Coastal Skipper or Yachtmaster

[Graham376]

It very much depends on the discussion before you start the exam. Examiners are directed that YM Coastal is very definitely NOT to be given out as a consolation prize to those who don’t make YM standard. (Technically examiners make recommendations to the YM board/panel and don’t actually award the certification themselves.)

Strange that you describe it as consolation prize as it's the same (or was the same) exam/test for both but qualification awarded depends on level of demonstrated competence of the applicant. Maybe I'm being cynical but, perhaps in the 25 years since I did it, the RYA have realised they can fail an Offshore candidate and then charge him/her again for a second test to obtain Coastal.

 

[SvenglishTommy]

Thanks for the input guys, at least it seems I'm not the only one who finds it a bit hard to work out the actual difference between the 'tests'. The fact that it is now clear that coastal skipper is a certificate of completion vs an actual exam for yachtmaster makes me lean more towards the coastal skipper course.

 

[SaltIre]

I have a coastal skipper piece of paper. No exam. But did have to sort of complete everything. Learned some stuff. Now forgotten it all and will be sailing everywhere with navionics on my phone.... ?

So you have a piece of paper that says you attended a Coastal Skipper course. That's nice.

 

[KompetentKrew]

If you undertake a coastal skipper course and do ok you’ll get a coastal skipper course completion certificate. The certificate says you’ve done the course. That’s all.
To achieve YM coastal you need to undertake a practical exam and be examined by an independent MCA/RYA Examiner.
The exam is similar to the RYA Yachtmaster exam but the standard requirements aren’t quite as rigorous. For example at YM level you’re expected to be able to sail the boat in situations where you might be allowed to use the engine at YM Coastal level. (This isn’t a definitive black and white distinction but you should understand that at YM level your boat handling should be pretty assured and much slicker than at YM coastal level.) Remember that you can be questioned/quizzed on any part of the syllabus from Competent Crew and upwards in either exam.
Hope that helps.

Yachtmaster sounds quite demanding, I have Coastal Skipper, and have singlehanded from UK to Portugal, but I doubt I'd pass Yachtmaster.

 

[westernman]

So you have a piece of paper that says you attended a Coastal Skipper course. That's nice.

Which is all you need to get your ICC which is accepted everywhere.

[Actually, I think a Day Skipper course completion certificate is sufficient for that.]

 

[Gixer]

I did my Day Skipper practical in December on the same yacht as two people doing the Coastal Skipper. I could see very little difference between the practical courses but that might have been my sailing experience allowing me to be pushed.
Afterwards the Skipper said to me there's no point me doing Coastal Skipper and go straight for Yachtmaster.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Hi all,

I'm about to embark on a sailing course, primarily so I can rent a yacht that requires me to have at least the RYA coastal skipper certificate. Never done any sailing courses before so I'll have to brush up a lot on the theory, but as the theory for coastal skipper and yachtmaster is the same I was thinking I might just do the yachtmaster instead. I can't seem to find any definitive real world answer as to what the difference is between the coastal skipper and yachtmaster practical exam, or how much harder it would be for me to achieve.

If I do the coastal skipper I will definately not go on to do the yachtmaster, but if it's not that more effort then I might as well do the yachtmaster whie I'm at it.

Seems like a simple question but I've realy been having trouble finding and answer to it. I was hoping to get some input from people here who have done one, the other, or both.

Talking to my course tutor, he said that the degree of accuracy required is higher in the Yachtmaster exam.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

You say that you need RYA qualification so that you can "rent a yacht". You only need the ICC to charter/hire a yacht. You can do the ICC stand alone. The RYA theory courses are excellent as they provide information and knowledge. The Yachtmaster Ocean theory course is the most enjoyable.

 

[SvenglishTommy]

Which is all you need to get your ICC which is accepted everywhere.

[Actually, I think a Day Skipper course completion certificate is sufficient for that.]

I think you're right that day skipper will get you your ICC, but the company I will be chartering with specifically requires coastal skipper or higher for some of their boats.

I think they base their 'level' requirements on sunsail's level system which also requires coastal skipper for some boats/destinations including the part of the caribbean I'll be sailing in. No idea why as I know these waters like the back of my hand and they are some of the least demanding I've ever sailed in.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Strange that you describe it as consolation prize as it's the same (or was the same) exam/test for both but qualification awarded depends on level of demonstrated competence of the applicant. Maybe I'm being cynical but, perhaps in the 25 years since I did it, the RYA have realised they can fail an Offshore candidate and then charge him/her again for a second test to obtain Coastal.

When I say consolation prize I mean that you shouldn’t go all the way through a yacht master exam and then be told that you weren’t up to standard but you’re going to get your yacht master coastal anyway. If it’s happened in the past that way it’s certainly shouldn’t have and it certainly shouldn’t be happening now. At the beginning of the exam you have to say which qualification you want to be examined for. The choice you make at the beginning will to a degree determine the sorts of tasks you are given to undertake as skipper.

 

[Streaker1421]

Straight from the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus & Logbook:

RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Coastal, RYA Yachtmaster Offshore and RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificates of Competence are gained by examinations that are conducted by RYA Yachtmasters who are independent of RYA training centres. Details of the prerequisite experience and qualifications required before taking these examinations, and the scope of the syllabus, is shown on the following pages. There is no formal requirement to attend a training course before taking an examination, although candidates who have no formal maritime training will be unlikely to succeed in the exam without a substantial amount of study and preparation.

