gwyna's fabric rolls, a barrel stand, captured wind mote, and heart of ithell. A barrel stand is required to build a keg, a captured wind mote is required to build a wind catcher and gale catcher, and a heart of ithell is used to build a crystal extractor.

Deep sea trawling is high-intensity, high gp/hr hybrid Fishing and Sailing activity, where players fish at trawling shoals using their boat's trawling nets. Deep sea trawling for marlin is currently one of the highest earning skilling activities in OSRS.

The first step to deep sea trawling is to track down a shoal of fish. Trawling shoals are found in places indicated by an icon on the world map. Optionally, players can also use a fathom stone or fathom pearl facility. The stone gives a general direction, whereas the pearl gives a hint arrow directly over the shoal.

Optionally, after tracking down a shoal, players can spread fish offcuts or fine fish offcuts from a chum station, advanced chum station, or chum spreader facility. This increases catch effectiveness and the rate at which shoals disperse.

The next step is to sail the boat over a shoal and deploy a trawling net while keeping the boat aligned with the shoal as it moves. Trawling nets can be operated by the captain, another player, or a crewmate.

Fish collect in the net and can be sent to the cargo hold or the player's inventory. These fish can be cooked into foods (some with additional effects), and some can also be used as Herblore secondaries.

Ocean encounters are a variety of NPCs that appear at random to interact with players while they are sailing. Rewards include eleven pearls ranging in size from tiny to radiant, which are listed in the collection log.

Players may recruit crewmates to their boats, then assign them a role on boat. Players must first talk to the crewmate on land then players must talk to the Crew Registrar to assign the unlocked crewmate to an open slot in their boat. Crewmates have varying levels of helmsmanship, privateering, and deckhandiness. For example, Jobless Jim is unlocked at level 40 Sailing and has +2 helmsmanship, +1 privateering, and +3 deckhandiness, while Adventurer Ada is unlocked at level 55 and has +3 helmsmanship, +2 privateering, and +1 deckhandiness. Different types of boats and rafts have their own facility slots, so players will need to prioritise their crew to best fit the player's needs.

Soup is a skilling pet that can be obtained while training Sailing. In addition, the Fishing skilling pet, the Heron, can be obtained through the hybrid Fishing/Sailing method, deep sea trawling.

Players can not boost sailing to access islands beyond their non-boosted skill level.

Players can boost the Sailing skill to recruit higher-level crewmates (providing other requirements are met), perform sea charting, or build higher-tier facilities and core boat parts. However, players cannot boost to dock at mooring points.

If boosting to build an active facility (cannons, salvaging hooks, trawling nets, and chum stations), the boost must be maintained in order for the player or crewmates to keep using it. Core boat parts as well as support facilities (ex: the cargo hold, salvaging station, crystal extractor, etc) can still be used below the minimal level. However, only the owner of a boat can trim sails that they do not have the level to use, and any other player on the boat without the level requirement will have to use boosts to be able to trim the sails.

Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Sailing. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest.

Sailing was originally proposed as a skill to players in August of 2015 in a Dev Blog. The skill was to consist of three main activities: ship building, navigation, and exploration, and was said to be available to free-to-play.^[1]

A fresh proposal was later made on 27 March 2023 alongside two other potential skills, Taming and Shamanism. Sailing earned the plurality of votes compared to the other two proposed skills, and then passed a poll to be added to the game, with 71.9% of players voting in favour of it.

After having been initially shown off at RuneFest 2025, Sailing's first Open Tech Alpha was made available to all members in the March 2025 Sailing Alpha. Another preview, the June 2025 Sailing Beta, ran from 26 June to 3 July 2025. The final limited preview of the skill was the August 2025 Sailing Stress Test.

On 24 October 2025, Sailing's release date was officially announced. The new skill was released on 19 November 2025. On 25 January 2026, at the Winter Summit 2026, Jagex revealed the Sailing roadmap for 2026.

• Sailing/Experience table, a list of all Sailing experience sources
• Sailing/Level up table, a list of all requirements and unlockables within the Sailing skill

• The first player to achieve level 99 in this skill was AsianGrinder on 23 November 2025, within only four days of the skill being released. The first player to achieve 200 million experience in this skill was FasT 07 on 6 January 2026. The first player to achieve level 99 in this skill as an ironman was Alfie.
• The 2014 April Fools day event featured the "release" of the Sailing skill. Near Draynor Village, players could ride in one of three different boats to a single island where they would meet one of several NPCs before returning back. Players could only gain up to 5,000 Sailing experience, as going past that would result in their experience resetting back to 0.

v t e Skills
Combat	Attack Strength Defence Ranged Prayer Magic Hitpoints
Gathering	Farming Fishing Hunter Mining Woodcutting
Production	Cooking Crafting Fletching Herblore Runecraft Smithing
Utility	Agility Construction Firemaking Sailing Slayer Thieving
Proposed skills	Artisan Warding Taming Sailing (2015 proposal) Shamanism
Related	Experience Skill mastery 200 million experience Summoning

v t e Sailing
Features	Shipbuilding Raft Skiff Sloop Facilities Mooring point Boat combat Ocean encounters Sailing hazards Crew Management Strategies Sailing Options
Oceans	Ardent Unquiet Eastern Shrouded Western Northern Untamed Forgotten Sunset
Activities	Port tasks Courier tasks Bounty tasks Shipwreck salvaging Sea charting Barracuda Trials Deep sea trawling
Items	Boat paints Lost schematics Ocean encounter pearls Sea treasures (Medallion of the deep) Miscellaneous (Boat bottle) Sailing cape (hood) Repair kits Salvage
Rewards	Unlockable islands Coral farming Crab trapping Lantern harpooning Crab dance
Quests	Pandemonium Prying Times Current Affairs Troubled Tortugans The Red Reef Burial at Sea Rocking Out
Development	March 2025 Sailing Alpha June 2025 Sailing Beta August 2025 Sailing Stress Test
Italicised content is under development and has not been released.