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Old 03-01-2023, 07:31   #16
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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Originally Posted by Mel Quine View Post
If I want to be a skipper, are you saying I should not take ASA classes? They have many schools in the Med. I speak some French, but am not fluent, so English language instruction is essential.
Hi Mel,

If you're looking at the Med, then an RYA school seems appropriate. Note that the Med is effectively non-tidal.

In the US, I think people should be able to recommend a few good schools. I think there may be some good schools around Maryland?

One quick-and-dirty approach you can do is look at the class time and what the requirements are for progressing. For example, when I took Basic Keelboat (i.e. 101) years ago here on SF Bay, it was two weekends of classes, when I finally got around to doing Coastal Passage Making the process took a bit more time as it involved a minimum of five weekends (board friday, return sunday), and between the various courses you needed to accumulate sailing days.
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Old 03-01-2023, 11:32   #17
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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Originally Posted by Mel Quine View Post
Living in New England and being 62 years old and having gotten started with sailing just recently, I fear the clock is ticking on my ability to become a truly competent sailor. While I understand there is no substitute for hands-on experience, I do want to cram in some solid theory instruction and on water hours. Duxbury Bay Maritime School where I took my first classes, does not offer any certification. Also, working on a New England schedule leaves many months of the year where I am not gaining experience. Am investigating picking up some classes in the Mediterranean before the boats get into the water here in Massachusetts this year. Don't feel I have the luxury of time to make mistakes in terms of where I go to learn. If I want to be a skipper, are you saying I should not take ASA classes? They have many schools in the Med. I speak some French, but am not fluent, so English language instruction is essential. Is there a good forum for rating instructors/schools, or another method you might recommend? I have been in conversation with the Athens Sailing Academy.

Appreciate any guidance/input you can offer.

Warm Regards,
Mel
The MED is pretty big and diverse. I'm Barcelona and used the RYA instruction here. They RYA is UK based so the instruction is in English as are the tests; even here in Spain.

I took RYA Coastal Skipper; it is one week of classroom and one week on the boat. It was a great experience.
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Old 03-01-2023, 12:38   #18
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Thank you for the input, I will add RYA schools to the possibilities. The flights are so inexpensive now, I'll have lots of options. Would love to hear from someone with personal experience of one of those schools.
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Old 03-01-2023, 12:51   #19
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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Thank you for the input, I will add RYA schools to the possibilities. The flights are so inexpensive now, I'll have lots of options. Would love to hear from someone with personal experience of one of those schools.
What do you want to know?
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Old 03-01-2023, 15:37   #20
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

It doesn’t matter which organization provides the standard.

The quality of instruction depends on the particular sailing school and instructor.
There are many things which can be done in many ways. There is no RYA way or CYA way or ASA way.
There is the methods chosen by the school and instructor to meet the syllabus requirements.
There are good and crap instructor’s in all systems.

For entry level instruction, your best bet is to find a sailing school near where you live which has a good reputation. Particularly if you can get access to boats to gain experience after doing the course.
Many sailing schools are affiliated to charter company, if you take their course you can usually charter their boats.

Consider power squadron course for coastal navigation its usually a local night class and is a very good course. They RYA don’t do it any better, a compass bearing is figured out and plotted the same way.

If you want a holiday in the sun go to the Med or Caribbean.
But learning to sail in your home waters is advantageous.

If you want to skipper commercial voyages you need to decide where and get the appropriate certification. for the US that is a US certificates.

If you are American Sailing in America a recognized American sailing course is most likely to be the best one all round for you and your needs.
If you are Canadian then a Canadian course and certificate will be the best all round for your needs.
If you are British then RYA is going to be the best for you.

If you are French the French system is probably better than all of the above judging by the quality of sailor’s produced.
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Old 03-01-2023, 17:12   #21
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

There is no equivalent to experience, and the rest is all just paperwork for administrative reasons and bureaucratic hurdles.
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Old 03-01-2023, 17:34   #22
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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Thank you for the input, I will add RYA schools to the possibilities. The flights are so inexpensive now, I'll have lots of options. Would love to hear from someone with personal experience of one of those schools.
I can whole heartily recommend
Shearwater Sailing School in
Ipswich, UK
You might be able to do back to back theory and practical
They also issue ICC, Worth the effort to get Tidal Endorsement
Cheers
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Old 04-01-2023, 01:51   #23
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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There is no equivalent to experience, and the rest is all just paperwork for administrative reasons and bureaucratic hurdles.
Of course this is true. However if it must be done then maximize the experience.
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Old 04-01-2023, 03:11   #24
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mel Quine View Post
Living in New England and being 62 years old and having gotten started with sailing just recently, I fear the clock is ticking on my ability to become a truly competent sailor. While I understand there is no substitute for hands-on experience, I do want to cram in some solid theory instruction and on water hours. Duxbury Bay Maritime School where I took my first classes, does not offer any certification. Also, working on a New England schedule leaves many months of the year where I am not gaining experience. Am investigating picking up some classes in the Mediterranean before the boats get into the water here in Massachusetts this year. Don't feel I have the luxury of time to make mistakes in terms of where I go to learn. If I want to be a skipper, are you saying I should not take ASA classes? They have many schools in the Med. I speak some French, but am not fluent, so English language instruction is essential. Is there a good forum for rating instructors/schools, or another method you might recommend? I have been in conversation with the Athens Sailing Academy.

Appreciate any guidance/input you can offer.

