Dayskipper, ocean or something else?

[Murv]

EDIT: Apologies, I meant coastal skipper in the title, not ocean.


I'm feeling the need for some formal training under my belt.


My background:
New to boating, started 3.5 Years ago in a single engined outdrive powered cabin cruiser on the tidal Medway. Never went far in it, mainly pottering around the river with brief trips out to sea on the odd occasion it wasn't broken down.
Upgraded to a 40' twin screw on shafts at the beginning of this Year, have completed 110 Hours on our own in it now, mainly on the tidal and non-tidal rivers with a few brief runs out to sea (just in the estuary,) mainly in company with 2 solo trips from the Thames back to the tidal Medway.
Also owned a single engined shaft driven fishing boat on a fore and aft mooring on the tidal swale for a Year or so (plus a small outboard powered planing boat)

Training: I have an introduction to power boating certificate, VHF and did 4 hours boat handling with a local guy in the single engine, with a further 2 hours in the twin screw.
Also self-studied by reading the Tom Cuncliffe day skipper manual, reading colregs etc.
I have a little bit of experience now with mooring, picking up bouys, close quarter handling etc and although I usually have my heart in my mouth, we haven't hit anything... yet so probably slightly more advanced than a complete newcomer. But, I will avoid difficult situations, close quarter turns in strong wind, usually.

So, what to go for?
PB2 seems to be the most frequently recommended course but at the risk of sounding arrogant, I may be a little beyond that now and might not learn too much?
Thinking of doing the dayskipper theory, then practical, but wondering if it might be better to try and bypass that and start with coastal skipper.

I guess what I'm trying to achieve is to know that I'm doing my best to stay safe and operate the boat to the best of my ability. It's also triggered by the look of utter shock and utter disbelief whilst chatting to a guy at the recent ATYC really whilst enjoying a drink on board at the fact I had no qualifications whatsoever...
Having gained a little experience now in local waters, next year we'd like to go a bit further afield and get over to the continent and so want to feel capable of doing that.

Any thoughts?

 

[petem]

You're too advanced for Days Skipper. Go for Yachtmarket Theory then log hours and do the Practical.

 

[julians]

I suspect that lots of us don't have any formal qualifications,I only have an icc from about 20 years ago, and I only did that so I could charter a boat if I ever wanted to. And even then I didn't do the training,just took the practical and theory test

Sounds like a good idea though to get some training,even if just to give confidence, I'm afraid I can't comment on which would-be best as I've never done any of them.

 

[Newbroom]

Chris get a good grounding in the theory. Coastal skipper at least. Experience is a good practical . When your ready take your yacht-master coastal or offshore practical. But if you dont have the theory the practical dosnt have the time to get you up to speed on chart work etc.The theory will give you the confidence in your chart work, passage planning and a good understanding of many other things. Putting these into practice with local water knowledge club cruises etc you will soon be casting off for longer trips.
Dave

 

[Lioness]

I have been motor boating for 6 years and have a similar number of hours to your self. I have done the PB 2, Day Skipper Theory & Practical and have just finished the Yachtmaster Coastal Theory course. I found the Coastal contents to be almost the same as the Dayskipper Theory, just more on Colregs and Weather. So if you know how to plot CTS, Calculate secondary port tidal heights, Col Regs, Read Synoptic Weather Charts etc. I'd suggest just going straight to Coastal.

Though, I would also suggest buying The RYA Navigational Exercises book first as it will give you a good insight of what to expect from any of these courses as well as the training charts and almanac that the courses are based around.

 

[Murv]

Excellent, thanks all
The navathome site offers a slight discount if you go straight in for the coastal theory, as opposed to doing dayskipper then coastal, so that's the one I'll go for then.

Thanks again,

 

[jrudge]

I have the PB2 / ICC and Day Skipper.

Day Skipper was 4 days over one easter and included some really foul weather with big seas that I would not have gone out in!

The PB2 was good to learn how to handle a boat, the Day Skipper on how to use it in practice.

Speaking personally those 2 were enough and taught me to safely operate a boat in most weathers, the rest coming from experience.

Each bigger boat had a handover and lessons for a few hours.

The courses were in my view essential.

 

[kashurst]

I did what turned out to be a very detailed home study day skipper course (NMCS I think). You had to do set exercises at the end of each module and send them off to be marked. At the end was a written 2 paper exam. You had to be very accurate in your workings, which is great whilst you are learning to make sure you have really understood it. However when I did a dayskipper practical I was a bit too intense about it. The reality is nothing like so precise. Later I did a coastal skipper practical course and it didn´t seem any more advanced in knowledge than the dayskipper. However the difference was I had to show I understood what I was doing rather than learning and trying as per dayskipper. A lot of the time I was explaining to the dayskipper students what we were doing and the instructor was checking what I said and did was correct (mostly). I did consider doing a yachtmaster when I had enough miles etc but in the end I didn´t bother. I did go through a yachtmaster theory course and it was the same as the original NMCS dayskipper theory but with more about weather. I wanted to learn about sextants but these days it is rarely taught as apparently you need load of books of tables to work out your position. Unless someone on here can point me in the direction of a good book on how to use one to get a pretty good idea of your position.

 

[paul salliss]

Hi Murv. PM sent. Feel free to call me