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[GIM Eby]

Sailing Guide

 

 

Introduction

 

Sailing is a skill that lets you captain a boat and sail the seas of Gielinor. Alora released Sailing on September 5th 2026 and was the first RSPS in the world to implement Sailing. As of Sept 13th 2026, Alora has all aspects of Sailing implemented except ship combat, crew recruitment, and fishing via trawling. To start training sailing, you visit a shipwright at one of 17 Shipwright locations in Gielinor starting out with Shipwright Sam in Port Sarim because the Port Sarim port is the first (and only) port open while you are level 1 Sailing.

 

Contents

• Introduction
• Why Sail?
• Ship Types
• Shipwrights
• Gathering initial planks and nails
• Resource location spoilers
• Starting off at level 1 Sailing
• The 4 ways to gain Sailing exp
• Ship customization
• Solutions to roadblocks you might come across
• FAQ
• Useful links

 

 

Why Sail?

• Sailing increased OSRS's playable map area by roughly 190%, making the playable world about 2.9x its former size -- nearly 3 times as large.
• Sailing added 27 dockable islands, with new trees, new rocks, fishing spots, thieving chests, slayer creatures, farming patches, and activities.
• Many millions of additional tiles to travel across, chart and explore.
• 7 new herblore products:
  • Armadyl brew: Overheals Hitpoints and boosts Ranged while draining Attack, Strength, Defence and Magic; it effectively serves as a Ranged-oriented counterpart to a Saradomin brew.
  • Anti-odour salt: Automatically smokes a Hunter trap while placing it, increasing its catch rate by 2%.
  • Haemostatic dressing: Removes bleed and heals 5 Hitpoints when it successfully stops bleeding.
  • Super fishing potion: Boosts Fishing by +6.
  • Extreme energy potion: Restores 40% run energy per dose.
  • Super hunter potion: Boosts Hunter by +6.
  • Extended stamina potion: Restores 40% run energy and reduces depletion by 70% for four minutes; it also supplies two Ring of Endurance charges per dose.
• Lots of new and better skilling methods
• More and better boats
• Additional ports and task boards
• Island Transportation unlocks including fairy rings or sometimes rowboats, usually unlocked by visiting the island
• 99 Sailing is required for Max Cape
• Skip 5 quests by doing Sailing on Alora Instead of OSRS
• Making a party boat and sailing friends around on it :)

 

Utility Items

• A Sailors Amulet which provides 4 new teleports to Port Roberts, Deepfin Point, The Pandemonium, and Red Rock.
• Medallion of the deep: assembled from eight fragments hidden around Sailing islands; allows underwater travel without a fishbowl helmet and diving apparatus, except in Fossil Island’s underwater area.

 

For the Skillers

• Coral Farming
• Crab Trapping
• Thieving chests
• High level trees
• New ores, bars, and cannonball types

 

For the Explorers

• Ocean navigation
• Hidden islands
• Underwater areas
• New ports
• Nearly three times the former playable surface

 

For the PvM players

• Belle's Folly - a 5 tick rapier requiring lvl 65 attack, being the stab equivalent of the Zombie Axe.
• Aquanite Hopper - the second best ranged offhand. Best still is the Twisted Buckler from COX.
• Potions already mentioned above and the new fish (foods) mentioned later below.
• New Slayer encounters

 

For the profit-seeking players

• Coral runs
• High-level fish (on release)
• New wood
• Slayer uniques
• Salvage and bounty drops

There are many new moneymakers. For example, I've made between 3 billion and 4 billion GP so far this week (Sept 5th - Sept 12th) from selling either dragon metal sheets or dragon nails from camping Ice Dragons (87 sailing required) to 5 wealthy players. Dragon cannons barrels afk salvaging, new tree seeds, hemp or cotton, new logs, new planks, new ores, new bars, Armadyl potions, extended stamina potions, are all worth a good deal. I spent 150m on one of the first dragon cannon barrels (likely worth 200m+) at the TP even though ship combat hasn't been released yet and I also spent 250m on 100 ironwood logs at the ship customization shipyard on day 2 of release because I was far far away and didn't have a tele back. Lots of big money there for some people.

