Correspondence Courses

[DaveParry]

Just having a look around at Coastal Skipper correspondence courses and am amazed at the range of prices. The expensive ones claim you get what you pay for and the cheap ones claim it's a standard course so choose them. I just thought I would post a request for anyone with first hand experience of them to help me choose how much money to burn.

For info, sample prices:
My local college £135 (can't make it on the evening it is run)
Yachtmaster.co.uk £205 (Tacky web site)
Tiller.co.uk £290 (Better web site, still not brilliant)
National Marine Correspondence School £369 (V Flashy Brochure and Web Site)

Thanks for any help.

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[Reap]

Pity you can't make your local college...by far the best and most enjoyable way to learn in my opinion.
Do you not have a neighbouring towns college who run it on an alternative evening?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yacht-links.net>http://www.yacht-links.net</A>

 

[tcm]

try <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.cmonline.co.uk>http://www.cmonline.co.uk</A> which i used for YM theory. The site is not tacky at all, v knowledgeable backup and decent graphix. Rapid response to msges. I'm supposed to get a tenner by referring people but forgot how to do it, so kindly er mention me somehow...

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[BrendanS]

Agree, also doing the Chichester Maritime online course, and it's very good, with helpful encouraging and knowledgeable support.

You actually download a module onto your pc for learning, then download an assessment for that module,answer the questions and email to the tutor, with very quick turnaround for marks and comments. You then download next module etc.

All very easy, and the modules are very good, with good interactive graphics and well written and clear notes

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[pvb]

Why?....

You have a boat. You have intelligence. Why do you want to take a correspondence course? Go out and sail, it's by far the best way to learn.

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[BrendanS]

Re: Why?....

but how many people out there who are good sailors have ever really and truely sat down and learnt col regs, lights, sound signals etc. Probably a small percentage (I suspect the proportion on this forum would be higher than average, as they mainly constitute those people who would want to learn them)

Meterology is also something that is better learnt at sea if you have some theoretical knowledge of how it works

and it never does anyone any harm to check they know how to navigate and calculate secondary ports tidal predictions.

There are many of us that like to learn, and that's as good a reason as any for me.

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[pvb]

Quite right...

You're quite right, Brendan. Think I must have been in controversial mode yesterday!

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[gtmoore]

Have used Tiller for Day Skipper theory course - good provided literature. I did back it up with their once a fortnight 3 hour class session which was also very useful but seeing your location I would imagine that won't be an option for you as they are in Surrey!

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[mikeb]

I cant comment on prices but I did Dayskipper and Yachtmaster by correspondence from NMCS and they were excellent

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[Vid]

I did my dayskipper with NMCS and was very satisfied with them on basis of quality of materials, support and response. I have a full set of excellent manuals that I can refer to in the future whenever I need a recap.

Of course, doing a correspondence course is very different from taking a taught course and you need to consider this aspect carefully - they are good but you are more isolated than having fellow students around. Having done my DS by correspondence I intend to attend a course when the time comes for the YM theory as I missed this aspect more than I anticipated.

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[pete_h]

Would echo positive comments on NMCS.
Did YM with them and was very satisfied - they were available on the phone to talk though any queries not explained in the texts. Comprehensive set of course materials.
As previously mentioned, with CS you are more on your own, and so need to be sufficiently motivated to complete the course. Very thorough and also pretty time consuming.


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