RYA YACHTMASTER PREPARATION
Practical courses are operated from our home base in Kip Marina, The Yacht Harbour, Inverkip
RYA Yachtmaster Preparation Course Overview
An RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence is often the ultimate aim of aspiring skippers. It is a well known, highly respected qualification worldwide, proving your experience and competence as a skipper.
Unlike other courses in the cruising programme, there is no formal training to complete in order to become a Yachtmaster™. Instead, provided that you have sufficient experience and sea time, you can put yourself forward for an exam to test your skills and knowledge.
This course assumes you have the knowledge and experience required to achieve the RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence and is designed as preparation for the exam, but this is not compulsory before taking the exam.
This course is for you if you…
This is not a certificated course but at the end of the course you will hopefully be ready to go forward for the Yachtmaster Exam of which you can achieve a certificate.
Ability after the course
An RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence is often the ultimate aim of aspiring skippers. It is a well known, highly respected qualification worldwide, proving your experience and competence as a skipper.
Unlike other courses in the cruising programme, there is no formal training to complete in order to become a Yachtmaster™. Instead, provided that you have sufficient experience and sea time, you can put yourself forward for an exam to test your skills and knowledge.
This course assumes you have the knowledge and experience required to achieve the RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence and is designed as preparation for the exam, but this is not compulsory before taking the exam.
This course is for you if you…
- Are seriously involved in sailing
- Want to become a valuable crew member
- Want to skipper your own yacht in coastal or offshore areas day and night
- Want to prepare for the coastal or offshore yachtmaster assessments
- Holder of a valid First Aid Certificate
- Holder of a SRC VHF (DSC) license
- Yachtmaster Coastal - 30 days sea time (2 days as skipper), 800 nm, 12 night hours all on a sailing yacht and Coastal Skipper & Yachtmaster offshore theory or equivalent knowledge, alternatively have the Coastal Practical certificate with 20 days sea time (2 days as skipper), 400nm and 12 night hours.
- Yachtmaster Offshore - 50 days sea time (5 days as skipper), 2500 nm, 5 passages min 60nm with 2 overnight and 2 as skipper all on a sailing yacht and Coastal Skipper & Yachtmaster offshore theory or equivalent knowledge.
- 5 days, taken over 5 weekdays
- 18 years (to sit the RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence exam)
- To brush up on your acquired skills and go through what you can expect from the exam.
- For Yachtmaster Coastal you will be aiming to demonstrate an understanding of the syllabus but not necessarily had the opportunity to put the skills into practice under different conditions.
- For the Yachtmaster Offshore you will be aiming to show competence in all areas of the syllabus.
- Safety
- Boat Handling
- General seamanship and maintenance
- Responsibilities as skipper
- Navigation
- Meteorology
- Signals
This is not a certificated course but at the end of the course you will hopefully be ready to go forward for the Yachtmaster Exam of which you can achieve a certificate.
Ability after the course
- Ready for your RYA Yachtmaster™ Certificate of Competence exam.
- Full board whilst onboard the yacht
- Safety equipment, i.e. lifejacket and safety line
- Cooking gas
- Fuel, although hopefully you will be doing more sailing than motoring
- Mooring and marina fees
- Secure marina parking
