RYA Motor Cruising Helmsman - 2 days
The aim of the RYA Motor Cruising Helmsman’s course is to teach boat handling and safety within a defined area. The course runs over two days, and both days are spent on board learning how to handle a motor cruiser, as well as looking at the boat and its equipment.
Once on board, and after a quick safety brief and a quick series of safety checks, we get off our berth as quickly as possible and out on the water learning how a big boat handles. Exercises include starting and stopping safely, low speed manoeuvres including turning in a confined space, effect of wind, high speed manoeuvring including high speed turns, planning & trimming, as well as anchoring, securing to a buoy, man-overboard, and berthing alongside. All this is interspersed over the two days with time spent looking at some of the boats systems, crew responsibilities, safety, engine operation, checks, and maintenance, rules of the road, and seamanship.
The course is non residential, but we can happily recommend places to stay locally if required.
The minimum age for the course is 12, and no previous knowledge or experience is required.
RYA Motor Cruising Day Skipper - 4 days
The aim of the RYA Motor Cruising Day Skipper practical course is to teach pilotage, navigation, seamanship and boat handling up to the standard required to skipper a motor cruiser safely by day in tidal waters with which the student is familiar.
This course advances the knowledge and understanding gained on the Helmsmans course, although the Helmsmans certificate is not a pre course requirement, and some people prefer to start at this level. There is a theory course that teaches the navigation theory associated with the practical skills learned on this course, and it is recommended, but again not a pre-requisite, that before doing the Day Skipper practical course you should have done the theory course or have some understanding of navigation.
The Day Skipper practical syllabus involves four days on a motor cruiser covering a wide syllabus – everything from close quarters boat handling to navigation, and passage planning & pilotage to motor cruising at night.
The course is non residential, but we can happily recommend places to stay locally if required.
The minimum age for the course is 16, and some previous knowledge and an understanding of navigation is a great advantage.
RYA Motor Cruising Coastal Skipper - 5 days
The aim of the RYA Motor Cruising Coastal Skipper course is to teach the skills and techniques required to skipper a motor cruiser safely on coastal and offshore passages by day and night.
Here we go further into passage planning and passage making, looking at boat preparation for passages and pilotage both by day and night, as well as looking at dealing with problems such as adverse weather and emergency situations. We also look at radar, and obviously boat handling, although candidates for this course will already be proficient boat handlers so for this we tend to concentrate on awkward situations and problems such as handling a twin engine boat using only a single engine.
The course lasts five days, and the minimum age is 17. Previous knowledge and experience is a prerequisite, and whilst it is possible to start training at any point in the scheme, it is expected that anyone on the Coastal Skipper course will already have skills to the standard of Day Skipper Practical, and theory knowledge to the standard of Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster theory. There is a course completion certificate, but candidates requiring a commercial endorsement to their qualification are also required to take an exam – the RYA Yachtmaster Coastal.
RYA Motor Crusing Yachtmaster Exam Preperation Course - 5 days
There is only one way to attain the RYA Motor Cruising Yachtmaster Offshore qualification and that is to take an exam. Consequently there is no formal RYA course for Yachtmaster Offshore but most schools, ourselves included, run a Yachtmaster preparation course, where we teach some of the exercises that are involved in the exam, and aim to fill in any gaps in a student’s knowledge, smooth out any rough patches in areas such as boat handling, and give everyone a thorough refresher prior to the exam to ensure everyone is as up to date and prepared for the exam as possible. The course usually runs for five days, but can be tailored to suit individuals’ specific requirements depending on their theory knowledge etc.
The exam takes 8-12 hours for one candidate, or between 10 & 18 hours for two candidates. Candidates are expected to be able to demonstrate their ability to skipper a Motor Cruiser by day and night and can expect to be tested on all parts of the RYA syllabus except Yachtmaster Ocean topics. There are pre-exam minimum experience requirements, which are 50 days at sea, 2500 sea miles including at least 5 passages over 60 miles (at least 2 of these as skipper & two as overnight passages), and a minimum of 5 days running a boat as skipper.
For more information we would recommend getting hold of a copy of the RYA Motor Cruising & Yachtmaster Scheme syllabus & logbook (RYA G18), or call Adam to discuss any questions you may have.