Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • any yachtmasters here?
  • bobbyatwork
    Free Member

    got the basic rya qual and wanted to continue upto yachmaster…is it tough etc..

    soma_rich
    Free Member

    Doing mine in December. Apparently its not much harder than day skipper if you have enough experience. Do you have Day Skipper or Competent crew?

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    Yes, but I was 9 years ago when I did mine, may have changed the syllabus by now.

    Nav and passage planning the hardest bit, chart work don’t forget that.

    If you can sail and look after a boat and crew you should be fine.

    bobbyatwork
    Free Member

    just did the day skipper a few years ago…not sailed much tbh,had a few holidays and helped the old man sail his yacht back from gib…

    may have to join a club…

    chipsngravy
    Free Member

    I don’t know what the structure is now. But back in the late 90’s I did, Dayskipper (theory & practical) followed by Yatchmaster (theory & practical)

    Neither were too hard. Like anything in life, you put the time and effort in, you’ll be fine.

    Loads of fun sailing a wayfarer rudderless & man overboard drills in the solent.

    stevewhyte
    Free Member

    I did mine 20 years ago, very enjoyable just go for it and enjoy.

    At the time was considering a career as a professional skipper, changed my mind and went in to engineering.

    Did all my courses over the winter period and met a fe really nice people into the bargain.

    Andy
    Full Member

    Yup did my dayskipper practical & theory, coastal practical, and yachmaster theory and practical and a cruising instructor course. Not sailed for 4 years though.

    The theory used to be pretty easy – evening course or a weeks course for each. Can go straight in at Yachtmaster.

    The practicals are a bit harder. My coastal examiner, Alison N, was one of the RYA legends. She was 70 then, doddered on the boat on Friday evening, we thought she wouldn’t make it aboard. Once going though had the boat a 34 footer sailing like a dinghy, and us doing alsorts until 3 am and ,then into Cowes and drinking on the boat until 6am. Saturday was pretty similar. 2 out of 4 passed. Great fun! But my club wanted a hard exam as we would be skippering complete novices quite often. They wanted us to be good sailors not just good exam passers.

    My yachtmaster practical was easy in comparison, but by then I’d skippered 50 odd cruises mostly with novices on board so i guess my game was a lot higher.

    Back then how easy the exam was depended on which sailing school you did it with.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    I do, although I daresay much has changed in the last 30 years 🙂

    Go for it! Follow your dream. 8)

    FieldMarshall
    Full Member

    As stated above, depends on which organisation you do it through and what your examiner is like.

    It should be consistent but is not.

    I did mine through the forces. Did Day skipper, Coastal and then Yachtmaster. We were really put through our paces for the assessment. Several cross channel legs, overnight passages, deliberately run aground twice, etc

    My wife did hers through UKSA. She did a fast track course, with minimum hours. Her exam sounded much easier than mine. Mostly Solent based. In my book that cant really qualify as a yachmaster assessment.

    greggparker9
    Free Member

    My wife did hers through UKSA. She did a fast track course, with minimum hours. Her exam sounded much easier than mine. Mostly Solent based. In my book that cant really qualify as a yachmaster assessment.

    Have you told her that!!

    How you find the Yachtmaster depends entirely on your background and experience. If you have sailed a lot on a variety of boats from dinghies to large yachts then as long as you’re comfortable with the nav then you’ll be fine.

    If you’re coming in with minimum experience then it would probably be a lot tougher. That said when I did mine I was quite disappointed that some of the guys I was with passed when they clearly couldn’t sail all that well!

    elzorillo
    Free Member

    Is sailing getting more popular all of a sudden or have I just slipped into another age bracket 🙁

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    @bobby – depends entirely on how much sailing you’ve done and in what conditions. Basically it’s all about safety rather than top level boat handling skills. It’s a worthwhile qualification so get out on the water as much as you can, including in some proper autumn weather, and sign yourself up. With regard to the practical it’s easier if you’ve done the chartwork first.

    mikertroid
    Free Member

    I’m a YM; the step from Dayskipper to Coastal is the biggest step IMO.

    You’ll need a Sea survival, First Aid, Diesel Maintenance and VHF ticks too.

    bobbyatwork
    Free Member

    cool…i had a whim that i could try motoryacht skippering…

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    I think there are different Regs and Certs for any passenger carrying.. if of course thats whats intended..you may need to look into that.

    A mate works at the MCA, I’ll ask his opinion.

    bobbyatwork
    Free Member

    cool ta

    Jerome
    Free Member

    Day skipper here.
    Okay just the theory.

    I sail every weekend in Brighton, and will be doing my day skipper practical when I can get a free week.

    Love it

    J.

Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)

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