Dayskipper or straight to yacht master

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Cruless

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Hi I am new to the forum after various searches and following this great forum for a few months it's time to say hello!

I am 29 and me and my partner are starting into the motorboat world, we have has a small speedboat ( a lovely 16ft waterski delta sports boat) on Loch Lomond for 2years and we are wanting to upgrade to a new boat, with accommodation , currently favouring the sealine sc 35, have also had a lot of experience at the helm of a halvorsen 32( single engine shaft drive with bow thruster) on windermere (70 hours estimate)

My main question is about qualifications, I have my rya level 1 and 2 powerboat and safety boat certificates, plus rya levels 1-3 in sailing , advanced red racing and boat handling, plus sailing assistant instructor,
I have been given conflicting advice regarding courses as our new boat will be on the coast near hull. I was planning on doing the dayskipper theory over winter and the practical (dayskipper tidal) early next year, but some people have mentioned not bothering with the day skipper and going straight for the yacht master coastal, due to my previous experience. Has anybody else jumped straight in to the yacht master prep and bypassed dayskipper ? If so did you still do the dayskipper theory?
Any advice would be appreciated,
Thankyou
Rich
 
Hi Rich. Personally, I would do the YM Thory and then the Day Skipper Practical - then do the YM Practical at a later date if you are so inclined. Looking at your experience, it's a big step to go straight into YM Practical, IMHO.
 
Hi Rich, welcome to the forum. I would have thought your main bar to going straight to YM is your lack of qualifying experience. From what you've said here, most of your boating is on lakes - for the YM you need qualifying sea time on tidal waters. The precise requirement varies depending on what flavour of YM you go for, but for example this is what they say about YM Coastal:

30 days, 2 days as skipper, 800 miles, 12 night hours (if you hold the Coastal Skipper course certificate this is reduced to 20 days, 2 days as skipper, 400 miles, 12 night hours). Half the qualifying sea time must be conducted in tidal waters.
Click to expand...
 
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Thankyou for your replies , it's a great forum
Appologies where I mentioned yachmatster coastal I was meaning coastal skipper , it's all still new to me . I am thinking dayskipper theory and practical is going to be the best option for me . ?
I just want to make sure I end up doing the most suitable course to make sure Me and the family are safe on the water for our weekend excursions.
Rich
 
I think you're referring to the Yachtmaster/Coastal Skipper theory course.

In my view, if you're prepared to put in a bit of work before the course and are a reasonably quick learner, you can get away with skipping the Day Skipper theory and going straight to the YM theory, which will save yourself the cost of it. Make sure you learn the ColRegs and get a good understanding of tidal calcs, at the least, as a starting point - if you turn up as a complete beginner it'll be very hard.

Don't go straight to the YM theory if you struggled with Geometry/Trigonometry at school.

And don't try the same with the practical courses, there's a lot more experienced needed to get from the practical DS to the practical YM.
 
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Dont miss out DS theory and do the DSPractical unless you really understand all the theory. You will annoy everyone else on the boat who will have to wait around while the instructor teaches you the theory.

It sounds like you will be experienced at driving and parking, but useless at tides, colregs, navigation.

Its called a ladder for a reason, start at the bottom.
 
The Coastal Skipper practical course is targeted at those with reasonable experience of tidal work.. ...ideally the Day Skipper Practical or a lot of experience.
My CS courses involve a lot of passage, night and command work with the intention of giving the learner the required passages over 60 milles to progress to the Yachtmaster Cert of Comp exam. An inexperienced learner would hamper progress. I would recommend the 4 day Day Skipper first, from what you have said.

Likewise, do not attempt the Yachtmaster/Coastal Skipper theory course unless you have done a lot of self prep or completed the Day Skipper theory course.
Now is the time to sign up if you are doing it by evening class.
 
Thankyou for the reply coastwise
I'm going to sign up tomorrow to a local dayskipper theory class I have found near to me,starting next week 1 evening a week, and go from there. Are there any books in particular that are very good for starting out with the theory, apart from what the training centre supplies ?
 
The dayskipper course provides a massive amount of base principles to later build upon - everything from anchoring to mooring techniques and how to tie a line to a cleat properly. Generally the basics of being safe for both you and your (less experienced) crew.

Much of this is assumed as known at the higher level Coastal, and then should you try for Yachtmaster Offshore you could find yourself missing vital fundamentals.

Also counting minimal miles and time aboard will not help at the higher levels, especially if you do not have these fundamentals.

Saving cost, perhaps, but no one ever said boating was a cheap hobby, and in proportion to the myriad of other costs owning boats will bring, the training regime is fairly low on the overall %, especially for the longer term return this provides. My time in early training remain the most magical and longest remembered periods of my boating experiences.
 
Ref books - I would say not to get too bogged down with other books on specialized subjects at this level as you may be concentrating in too much depth of a subject rather than more broad based. If you go on to Coastal Skipper , you might find other publications on collision regs & meteorology useful.

A useful reference book for later for both practical & theory is the Reeds Skippers Handbook.

If you keep your boat in Hull , you will soon find the Costa del Humber , although not scenic, a very interesting area to learn quickly with practical skills with strong tidal streams, largish tidal ranges & plenty of commercial traffic. That was where I set up my motor training centre originally.
 
as others have said do your day skipper and a theory course, and preferably before you start playing in the waters of the Humber. The tide situation there is not to be underestimated and you will learn loads. Theres no reason to rush into trying yachtmaster. Once you have your dayskipper, experience and practice matters more.
 
Think about doing your day skipper practical on your own boat, where you will be keeping it, once you have bought your new one. The amount of specific stuff you will learn is really useful.
 
Remember one does not need any paper certs in UK to legally take charge of a leisure vessel, what one does need for safety is to build up EXPERIENCE, which class room courses do not give.

However many folk enjoy attending theory courses. If you are going to spend cash on training do 'on the water' practical courses or own boat tuition, combined with one or two good books. The YM coastal theory is not rocket science, but you will feel back at school for the navigation and tide elements. If doing a theory course recommend doing an evening course over the winter months rather than intensive one week crash courses or two long weekends. You need time to enjoy and understand the home work, which you just don't get on the short 'boot camp' courses.
 
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