OSRS Sailing Training Guide 2026: Best New Skilling Methods From Sailing & Varlamore

With the recent OSRS releases of Sailing, Varlamore, and other new content, a whole range of new training methods have come along with them — some of which are already surpassing traditional training methods, though not many players are aware of them yet.

Some of these methods are simply more enjoyable to train with, while others offer genuinely better XP and deserve a spot as your go-to training method. There are also some solid new money makers worth knowing about. In this guide, we'll cover all three categories and the best way to approach each.

👮‍♀️ Thieving Port Roberts

Requirement

• 50 Sailing
• 2 Thieving

Overview

Port Roberts features 9 different stalls for players to thieve from. Unlike regular stalls, these don't deplete when stolen from, and once clicked, your character will automatically keep thieving without any additional input.

The tradeoff is that you can only steal from a stall once every 5 ticks rather than the usual 2, so the pace is a bit slower than traditional stall thieving — though you can still pull decent XP rates.

There are also 3 guards roaming the stalls that you'll need to keep an eye on. They check every 3rd stall every 10 ticks, and if you happen to be stealing from a stall a guard is watching, you'll be hauled off to Port Roberts jail. From there you can either pick the lock or pay 500 coins to get out.

The fastest way to get to Port Roberts is with the Sailor's amulet. Alternatively, you can use sail there or take the charter ship.

See how simple it is in this OneWish's video:

Port Roberts thieving plugin

If you're on RuneLite, we highly recommend installing the Port Roberts Thieving plugin. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of avoiding the guards by highlighting stalls in green when they're safe to steal from and red when a guard is watching — making the whole process significantly easier to manage.

XP rates

When thieving, you want to rotate between the two highest-level stalls you can access — use one as your primary and the other as secondary while the guards patrol. This keeps your XP flowing without downtime. With this approach, you can expect the XP rates shown below.

At 87 Thieving, stealing from the Ore and Cannonball stalls can net you up to 254,000 XP and close to 80,000 GP profit per hour. You'll make some money from the ores and cannonballs along the way. What's truly great about this method is how little effort it requires.

🧶 Crafting Cotton Yarn and Hemp Yarn

Requirements

• 39 Crafting for Hemp Yarn
• 73 Crafting for Cotton Yarn

Overview

Cotton Yarn and Hemp Yarn are relatively new additions to the game and have introduced a solid new Crafting training method.

• Cotton Yarn is made from Cotton balls on a spinning wheel, giving 105 Crafting XP each
• Hemp Yarn is made from Hemp on a spinning wheel, giving 39 XP each

Both are decent training methods for their level and are even profitable on top of that.

The method itself is straightforward — buy or gather enough Cotton balls or Hemp, head to a bank, fill your inventory, and click the spinning wheel to start. Wait for your inventory to empty, then repeat.

As for the optimal location, the Nemus Retreat has one of the closest spinning wheels to a bank in the game which is ideal for this method.

See how it works in this video by NordstrandRS:

XP Rates

• Hemp Yarn — 100,000 Crafting XP/hr
• Cotton Yarn — 170,000 Crafting XP/hr

🪵 Chopping Ironwood Logs — Best AFK Method to Train Woodcutting

Requirements

• 80 Woodcutting
• 72 Sailing

Overview

Ironwood trees grant 175 Woodcutting XP per log and have taken over from Redwood logs as the best AFK Woodcutting method in the game. They're just as AFK as Redwoods but offer better XP rates with a lower level requirement.

The best place to chop them is at Sunbleak Island, which is only accessible by boat, so you'll need to sail there. You can build a bank on the island if you want to bank your logs faster. The materials required are a Magic stone, 2 Cupronickel bars, 2 Adamantite bars, and 4 Ironwood planks.

It's also worth hopping worlds until you find an active Forestry event, as this extends the AFK time from around 1 minute up to about 4 minutes and boosts your XP rates. Make sure to bring your best axe and a log basket to further improve your AFK time.

Watch this overview by OneWish to get a better idea of what this method is like:

XP rates

• 75,000 to 85,000 Woodcutting XP per hour
• 100,000 Woodcutting XP per hour if you are doing the Forestry events.