 

For the Completionists

• 27 islands
• Charting objectives which unlock all the brews (beers) on your boat
• Collection Log items
• Cosmetics, especially the sets from the 3 barracuda trials. The Barracuda trials are timed boat racing obstacle courses.
• 2 new pets. Rolled while performing Sailing activities such as courier tasks, charting, salvaging, or killing the Shellbane Gryphon.
• 99 Sailing cape has Boat Teleport to summon your boat and it can teleport you to the Pandemonium too.
• Perhaps Museum finds?

 

Later when released

• Ship combat letting players fight ocean creatures and complete bounty tasks while earning sailing & ranged exp.
• The best fish and food in the game:
  • Haddock: Heals 18 and can overheal by up to 10 Hitpoints, depending on base Hitpoints.
  • Yellowfin: Heals 19 and restores 20% run energy.
  • Halibut: Heals 20.
  • Bluefin: Heals 22 and restores 5 Prayer points, making it the only food that heals and restores prayer.
  • Marlin: Heals 24 immediately, making it the strongest immediate-healing single-bite food.
  • Giant krill: Heals 17.
  • Swordtip/jumbo squid: Obtained through lantern harpooning; jumbo squid heals 17 and can yield squid beaks or paste for other rewards.
  • Crab meat: Red, blue and rainbow crabs provide food or can be processed into potion ingredients; rainbow crab meat heals 19.1.
• New blowpipes for mostly early-game & mid-game ironmen covering the 45, 55 and 65 Ranged tiers. They do not require scales or other charges.
• Rubium & Incendiary cannonballs to apply an OP bleed effect on sea monsters.

 

 

Ship Types

• Raft - a tiny boat with 1 facility hotspot and space for 2 players. Cost: Free, included. Available at lvl 1 sailing. Not recommended.
• Skiff - a small speed-boat with 7 facility hotspots and space for 5 players. Cost: 50k gp. Requires lvl 15 sailing. Recommended.
• Sloop - a medium sized boat with 11 facility hotspots and space for 11 players. Cost: 200k gp. Requires lvl 50 sailing. Not recommended.

All boats go the speed set by the hull and sails. Raft can navigate between the smallest barriers, however I haven't found any barriers a Skiff couldn't go through. Sloop sometimes doesn't fit but makes a good party boat when you add a keg and some beer glasses in the cargo hold.

 

My Tip: ignore/abandon raft & sloop and go all-in on the skiff from level 15 sailing to level 99 sailing.

• Reason 1: You can currently only have 1 active salvaging hook on your boat anyways regardless of boat type.
• Reason 2: Skiff is the only boat that can attempt the Barracuda Trials.
• Reason 3: Skiff has tighter turning radius and can fit through narrower spots than the larger sloop.

IMO, Sloop-building and raft-building are currently for when you're level 99 sailing and are bored. Sloop is 5x the wood of a skiff. Counterpoint: Sloop would be better for ship combat & fish trawling but neither exist in game yet anyhow.

 

 

Shipwrights

A Shipwright is an NPC that will let you buy a boat, customize a boat, or recover your boat with a ship by teleporting it back to you there.

• Early game: Shipwright Sam in Port Sarim is the recommended level 1 sailing starting point because the port tasks to and from Pandemonium, a nearby island, are available at level 1 sailing.
• Mid game: Shipwright Sasha in Lands End is my preferred mid-game shipwright due to the proximity to the Rada's Blessing 1 unlimited teleport. It's available at only lvl 5 sailing. If you don't have Rada's blessing 1, visit Catherby instead (lvl 20 sailing required).
• Late game: Finally at lvl 52 Sailing, the Shipwright in Red Rocks is my preferred late game shipwright "home base" all the way to 99 after you have unlocked the Sailors Amulet and travelled there.

At any point, you can teleport off of your boat, abandoning it at sea or at port, visit one of those 17 shipwrights, and recover it there for a fee of 250gp for your raft, 4,875 gp for your skiff, or 62500 gp for your sloop. Very cheap.

 

 

Gathering initial planks and nails

Bring 8 regular planks, 32 bronze nails, a hammer, and a saw to Port Sarim to begin training sailing because you need it to make a lvl 1 Sailing cargo hold on your raft to do port tasks. If you find a way to get to lvl 15 Sailing before even setting sail, you can buy a Skiff for 50k gp and it will already contain a basic cargo hold. But you will miss out on the newbie raft experience.

 

Later on, expect to use pretty much every kind of nail and plank, especially ironwood planks and rune bars (for rune nails).

