Mr T
New member
Can anyone advise how difficult it us to pass the RYA Day Skipper practical course
Day Skipper Course
- Thread starter Mr T
- Start date
Thistle
Well-known member
Yes, I can also tell you the length of a piece of string.
PhillM
Well-known member
Now that I would be really interested in. Although you could try this version: https://vimeo.com/93401635
lpdsn
New member
If you can find the sailing school before the boat leaves you stand a very good chance. People do fail but you have to be a liability to achieve that.
Of course, the real test comes after you've got the bit of paper and the instructor has gone, so better to prepare for it and try to get as much out of the course as you can, rather than just rocking up and stumbling through the course.
Aurai
Active member
I am pretty sure
That the Practical is an attendance or successful completion certificate, as opposed to a pass or fail. The shore based, navigation course is a different story, where some people do fail! Not if you can follow the prescribed course and preparation though as all the work leads you to pass as it were.
That the Practical is an attendance or successful completion certificate, as opposed to a pass or fail. The shore based, navigation course is a different story, where some people do fail! Not if you can follow the prescribed course and preparation though as all the work leads you to pass as it were.
Sticky Fingers
Well-known member
Not (universally) so. Friend of mine failed the practical and had to re-do almost 70% of it.
jac
Well-known member
Also heard this.
To answer the OP.
If the DS is your first time sailing then you will probably fail it.
If you have the equivalent knowledge to competent crew practical and DS theory then you should pass. So to translate that!
You should be able to raise, lower, trim the sails, moor the boat up if someone places it alongside the pontoon / buoy, anchor and generally be able to do all the basics of living on board. You should also be able to work out the basics of navigation, weather, crew management.
They will teach you the rest on the DS course.
Sticky Fingers
Well-known member
That's about right.
When I did mine I was pretty much OK on all the bog standard stuff but got hit by a series of unplanned problems (gas ran out and BIG BAD no spare so hot food; engine cooling failure at twilight; had to sail in whilst attempting to restart engine; ship's batteries flat in the dark so no nav equipment or lights (or cold beer), almost impossible to restart (repaired) engine; discovered we had an out of date chart with misplaced marks and got slightly lost in Falmouth harbour; ) and as a result I was very disoriented and a tad stressed. Thought I'd failed by a mile, but apparently the "calm" way I coped with the unplanned issues was Ok so he passed me nonetheless.
It was character forming to say the least. My lovely wife who was crewing at the time was maybe less impressed.
When I did mine I was pretty much OK on all the bog standard stuff but got hit by a series of unplanned problems (gas ran out and BIG BAD no spare so hot food; engine cooling failure at twilight; had to sail in whilst attempting to restart engine; ship's batteries flat in the dark so no nav equipment or lights (or cold beer), almost impossible to restart (repaired) engine; discovered we had an out of date chart with misplaced marks and got slightly lost in Falmouth harbour; ) and as a result I was very disoriented and a tad stressed. Thought I'd failed by a mile, but apparently the "calm" way I coped with the unplanned issues was Ok so he passed me nonetheless.
It was character forming to say the least. My lovely wife who was crewing at the time was maybe less impressed.
ghostlymoron
Well-known member
I've never heard of anyone failing practical course and you have to be very poor to fail the theory either.
Paddy Layback
N/A
On my first Day Skipper, the instructor couldn't issue any DS 'course attended' certs.
That was because the wind dropped to zero on the second day, so the students were unable to demonstrate the various sailing exercises.
£500+ down the drain. Make sure it's going to be windy!
That was because the wind dropped to zero on the second day, so the students were unable to demonstrate the various sailing exercises.
£500+ down the drain. Make sure it's going to be windy!
NormanB
Well-known member
I completed my Day Skippers with four other candidates - three of them were not given the Certificate.
It all depends on the 'school' and of course the instructor. I would imagine recruiting and retaining quality skippers is difficult.
There is a danger that a commercial concern drifts into a perfunctory ' handle turning' revenue stream.
It all depends on the 'school' and of course the instructor. I would imagine recruiting and retaining quality skippers is difficult.
There is a danger that a commercial concern drifts into a perfunctory ' handle turning' revenue stream.
prv
Well-known member
Sticky Fingers
Well-known member
It was. I've commented previously in an unrelated thread (when one of them was up for sale) about how poorly maintained those boats were... pretty poor.
prv
Well-known member
Wow, ok. Remarkable then that you'd worry about all their cockups putting your course result in doubt. I assumed you were concerned because such a poorly prepared own boat reflected badly on you.
Sounds like it may well have been the same company whose boat flooded up to bunk level on my own Day Skipper course...
Pete
TangaraToo
RIP
I would guess the standard required for DS is not very demanding.
I was supposed to do my DS in May last year. Only three students on the boat (HR36), both the others were doing Coastal Skipper. I was somewhat surprised (and a little peeved) that I was asked to complete all the CS exercises with no changes for DS. Had a great 5 days, easily held my own against the other two and thought they would fail CS.
End of course all three of us were awarded CS. Apparently the instructor had decided day 1 I was way above DS standard and just put me through CS instead (without mentioning it).
