Three ways Sailing pays
Sailing money falls into three groups. Deep sea trawling turns your boat into a fishing platform for the most valuable fish in the game. Salvaging shipwrecks is low-effort loot that you sort and sell or alch. And Sailing opens places, most notably Grimstone at 87, where frost dragons and new resources live. Everything starts with Pandemonium, the quest that introduces the skill.
Deep sea trawling
Trawling is the top earner for players who meet the requirements. You lower a net beside a moving shoal and each successful roll lands fish. The shoals you can fish are set by Fishing level, while the net you can use depends on Sailing: rope nets from 56, linen at 65, hemp at 76 and cotton at 84, with better nets reaching deeper water and catching more per roll.
| Shoal | Fishing level | Bait |
|---|---|---|
| Yellowfin | 79 | Fish offcuts or fine offcuts |
| Halibut | 83 | Fine offcuts |
| Bluefin | 87 | Fine offcuts |
| Marlin | 91 | Fine offcuts; needs an eternal brazier for the Northern Ocean |
Marlin is where the money is, and bluefin and halibut follow; yellowfin is the entry point. Spreading offcuts adds about a fifth to each catch, and you need a chum station on the boat to do it. The running costs (repair kits, offcuts and ice coolers) are already taken off in the table. Trawling is semi-AFK at best: nets disengage if you leave them alone for five minutes, and deeper shoals need you to adjust net depth.
Raw trawled fish often sells for more after cutting or cooking. Cutting marlin and yellowfin gives fine fish offcuts for trawling bait plus scales, and the cooking profit list shows when that beats selling raw.
Shipwreck salvaging
Salvaging starts at 15 Sailing with nothing more than a raft and a salvaging hook. You park beside a wreck, hook salvage into your cargo hold, then sort it at a salvaging station (at most ports, or on your boat from 42 Sailing). Each tier of wreck has its own loot:
| Shipwreck | Sailing level | Typical loot |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 15 | Bronze bars and nails, logs, coins |
| Fisherman's | 26 | Bait, raw fish, bronze cannonballs |
| Barracuda | 35 | Logs, flax and hemp seeds |
| Large | 53 | Gem rings, steel nails, pearls |
| Pirate | 64 | Gold and gem jewellery, mithril weapons |
| Mercenary | 73 | Mithril and adamant weapons and arrowtips |
| Fremennik | 80 | Astral runes, rune nails, rune cannonballs |
| Merchant | 87 | Fish offcuts, repair kits, rare dragon cannon barrel |
The profit per hour is modest compared with trawling, but salvaging is among the most AFK methods in the game, especially once crewmates operate the hooks. From large wrecks upwards, much of the sorted loot is worth more alched than sold, which is why the rows from large upwards assume High Level Alchemy at 55 Magic. Rare finds such as dragon cannonballs, dragon nails and the dragon cannon barrel push the long-run average up, but they are the lottery part of the loot.
Frost dragons and Grimstone
At 87 Sailing you can reach Grimstone, whose dungeon holds frost dragons. They have no Slayer level requirement, always drop frost dragon bones, and drop dragon metal sheets, dragon nails and dragon cannonballs. Dragon metal sheets drop much more often on a frost dragon task from Nieve or Duradel, which is why the on-task row ranks higher. Players use fire spells and safe spots to kill them. The Slayer money making list compares them with other high-level tasks.
Reading the numbers
Each row values what you bring back at current mid prices after Grand Exchange tax, minus supplies at mid prices. Sailing items are still finding their prices, so fish, nails and sheets can swing more than older items; check the price history on the OSRS Grand Exchange list before planning around a margin. Setup costs are not in the hourly figure: a trawling boat with the right hull, nets and facilities is an investment you make once. For levelling, the Sailing training guide lays out the route, and the Fishing money making table shows how trawling compares with fishing from the shore.