 

Bronze nails, iron, and steel nails are best bought from a sawmill operator. One sawmill is in the Lumber Yard north-east of Varrock, another is in the Woodcutting Guild, a third in Prifddinas, and a fourth in Auburnvale. For planks you can cut regular trees for logs and take them to any of those operators, cast the Plank Make lunar spell on them (earth staff + natures + astrals + coins in your invy), or get planks as drops from undead lumberjacks, Armoured zombies, or Tempoross. In game you can see what monsters drop what by going to the Quest tab > Red Quest Tab > View Drop Searcher. My preferred plank method IMO is carrying around an axe and Plank-Make on-demand.

 

While sailing it's recommended you bring an axe and a pickaxe as your primary 2 items. Your secondary 2 wearable items can be Rada's blessing 1 (untradable) and a Sailors Amulet (untradable) when you get them. Regular/oak/teak/mahogany logs arguably don't get you into mid-game sailing. Camphor, Ironwood, and Rosewood logs are worth gathering when you see them because they are the 3 plank tiers higher than mahogany.

 

Resource Location Spoilers

Spoiler

• Pickaxe for mining lead at the Pandemonium cave, Nickel at Deepfin Point, and Rubium at the charred island dungeon.
• Axe for cutting Camphor at The Great Conch, Ironwood at Sunbleak Island, Rosewood at Drumstick Isle.

 

 

Starting Off at level 1 Sailing

You already have a lvl 1 raft so you dont need to buy one. But it doesn't have a cargo hold. Build a cargo hold in order to start cargo deliveries (port tasks). This requires 8 regular planks, 32 bronze nails, a saw, and a hammer. There is a box of hammers and saws at the customize boat island ("Shipyard"). Right click on Shipwright Sam or any other Shipwright and select Customize-boat. This will teleport you to the Shipyard. From there, there are 2 ways to upgrade your ship:

• Board the gangplank onto your ship and build/upgrade the facility spots there.
• Click Modify on the Boat Schematics board.

Then grab a task from the notice board, some cargo from the ledger table, and board the gangplank to your ship with it all, depositing it in your cargo hold. Sail to the destination your task was for (likely Pandemonium if you're starting in Port Sarim), and ship the cargo there. Congratulations, you are now a sailor.

 

 

Gaining Sailing EXP

There are pretty much 4 ways of training sailing. I ordered them from lowest exp per hour to highest exp per hour:

 

1) Exploring/adventuring all around the map

• Charting: This requires charting an object on land or by boat (mostly by boat), simply by interacting with it
• Collecting from your Crystal Generator facility
• Trimming your sails: for a speed boost
• Looking through your Spyglass: This requires sailing to a specific point, and using your spyglass (which can be obtained from the cargo hold) to get a good view of the area
• Opening crates with the crowbar in your cargo hold and drinking the usually unpleasant beverage inside them
• Current Duck following: release a current duck (found in their cargo hold) and follow it to its end point to chart the current
• Mermaid quizzes: answer a mermaid question in exchange for Sailing exp
• Weather pattern troll

In that order, ranked with charting being the most fun.

 

2) Salvaging - semi-AFK

• Some good rare loot including sailers medallion, dragon cannon barrel, cotton seeds, hemp seeds and other exclusive seeds, boat/facility bottles, coral frags
• See the Shipwreck salvaging wiki page for levels, loots, and locations.
• Less Exp per hour than Port Tasks or Barracuda trials but far more AFK.
• Requires a salvaging hook on your boat
• Doesn't really get AFK until you have a salvaging station on your boat.

 

3) Port Tasks - pretty chill

• Deliver cargo from one port to another.
• Select a task from the notice board, then pick up the boxes from the Ledger Table.
• Some people go all the way from lvl 1 to lvl 99 sailing doing pretty much only this. I'd rather mix it up though
• Start by having a cargo hold on your ship.

Gotchas

• For loads more than about 5 cargo, it takes 2 or more trips to your ship's cargo hold to gather it all.
• You may only have up to 3 active port tasks at a time.