🦀 Crab Trapping — Best New OSRS Hunter Training Method

Requirements

• 21 Hunter for Red Crabs
• 48 Hunter for Blue Crabs
• 77 Hunter for Rainbow Crabs

Overview

Crab Trapping is a new Hunter training method that arrived with the Sailing skill. What makes it stand out is that you can't fail to catch a crab, unlike most traditional Hunter methods. That means your XP rates stay consistent once unlocked and don't rely on success rate at all. This is the fastest way to train Hunter through the early to mid levels.

How to Hunt Crabs

The method for hunting each crab type is largely the same. Start by building traps at the crab holes — each one requires a saw, hammer, one bucket, one plank, and two nails of any type.

You only need to build each trap once. The number of traps you can have active at a time scales with your Hunter level: 2 traps at 21+, 3 at 40+, 4 at 60+, and 5 at 80+.

Once your traps are built, you need to bait them:

• Red and Blue Crabs use fish offcuts as bait, made by using a knife on low-level raw fish like Raw Shrimps
• Rainbow Crabs require fine fish offcuts, made by using a knife on higher-level fish like Raw Shark.

Both bait types are stackable.

With bait in your inventory, click a built trap to add bait to it. After a few seconds, a crab will be caught — click the trap to collect it, then click again to add more bait. Repeat this across all your traps.

Bring a pestle and mortar so you can process the raw crabs you catch into Crab paste. It's stackable and saves you time dropping individual crabs. It's also a profitable byproduct worth holding onto.

Red Crabs are located at Pandemonium, Blue Crabs at the Great Conch, and Rainbow Crabs at the Crown Jewel. You can easily find the spots using the hunter icon on the map.

Here's what crab trapping looks like in-game (by Goblin of Gielnor):

XP Rates

Red Crab * 30,000 XP/hr (2 traps) * 45,000 XP/hr (3 traps) * 55,000 XP/hr (5 traps)

Blue Crab * 70,000–75,000 XP/hr (3 traps) * 85,000–90,000 XP/hr (4 traps) * 105,000–110,000 XP/hr (5 traps)

Rainbow Crab * 150,000–160,000 XP/hr (5 traps)

You can make up to 500K GP per hour from crushing the Rainbow Crabs with a pestle and mortar instead of dropping them.

⛵️ Making Mahogany Hull Parts — New Construction XP Method

Requirements

• 41 Construction
• Mahogany planks
• Hammer and Saw

Overview

Mahogany Hull parts are a great alternative to Mahogany Homes — more cost-effective and significantly less click-intensive. They're made at a Shipwright's workbench using a saw, hammer, and 5 Mahogany planks each, granting 350 Construction XP per craft.

You'll want to find a Shipwright's workbench close to a bank to make this as efficient as possible. Port Khazard is the recommended spot as there's a bank conveniently nearby.

Note that this method is still costlier than traditional Construction training. But it's cheaper than making Mahogany furniture, and the relaxed click rate makes it a solid choice if you want a chill way to knock out some Construction levels.

Here's a brief overview of this farming method from Tiger with the Bars:

XP Rates

• 300,000 XP/hr

👷 Mining Lead Ore

Requirements

• 25 Mining
• 67 Sailing to get to Deepfine Mine if you want to bank the ores

Overview

Lead ore came with the Sailing skill and can only be found on islands accessible by boat. It's a solid alternative to power mining Iron ore — offering better XP rates with a lower level requirement. For the best XP, make sure you're mining spots with at least 3 ores at a time.

The best place to mine if you want to bank your ores is the Deepfine Mine, which has a bank not too far away, though it does require 67 Sailing to reach. Other locations where Lead rocks can be found include Onyx Crest and the Pandemonium Cave.

Jaepy has prepared a handy video guide on this method, take a look:

XP Rates

• 75,000 XP/hr while banking
• 90,000 XP/hr while dropping

🥶 Killing Frost Dragons — Best AFK Money Maker

Requirements

• 87 Sailing
• 75 Magic for Fire Wave

Overview

Frost Dragons are found on Grimstone Island, which requires 87 Sailing to access. They attack with Melee when you're in close range and switch to Ranged when you're not. The best strategy is to stand in Melee distance with Protect from Melee active.

