Graham_Wright
Well-Known Member
a Yachtmaster Practical test recently?
Mine was in 1988 and I suspect it's a bit different nowadays.
Mine was in 1988 and I suspect it's a bit different nowadays.
Anyone undertaken
- Thread starter Graham_Wright
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lustyd
Well-Known Member
I’d bet it’s not that different. Most of the skills are the same and they’re mostly testing practical stuff. I was considering doing it but it’s impossible to book while actively cruising as we don’t know where we’ll be.
Kwik Decision
Well-Known Member
Did mine 9 yrs ago. On a boat with 3 candidates, we each had to plan and sail 2 short passages (inc pilotage at the start and finish) first in daylight, and the second in the dark.
Following day was manoeuvring in the marina, then mob, blind nav etc as we headed home. We all had to prepare a longer passage plan beforehand, and went through this with the examiner. There were lots of questions all the way through on all manner of topics inc COLREGs, weather, charts.
I'd be surprised if it's changed much, but I think radar is tested more thoroughly now - it was barely mentioned on my exam.
Following day was manoeuvring in the marina, then mob, blind nav etc as we headed home. We all had to prepare a longer passage plan beforehand, and went through this with the examiner. There were lots of questions all the way through on all manner of topics inc COLREGs, weather, charts.
I'd be surprised if it's changed much, but I think radar is tested more thoroughly now - it was barely mentioned on my exam.
jwilson
Well-Known Member
Radar? When I did it in the 1970s no-one on ordinary yachts had radar, let alone GPS or plotters. Much is down to the examiner looking at how well you handle crew and jobs: and doing enough nav to be safe - ie if you can get by by just looking where you are don't waste time below marking charts with exact courses.
15 years later I had much the same when being assessed as an instructor, but with the added dubious pleasure of having the examiner deliberately messing things up to see how I responded. That didn't happen on straight YM.
15 years later I had much the same when being assessed as an instructor, but with the added dubious pleasure of having the examiner deliberately messing things up to see how I responded. That didn't happen on straight YM.
Sticky Fingers
Well-Known Member
For power anyway, Radar is part of it now. If the boat has radar you’d be expected to use it in a practical exercise. If not, the examiner has theory/ scenario cards that you need to be able to interpret and talk through.
Buck Turgidson
Well-Known Member
6 years ago in Gib.
Passage plan from Scilly to Falmouth discussed at depth.
4 hours sailing around gib bay. Anchored and discussed different techniques. Radar navigation around various obstacles. Lots of colregs questions, mob under sail then again with engine. In and out of the marina a few times berthing in all directions, then about 3 hours night nav with various go to xxx lay and long and lots of lights and shapes question. Then about 30 minutes general chat.
I was the only YM. Crew were 4 fast trackers just past day skipper standard.
Good fun and the examiner was ex military like me so we got each other right away. He didn’t give any quarter and I didn’t shy away from admitting when I didn’t know. ( chart abbreviations for sea bed types) .
I felt like I’d been examined and he had no hesitation passing me and then we had a very useful debriefing as I sail solo all the time and he could tell me where it showed.
Passage plan from Scilly to Falmouth discussed at depth.
4 hours sailing around gib bay. Anchored and discussed different techniques. Radar navigation around various obstacles. Lots of colregs questions, mob under sail then again with engine. In and out of the marina a few times berthing in all directions, then about 3 hours night nav with various go to xxx lay and long and lots of lights and shapes question. Then about 30 minutes general chat.
I was the only YM. Crew were 4 fast trackers just past day skipper standard.
Good fun and the examiner was ex military like me so we got each other right away. He didn’t give any quarter and I didn’t shy away from admitting when I didn’t know. ( chart abbreviations for sea bed types) .
I felt like I’d been examined and he had no hesitation passing me and then we had a very useful debriefing as I sail solo all the time and he could tell me where it showed.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
It's very different. Consider how navigation has evolved over the last few decades. I passed in around the same year as the op. Instructor in 1996.
I've had the great good fortune to coach at all levels up to Ocean since then and have seen how the system has evolved.
You still have to be able to sail a yacht, manage yer crew and continue with multiple things 'broken'. That's the same!
obmij
Well-Known Member
I've taken two (sort of)
First one was a coastal skipper COC in 1997 I think. These days they call it the YM coastal. It's pretty much the same exam but you don't need as much experience to be assessed and I suppose the bar to passing is a little lower. The second was the YM offshore in 2014.
I think the biggest difference was the size of the boat! The rest was very familiar - passage planning, clearing bearings, transits, tidal calcs, blind nav etc. I think MOB expectations had changed a little - from reach tack reach to drop the sails and bang the engine on ASAP. Obviously you need to be able to demonstrate familiarity with all equipment onboard, including radar and plotters (which were not onboard in the '90s) but I wasn't really assessed much on radar.