Tips and tricks

• Improve the exp rate with a good hull so that your ship sails faster. Hull is usually the best first upgrade at any new tier.
• Between 3 to unlimited manual task refreshes in a day depending on your donor status. Automatic task refreshes every hour.
• Hover over the task to see where the delivery destination is and the amount of exp or exp per distance travelled you'll get.
• Don't sail to Port Piscarilius from Port Sarim or pandemonium because the distance is too far to be worth the travel.
• Very optional: Turn on Runelight > Port Tasks > Enable Tracer Overlay. Not recommended when you first sail out.

 

4) Barracuda Trials - high intensity

• For people who like Raids and challenges
• Huge exp for the time input: Pretty sure I got a 1.3m exp drop on my normy account Eby on my first completion of the highest tier 6-minute Prifddinas course. At least 1 player went to 200m Sailing exp mostly from 200 Gwenith Glide completions.
• Extra bonus exp for completing any course the first time.
• Barracuda trials can only be done on a SKIFF.

Unlocks

• The Tempor Tantrum
  • Swordfish: Stormy key
  • Shark: Barrel stand
  • Marlin: Ralph's fabric roll
• The Jubbly Jive
  • Swordfish: Fetid key
  • Shark: Captured wind mote
  • Marlin: Gurtob's fabric roll
• The Gwenith Glide
  • Swordfish: Serrated key
  • Shark: Heart of Ithell
  • Marlin: Gwyna's fabric roll

• The Swordfish-tier keys lead to good-looking cosmetic outfits. The Shark tier rewards all lead to useful ship upgrades. The Marlin tier rewards all lead to ship cosmetic attachments.
• Wind mote from Jubbly Jive basically lets you store wind from trimmed sails for later and Heart of Ithell from Gwenith Glide builds a crystal generator that regularly generates "wind motes" to boost speed on demand. The crystal generator does not generate crystals though, just stored wind speed boosts.
• Easy-mode tip is to look for a course map to follow online or to install a runelite plugin for them. I didn't use either though for the first 2 tiers of The Tempor Tantrum.
• The Tempor Tantrum requires 30 sailing, an iron helm, an oak mast to begin.
• Jubbly Jive requires 55 sailing and an inoculation station to begin.
• The Gwenith Glide requires 72 sailing and an adamant keel or better to begin.

 

 

Ship Customization

Modify Boat Schematics options

• Hull
• Keel
• Helm
• Sails
• Sail pattern (cosmetic)
• Trim (cosmetic)
• Flag (cosmetic)
• Brazier (requires 78 sailing and 72 construction)

Onboard boat facilities upgrades and additions

• Cargo Hold - required for port tasks
• Salvaging Hook - required when salvaging
• Rope Trawling Net - for fishing; currently not operational
• Range - cooking
• Keg - with various brews available. Gives various passive boosts
• Salvaging station - very useful; sort salvage without going back to port
• Wind Catcher or Gale Catcher - stores 2 or 3 wind mote speed boosts respectively
• Chum Station - for fishing; currently not operational
• Fathum Pearl - for fishing; currently not operational
• Cannon - for ship combat; currently not operational
• Teleport Focus / Greater Teleport focus - once you learn about the 17 shipwrights, this becomes seldom used. Pairs with 99 sailing cape though
• Crystal Extractor - generates wind speed boosts, not crystals
• Anchor - limited utility; often misclicked on due to location; not recommended

See Shipbuilding on the wiki for more info.

 

 