Frost Dragons are primarily done for profit, but you can also pick up solid Magic XP by using Magic as your main attack style. Bring along a Tome of Fire, Dragon Hunter Ward, and Bloodbark armour — a very cost-effective setup that takes full advantage of their weakness to fire attacks, letting you hit consistently high without breaking the bank.

The method is also relatively AFK since most of the profit comes from just 3 drops: Frost Dragon bones, Dragon metal sheets, and Dragon nails. You won't need to pay much attention until one of those shows up. Just remember to bring an antifire potion, prayer potions, and a few pieces of food.

The quickest way to reach Grimstone is via the fairy ring DIP. Alternatively, you can sail there directly or teleport to your boat if it's already docked at Grimstone.

This Dec 2025's guide by NoBS OSRS is still pretty accurate – make sure to give it a watch:

GP Rates

With decent Magic stats, you should comfortably reach around 138 kills per hour, translating to roughly 2.5M GP per hour.

XP Rates

• 100,000 XP/hr with Fire Wave
• 140,000 XP/hr with Fire Surge

🔮 Crafting Astral Runes

Requirements

• 76 Sailing — boat docked at Lunar Isle
• 40 Runecrafting (82 for double runes)
• 67 Magic for the Teleport to Boat spell
• Daeyalt or Pure essence
• Recommended: Raiments of the Eye and Colossal Pouch

Overview

The Teleport to Boat spell has made reaching Lunar Isle and the Astral altar significantly faster than before, making Astral rune crafting a much more viable training method.

The method is straightforward — fill your inventory and pouch with essence at a bank, then cast Teleport to Boat to get to Lunar Isle. If you haven't done the required quests yet, our OSRS quest guide walks through the optimal quest order including Lunar Diplomacy.

Run to the Astral altar, craft your runes, then teleport back to the bank and repeat. You'll need either a Crafting cape or Ring of Dueling to teleport to the nearest bank.

On your way to the altar, you'll run past Suqahs, so I'd recommend either bringing a shield to tank the hits or turning on Protect from Melee as you run through. Stamina potions are also worth bringing to keep your run energy topped up throughout.

Here's an accessible guide by Kaoz:

XP Rates

• 90,000 XP/hr using Daeyalt essence

If grinding these methods yourself isn't your thing, our OSRS skilling services can handle any of them end-to-end.

Conclusion

The Sailing and Varlamore releases have genuinely shaken up the meta for a lot of skills, and it's worth taking the time to explore what's now available. Whether you're looking for better XP rates, a more enjoyable way to train, or just a solid new money maker, there's something in here for just about every type of player. A lot of these methods are still flying under the radar, so getting ahead of the curve now is definitely worth it.

ℹ️ Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need high Sailing to access most of these methods?

It depends on the method. Some like Port Roberts Thieving only require 50 Sailing, while others like Frost Dragons and the Deepfine Mine require 87 and 67 Sailing respectively. There's something available at most Sailing levels so you don't need to max the skill before benefiting from these methods.

Which of these methods is the most profitable?

Frost Dragons are the clear winner for GP per hour, pulling in around 2.5M GP per hour with a decent Magic setup. Rainbow Crab paste is also worth considering at around 500,000 GP per hour, and Port Roberts Thieving offers a casual 80,000 GP per hour with very little effort.

Which method is best for Ironmen?

Crab Trapping is a standout for Ironmen since it provides consistent Hunter XP without relying on success rate. Chopping Ironwood logs is also great for AFK Woodcutting, and Astral rune crafting becomes significantly more accessible with the Teleport to Boat spell removing the usual hassle of getting to Lunar Isle.

Are any of these methods AFK friendly?

Yes — Chopping Ironwood logs is one of the best AFK methods in the game right now, especially during Forestry events where AFK time stretches to around 4 minutes. Frost Dragons and Crab Trapping are also fairly relaxed once you get set up.

Which method gives the best XP rates overall?

It depends on the skill. For Construction, Mahogany Hull parts push 300,000 XP per hour. Rainbow Crabs hit 150,000–160,000 Hunter XP per hour at 5 traps. Cotton Yarn reaches 170,000 Crafting XP per hour, and Frost Dragons can get you up to 140,000 Magic XP per hour with Fire Surge. Each method is strong in its own category.

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