The pre-exam requirements for Coastal and Offshore are different. I've attached photos of the relevant pages. Hope this helps.




I did my YM Offshore last year and was as equally confused.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I did my Day Skipper practical in December on the same yacht as two people doing the Coastal Skipper. I could see very little difference between the practical courses but that might have been my sailing experience allowing me to be pushed.

Same with me - when I did my competent crew the club instructor signed me off on a couple of the Day Skipper tasks. When I asked to do Day Skipper a few months later he knew from my Facebook that I'd done about 3000mn as crew since then and told me "I think you'll be about ready for Coastal". The three guys I was with were doing Day Skipper or going through the club's skipper approval programme, and I believe the difference was that I had to skipper the longest passage of the 5-day course, Gosport to Weymouth.

 

[Neil]

I did Day Skipper followed by Coastal Skipper, followed by Yachtmaster Theory exam and was working my way through the prerequisites for Yachmaster Offshore. I had the required night hours, the 6 passages over 60 Nm and was only short of about 500 Nm of the 2500 before I lost interest in doing the actual exam. My perception is that with the theory and the experience of the prerequisites, the practical exam just gets you the piece of paper - but this is what you need if you want to work in the industry.

 

[awol]

I did Day Skipper followed by Coastal Skipper, followed by Yachtmaster Theory exam and was working my way through the prerequisites for Yachmaster Offshore. I had the required night hours, the 6 passages over 60 Nm and was only short of about 500 Nm of the 2500 before I lost interest in doing the actual exam. My perception is that with the theory and the experience of the prerequisites, the practical exam just gets you the piece of paper - but this is what you need if you want to work in the industry.

I went a different way. I took the shore-based YM course as a social exercise with others then many years later sat the YM Offshore practical without any intervening tuition. I took the practical to reassure myself that my experience had made me competent and I deliberately eschewed (lovely word!) any form of study prior to the exam. One of my exam crew still takes the mickey out of my "running fix" calcs and blind nav methods - but they worked. The exam put me under stress giving problems to solve while keeping a crew happy and the boat safe. I suspect I just scraped through but I got a sense of achievement and reassurance that was worth the £180. I have never needed to show the CofC to anyone.

 

[zoidberg]

There was a time way last century - long before 'Zero To Hero' - that the standards and reputation of the RYA/DoT Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence were such that candidates for Practical Assessment were presenting with an average of 8000 sea miles logged. No-one wanted to risk the humiliation of 'Failed'.

I suspect that may have been because most were scared stiff of getting on the wrong side of Cdr Bill Anderson, who ran the RYA's Scheme at that time.
Most of the examiners were hugely-experienced 'sea dogs', and some of them not only didn't suffer fools gladly - they didn't suffer fools at all.

Somewhere along the line, the idea of cossetting one's crew crept in - the skipper's job was ensuring they didn't get wet or cold, remained well fed and watered, and all went home 'happy little bunnies'. The notion of getting the 'rough edge of the skipper's tongue' due to stupidity, laziness or inattention was quietly removed from the maritime experience..... about the same time as 'everyone gets prizes' crept in to schools.

 

[Snoopy463]

Did a 5 day course followed by day / night practical exam. (Already had Yachtmaster Theory). All 4 examinees did the same tests. Three came out with Coastal Skipper, the other with Yachtmaster, because she had the relevant mileage in her logbook.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Which is all you need to get your ICC which is accepted everywhere.

[Actually, I think a Day Skipper course completion certificate is sufficient for that.]

There is a practical assesment for ICC, plus the instructor has the option to either assess your theoretical knowledge o the hoof or give you a written paper in the Theory, but the ICC is primarily about your boathandling.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Don't you have to log 2500 hrs of experience, nighttime passages etc for Yachtmaster or has that long since gone?

AFAIR, it's 2500 sea miles that are required, plus 8, I think, night hours. There is a discount on the mileage if you hold a Theory Course Attendance Certificate.

 

[KompetentKrew]

There is a practical assesment for ICC, plus the instructor has the option to either assess your theoretical knowledge o the hoof or give you a written paper in the Theory, but the ICC is primarily about your boathandling.

The RYA have changed their website so this is no longer so apparent, but apparently holders of Day Skipper or above still don't need to take a separate assessment - an ICC is issued to them on request. I have always thought a Day Skipper the usual route to an ICC.

See ICC-3 Notes: Evidencing boating competence: PDF

 

[Graham376]

The choice you make at the beginning will to a degree determine the sorts of tasks you are given to undertake as skipper.

It would be interesting to know the difference in tasks as we all have our good and bad points. As all practical boat handling exercises (anchoring, berthing, pilotage, blind navigation etc) are undertaken in inshore or coastal waters, I would assume (maybe wrongly) they're much the same for Coastal or Offshore, the same applying to the many questions about COLREGS, lights, shapes, sound signals, etc. I can understand greater knowledge of weather and offshore passage planning needed for YM Offshore but, what are the extra or better skills you're looking for and tests applied?