Solutions to Roadblocks You Might Come Across

• Inoculation Station upgrade: The Relicym balms can be bought from Shipwright Sam on the customize-ship Shipyard.
• Eternal Brazier upgrade: the urt, efhe, and te salts are unnecessary. Just bring the other ingredients instead: 4 ironwood planks, 16 rune nails, 6 runite bars, 6 cupronickel bars.
• Gale Catcher upgrade: the 5 Swift albatross feathers are unnecessary. Just bring the other ingredients after reading the Gale Catcher Schematic along with a Captured wind mote.
• Cargo hold tools: Your boat's cargo hold contains a Crowbar, Spyglass, Captain's Log, and Current Duck. Do remember to put them back in the cargo hold when you're done using them otherwise you'll be on your ship needing them when they're in your bank.
• Crystalizing helm: when gathering rosewood logs from Drumstick Isle near Prifddinas, click about 3-5 times on your helm to remove the crystallization and the damage it's causing you. Only 1 click needed to remove the crystallization with a dragon-tier helm.
• Gwenith Glide route: The best route to the 3rd tier Barracuda Trial (Gwenith Glide) is right along the north shore of Mynydd (Gwenith city), due east.
• Magic stones mostly only come from the Trading Post or ::store.
• Hardwood trees: Camphor, ironwood, and rosewood trees planted from rare seeds in hardwood farming patches do not grow back after being cut down. I assume either this is a bug that will be fixed or that cutting rosewood trees near a bank would way be too OP (since they're worth 750k-1m ea at the time of this writing).
• Low boat health: If your boat is low on health, especially if it has a dragon-nail-tier hull, it's cheaper to just sink it and use Shipwright recovery magic than repair-kit it.
• Grimstone: Sailing a friend to Grimstone, home of the frost dragons, requires everyone on the ship to have 87 sailing. Bringing Whirlpool Surprise from the Pandemonium for your friend because it boosts Sailing by 3 doesn't help because it's not tradable. It probably works as a keg on your boat though. This player should kill 1 frost Dragon before leaving because its not enough to unlock the fairy ring by just entering the cave.
• Locked slayer tasks: If you ever want a slayer task for a monster you can't get a task for (like frost drags on release day), simply do duo-slayer with someone who can.

Nearly all the above in this list I learned the hard or difficult way, lol

 

 

FAQ

Q: Can I die during sailing and lose my items?

A: No not really. It's more safe than I expected. I don't know anyone who has. When you die or your boat sinks, you always lose all the junk (stuff) in your cargo hold but not the items in your inventory or equipped items. Sail too far east and you still keep all your stuff. Die to crystalized hull and you still keep all your stuff. Sail over fetid waters, kelp, or crystal-flecked waters, and you still keep all your stuff. Sail under a thunder storm with weak sails and you sink but still keep all your stuff. Small Exceptions: Opening & drinking the wrong drink from a crate can venom you, spawn a troll, or perhaps worse. Who knows what happens to your items if you die on your boat to a venomed rum. Safety measure: every drink/rum from a crate has a unique name that you can look up online what its effect is before choosing to drink it or not.

 

Q: Can I lose my Hardcore Ironman status during Sailing?

A: Yes. If you care about HC status then get 99 sailing on a normie first because multiple people have already lost their status. One lost theirs by going into the icy (but rewarding) Fremennik waters up north without an Eternal Brazier.

 

Q: Best place to smelt Cupronickel and make other bars?

A: Blast furnace. You can even buy copper ore from the shop there.

 

Q: What should I upgrade first on my ship?

A: The hull of course because it's useful everywhere. Wooden/bronze hull has a base speed of 1.5. Teak/steel: 2. Camphor/adamant: 2.5. The Rosewood/dragon hull is the only one with a base speed of 3.0 making it in my opinion the best upgrade in Sailing. However, most players couldn't afford to upgrade a speedboat to be that fast. On a Skiff, the upgrade costs 300 dragon nails -- the equivalent of 20 dragon metal sheets hammered at an anvil. However, I'm aiming to get one on all 3 boats. Btw, hull parts can be made efficiently at Lands End between the bank and the Shipwrights Workbench there or at your port of choice. On that bench, 5 planks there makes 1 hull part and 5 hull parts makes 1 large hull part.

 

Q: What's the best loot I can expect from an ocean encounter (Sailing's Random Events)?

A: A single dragon metal plate or a dragon sword for a lost crate after level 95 sailing or lots of sailing exp based on your sailing level for rescuing a castaway.

 

Q: How can I level up Sailing faster?

A: Reading a vote book will give you 50% more exp in all skills for an hour.

 

 

Useful Links

• Alora Update Post from the minutes of release
• Alora Development Blog on Sailing before the skill was released

 

 

If you want more help, feel free to PM me in game or post here.

 

Enjoy Sailing,

Eby

 

[Kareem Sqr]

What a great guide! Thanks for taking your time with making it habibi  

[Moe]

Great starter guide for the boys, definitely got me more hip with how it all works. Can't wait to level it tonight! 

 

Good shit Eby.

[Sheep]

Great guide.

 

At least 1 player went to 200m Sailing exp mostly from 200 Gwenith Glide completions. Hey that's me :) , ty for my rosewood boat btw.

[RG12]

I'll have to look into it

[Beta Fish]

Fish approved. Good guide to get rolling into the new skill. 10/10 would read first if I had to start again!