RYA Yachtmaster

[jck339]

Anyone here with any experience with Yachtmaster training?

I think I'm about to pull the trigger and commit to 15 weeks sailing in Gibraltar. I've been sailing for about two years mostly on inland lakes. I have taken ASA classes out of Ft. Lauderdale and Stuart FL stopping just before the celestial nav and offshore classes.

My goal is to quicken the rate of gaining experience.

Curry

[Borden]

Curry

I achieved the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore practical exam last November sailing out of Falmouth in Cornwall UK.
I'd been sailing for over 20 years, covered over 10,000 miles, crossed Biscay four times and taken all of the RYA theory exams including YM Ocean but never taken a practical exam. Anyhow, as we intend to set off on a circumnavigation next year and the RYA Ym Offshore is accepted as an International Certificate of Competence (a requirement in some countries) I decided to do it.

If you have any questions I'd be happy to help if I can.

Colin

[rsn48]

RYA Yachtmaster is the most recognized programs in the world, but it is primarily a UK thing. The standards are very high. I don't think you will regret taking it. My favourite boating magazine is out of England "Practical Boater" and it often runs articles helping people taking the different exams in the program. From reading these, I can guarantee you one of the questions on the exam will be determine tide height in a secondary port at a specific time.

[Talbot]

Curry,

from the sound of it you are doing the "Zero to Hero" course of accelerated learning. There is some controversy over the capabilities of the person who has completed that fast track course, but it tends to be aimed at the sort of person who believes that having completed that course, they are then god's gift to boating. This like any other course represents the bare minimum necessary, and most of us recognise that you never stop learning about the sea. It is unlikely that you would obtain immediate employment as the skipper of a delivery boat as soon as you complete, but it does reduce significantly the time required.

BTW, RYA are now being recognised in countries outside of UK and there are moves to set up training under RYA auspices much further afield.

Good luck to you.

[jck339]

Thanks for the responses.

I suppose I should have explained my goals better. This course is for personal rather than professional benefit. I'm hoping/expecting that a concentrated will make me a better sailor and accelerate the learning curve. The real payoff for me is a few years down the road. I can afford a nice boat but can't really move to a coastal area to make it make sense yet.

The zero to hero criticisms are justified. Nothing beats experience and experience takes time. The course should help build a firm basis to build additional experience onto. Not a hero here. Just a guy that knows his limits and is working hard to push them out farther/faster.

Curry

[Talbot]

Any day that we learn something new is a day that has not been waisted!

[deloffre]

The yachtmaster is the best certificate to have worldwide, to either charter a boat privately or become a professional skipper. Crew agencies and owners worlwide seek that certificate; other (national) certificates of competence (such as the Capitaine 200 in france) can be high quality but also of little use when it comes to finding a job on a yacht. the yachtmaster can be either coastal, offshore or ocean; it's part of a syllabus defined by the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) in the UK. fair winds to all, Jean-Paul Deloffre

[deloffre]

My experience with the yachtmaster exam is that it's all about seamanship rather than theoretical knowledge. The examiner will test your knowledge of the COLREGS and make you do a quick tidal calculation but what he or she is really interested in is how you react to the unexpected and behave in a stressful situation. The question is really : would I entrust my boat and family to this candidate. if the answer is yes, you pass; if the answer is no, you don't.