I think weather assessment was tougher in the '90's which is fair enough as the resources available today just weren't there. By and large though, not that much different from a candidate perspective.
On a side note I did the RYA radar course a couple of years later and found it to be shockingly bad.
First one was a coastal skipper COC in 1997 I think. These days they call it the YM coastal. It's pretty much the same exam but you don't need as much experience to be assessed and I suppose the bar to passing is a little lower. The second was the YM offshore in 2014.
I think the biggest difference was the size of the boat! The rest was very familiar - passage planning, clearing bearings, transits, tidal calcs, blind nav etc. I think MOB expectations had changed a little - from reach tack reach to drop the sails and bang the engine on ASAP. Obviously you need to be able to demonstrate familiarity with all equipment onboard, including radar and plotters (which were not onboard in the '90s) but I wasn't really assessed much on radar.
I think weather assessment was tougher in the '90's which is fair enough as the resources available today just weren't there. By and large though, not that much different from a candidate perspective.
On a side note I did the RYA radar course a couple of years later and found it to be shockingly bad.
lustyd
Well-Known Member
The nav tools are different but the techniques and understanding are pretty similar. I’d assume anyone going for the test would have done the theory course or at least read the book so failing on that side should be hard.
For us the hardest part would be doing that more formally. I was discussing real world nav with an instructor friend recently and he agreed that when cruising it looks quite different to the course most of the time. He even took all the paper charts off of his boat, having not used them for years. Something I thought I’d never see. Paper logs regularly updated aren’t as popular as they were either, but I imagine in a YM exam such things would still be blasphemy.
finestgreen
Well-Known Member
Gixer
Well-Known Member
Funnily enough I was talking to a school at the boat show this year and this topic came up.
The 'practical' aspects haven't changed that much, a boat is still a boat and the sea is still the sea. What has changed is the planning and navigation aspect. Finding tides, weather, secondary port calculations, AIS, phone apps, satellite links to name a few things.
I'm thinking of doing my Yachmaster but have forgotten loads of the chartwork stuff as I haven't done it in ages!...
The 'practical' aspects haven't changed that much, a boat is still a boat and the sea is still the sea. What has changed is the planning and navigation aspect. Finding tides, weather, secondary port calculations, AIS, phone apps, satellite links to name a few things.
I'm thinking of doing my Yachmaster but have forgotten loads of the chartwork stuff as I haven't done it in ages!...
lustyd
Well-Known Member
I redid my theory course last year and there was loads I’d forgotten. Not used any of it since, either as it’s just too convenient using modern tools and being lazy.
I didn’t bother with tidal stuff coming down the Celtic sea this week, it’s about three swings left and right and we ended up at Lands End despite the lack of rigour
Graham_Wright
Well-Known Member
Thanks for all. My son passed his theory (just) one yeas ago, but, at sea professionally, he is being held back by the completion to YM. I'm thinking of taking him to se for a week as prep. He is far more experienced than I am driving a harbour tug most of the time but lack of YM is restricting him expanding.
Worst question I had in my pre test passage was the significance of three greens in a vertical row.
Worst question I had in my pre test passage was the significance of three greens in a vertical row.
finestgreen
Well-Known Member
I enjoyed the question: you see a single white light belonging to a vessel, what different things might it be?
Graham_Wright
Well-Known Member
Crew member lighting a fag at the bow.
Alicatt
Well-Known Member
Even the day skipper practical was heavy on the electronic nav aids.
The other student and I had pulled out the charts for the pilotage section of the course while the instructor was off getting something, we had plotted out the course, transits, bearings and points to keep an eye on for known hazards.
Instructor comes back, and says: All well and good, now lets do that on the chart plotter. Sigh!
The radar was used a lot on the return from our destination,
Shame that Rothsay marina was closed due to bad weather as I was supposed to take us in and find a berth there on the way back.
The other student and I had pulled out the charts for the pilotage section of the course while the instructor was off getting something, we had plotted out the course, transits, bearings and points to keep an eye on for known hazards.
Instructor comes back, and says: All well and good, now lets do that on the chart plotter. Sigh!
The radar was used a lot on the return from our destination,
Shame that Rothsay marina was closed due to bad weather as I was supposed to take us in and find a berth there on the way back.
obmij
Well-Known Member
Any sea going experience is valuable but as you probably know, if he is on power he will have to take the power YM which is a bit different, but frankly if he is driving a harbour tug as a day job he will walk it - all the resources will be available to him onboard and in use on a daily basis.
Basically the YM exam is not difficult. Can you safety and competanetly plan and execute a passage from A to B is the sum of it.
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