Warm Regards,
Mel
If you want to be a commercial skipper--that is, be a professional captain in US waters or on US-flagged vessels, ASA will do nothing. You must secure a USCG ticket. There are local schools for the coursework (Confident Captain, etc), but you have to build up and document the sea time.
If you want to sail a boat around for fun, you don't need any sort of paper--just jump on a boat and learn as you go. If you want a course to help you learn, any sailing school can do that, and it doesn't matter what system they use.
If you want sea time, you can get a harbor-launch ticket pretty easily and start building up hours toward a six-pack or 25-ton ticket.
It all depends on your actual goal: it's pretty stupid to get a USCG ticket unless there's a job in it, since no amount of paper can make you competent to do anything.
Likewise the RYA or ASA: if you NEED the paper to satisfy a pen-pusher somewhere, go ahead. Otherwise you'll learn more bumbling about in a catboat or volunteering as railmeat, both of which are pretty doable in New England.
Oh, and you can get theory from books.
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Old 04-01-2023, 06:04   #25
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

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It all depends on your actual goal: it's pretty stupid to get a USCG ticket unless there's a job in it, since no amount of paper can make you competent to do anything.
This, 10 times over! The USCG ticket is administratively and financially hard to get. There's money for the courses, there's money for the test, there's money for your TWIC card, there's money for your ongoing drug test program, and if you don't ever actually get paid, all you have is a piece of paper and the right to call yourself captain.

I am confident (arrogant?) that I could easily refresh my knowledge to the level necessary to pass the test. (I am a Naval Academy graduate with years on the bridge of navy ships -- while it may not correlate much to driving a charter boat, it definitely gives you the book knowledge to pass the test). The sea time is actually rather brutal to get, as the requirements are hard. Over the last 2 years, we've spent eight months and 7,000 miles, and that's maybe half the sea time to meet the requirement. I go back far enough, and I probably can get it. The challenge is a summer of racing gives me zero days, because a day must be at least 4 hours underway and that's often not met. Just for reference, you need 360 four hour days on the water. If you get 30 days a year (keeping in mind the 4 hour minimum), which is probably more than many of us get, that's over a decade of sailing. And 90 days have to be in the last 3 years.

But the worst part as far as credibility is there is no requirement to ever actually put your hand on the wheel of a boat to get the captain's license. You spend a few years working the fishing lines on the back of a fishing boat, study up, and get your Captain's license. And I've seen professional captains who clearly took that route.
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Old 04-01-2023, 08:13   #26
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Jonesi, are you here?

I see you joined us a dozen years ago and that your last post was in 2018! Have we gone off chasing a long-dead thread?

In case you ARE here, here are the requirements and the syllabus for SailCanada's (CYA's) "Off-shore Cruising" certification:

https://www.sailing.ca/uploads/2021/...March-2021.pdf

If you really ARE here and wish to discuss this syllabus in detail - sing out!

Other noobs with ambitions to go off soundings are, of course, welcome to do likewise :-)

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Old 04-01-2023, 10:04   #27
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Thank you so much for all your knowledge sharing. It appears as though some of the school offer private lessons wherein the instructor can then place you in the next appropriate level class based upon their assessment or your knowledge/skills. This might be perfect for me as I have already taken some classes and done some study. Researching.... I'll let the thread know where I land.

Regards,

Mel
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Old 04-01-2023, 10:36   #28
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pirate Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Yachtmaster Ocean in the Med.. no such animal.
Its not an ocean and doing the miles in the requirement would mean sailing in circles.
Check out these guys with the Faro-Madiera-Faro trip for the practical.
https://www.algarve-cruising.com/cou...htmaster-ocean
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Old 04-01-2023, 11:27   #29
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Hi,

Yachtmaster looks like a great course! After having reviewed all the topics and hours required, I think I'll target the coastal level for this spring. I want to not be overly ambitious. I did look at the Atlantic from Portugal, including the Madeira school, but need to take this in manageable steps. I will be able to get in some good hours locally over the summer, so this level would potentially suit me next winter or spring.

Thank you for your response.

Mel
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Old 04-01-2023, 12:28   #30
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Re: RYA Yachtmaster ocean equivalents

Mel:

I'm aware that you dream of the Med and the Caribbean as do most people from the Eastern Seaboard. But do NOT overlook the Salish Sea which offers ideal learning conditions for just exactly what you want to do with "the rest of your life" :-).

Cooper Yachting in Vancouver Canada offers just exactly the sort of training you are looking for — 10-day long "croose'n'learn" vacations aboard quite respectable "blue water" boats ['orrible term, but you gotta give the market what it wants :-)!]. CYA qualified instructors, of course. The current SailCanada (CYA) syllabus which I posted above is used. I helped lay the foundations for that stuff more than half a century ago, but I've let my certification lapse. Google Cooper's!

I am sure that sundry Seattle-based sailing organizations offer the equivalent.

From benign Puget sound where you can "get your feet wet" in safety, you can either go up the "inside" (of Vancouver Island) to Alaska) through one of the most stunningly beautiful archipelagos anywhere, or you can go "outside", which will CERTAINLY give you a run for your money. The Pacific Ocean off Barkley Sound is not called "the graveyard of ships" for nothing! It is anything but "pacific"!

Acknowledge that book-larnin' alone will never make you a skipper. But you can never become a skipper unless you ALSO have the book learning.

Hie thee off to a good sailing school but be prepared to "put in you time". Possession of the certificate doesn't mean that you are a skipper ipso facto! It just means that people will rent boats to you and insure you so that in the fullness of time you MAY become a skipper. If you develop the right mindset :-)!

Bonne chance

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