So why do I think the required standard is not demanding. I was invited to do a cross channel trip with the other students a few weeks later but declined as I was not confident they could handle an emergency situation despite having CS and would rather not be crew on a boat in that situation.
All that said it's worth noting I had been single handing a 30ft yacht for 2 years at the point I did the course so not new to sailing.
If you have some sailing experience you should be fine.
I was supposed to do my DS in May last year. Only three students on the boat (HR36), both the others were doing Coastal Skipper. I was somewhat surprised (and a little peeved) that I was asked to complete all the CS exercises with no changes for DS. Had a great 5 days, easily held my own against the other two and thought they would fail CS.
End of course all three of us were awarded CS. Apparently the instructor had decided day 1 I was way above DS standard and just put me through CS instead (without mentioning it).
So why do I think the required standard is not demanding. I was invited to do a cross channel trip with the other students a few weeks later but declined as I was not confident they could handle an emergency situation despite having CS and would rather not be crew on a boat in that situation.
All that said it's worth noting I had been single handing a 30ft yacht for 2 years at the point I did the course so not new to sailing.
If you have some sailing experience you should be fine.
jac
Well-known member
I think there is the rub.
To do DS you only need a hundred miles seatime and 5 days on board. Anyone who has been sailing around in a yacht for a season will be well over that level. Even CS is only 800 miles and 2 days as skipper.
so anyone who has some basic dinghy sailing experience, then buys a small yacht and practices for a season and does some book reading / online courses will probably be fine to then do the CS course.
prv
Well-known member
The Day Skipper course is a course, not a test. It's meant to take people who haven't skippered a boat before, and teach them how to do so.
If you already had two years' experience as a skipper (albeit maybe not "crew management", but that's not a huge part of Day Skipper anyway) then you weren't in the target audience for the course and it's no wonder you found it undemanding. Credit to the instructor for spotting it and giving you Coastal instead, though he probably should have had a word on the first evening and not the last!
Pete
TangaraToo
RIP
Agreed, I was impressed with being awarded CS when I'd booked for DS and as you say, a chat at the end of day 1 might have been good. However, I suspect, given the amount of nav I did plus checks on my theory knowledge all through the week that she (instructor) was just making sure I didn't have any significant gaps in my abilities. Overall I was extremely impressed with the school.
It is very hard to judge what the required standard is when booking on these courses. Several schools wanted me to do a CC or a weekend with them before signing me up for DS course despite my experience. I'd also been dinghy racing for a few years plus held PBL2 and Safety Boat quals. My feeling was some schools just want you to waste money with them.
maby
Well-known member
There seems to be a serious lack of standardisation in the practical course. I have spoken to people who went through a highly structured five days with multiple tests throughout and I have spoken to others who just seem to have gone sailing with the instructor for five days. Our course was more towards the structured end of the scale - we sailed from place to place - relatively short passages - and stopped at each to spend a couple of hours focusing on some aspect of sailing. There was a lot of focus on safety related topics - we spent many hours doing man-overboard recoveries. We also covered a variety of emergency maintenance tasks - how to get some life into a dead engine, getting round jammed or broken ropes - that sort of thing.
The instructor did get each of us to do some paper work - passage planning, tidal calculations - that sort of thing. I'm not clear if that is part of the syllabus and others that I've spoken to seem not to have done it.
Our instructor was a young guy and experienced at single-handing - in most cases, he showed us how to complete the tasks single handed - man-overboard recovery single-handed under sail was particularly impressive. Mooring single handed under sail was also impressive.
At the end of the five days, we all passed, but I think he would have been quite prepared to fail someone if they had done bad enough. He sat down with us and went through our performance in some detail, highlighting shortcomings. In my case he said that I needed to concentrate on the deck work - I was not fast enough and needed to improve my knots.
The instructor did get each of us to do some paper work - passage planning, tidal calculations - that sort of thing. I'm not clear if that is part of the syllabus and others that I've spoken to seem not to have done it.
Our instructor was a young guy and experienced at single-handing - in most cases, he showed us how to complete the tasks single handed - man-overboard recovery single-handed under sail was particularly impressive. Mooring single handed under sail was also impressive.
At the end of the five days, we all passed, but I think he would have been quite prepared to fail someone if they had done bad enough. He sat down with us and went through our performance in some detail, highlighting shortcomings. In my case he said that I needed to concentrate on the deck work - I was not fast enough and needed to improve my knots.
ghostlymoron
Well-known member
I was quite lucky on my DS course at Conwy as their was just me doing it, two others were doing competant crew son I had some minions to do the donkey work whilst I did passage planning, dead reckoning and other navigation tasks a lot of the time at chart table but also organising crew for mooring and anchoring.
One thing that amused me was that the boat was provisioned for all meals aboard but the skipper heaved all the evening meals overboard on the first morning announcing she'd rather eat ashore (which suited me anyway ).
One thing that amused me was that the boat was provisioned for all meals aboard but the skipper heaved all the evening meals overboard on the first morning announcing she'd rather eat ashore (which suited me anyway ).
