Inland dinghy sailor straight to Day Skipper ?

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Pikor

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Hi Ladies and Gents,

I have a possibility to go directly on Day Skipper course being (only?) a dinghy sailor. The theory is covered as well as VHF - no issues here. However, having a conversation with other sailing schools they were insisting on doing Competent Crew first and building a mileage and so on and so forth, expecting person going straight to DS to struggle. Now, I am not afraid to jump into deep water, I am also not afraid of failure, it is a learning experience. I am also confident that I can do it. My confidence may well be a result of ignorance though :). What I am trying to establish is an opinion how much of this is real and how much is a sales pitch.

Regards,
 
The Dazed Kipper course (classroom) is no real challenge. If you are a half competent dinghy sailor, you will be OK.


Loads of hours loafing around on a keelboat eating Mars Bars does not necessarily make you a better candidate for DS. It is all about motivation, and doing your homework.
 
sailorman said:
You can sail, what more will a DS offer you
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That's an interesting question; maybe he's thinking of chartering, when having some sort of qualification might be a benefit.

But if he's a reasonable dinghy sailor, he'll have a headstart in understanding the elements. My wife & I hadn't ever sailed anything when we went out and bought a Westerly Centaur many years ago - we did the learning as we went along, and often wished we'd done dinghy sailing when we were younger.
 
To some extent dinghy sailing means you can quite easily just stop and go ashore if it goes a bit nasty whereas even in a small cruiser land my not be so easy to get to,probably planning,being more aware of the weather forecasts and anchoring are useful things to add to dinghy sailing
 
You will be fine and well off re boat handling compared to a lot of people only used to cruisers.

Obviously read up what you can in advance so as to get the most out of it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

When I did YM Offshore there was someone doing Competent Crew - it was very much ' can you walk and chew gum ? ' ! The school saying it's necessary should be avoided, they were just trying to squeeze a considerable extra amount from you.
 
I've done both CC and Dazed Kipper courses and they were run together so on both boats, I had others doing the same seagoing course for different reasons. Most CC were interested in the "advanced" elements but were not tested in the same way. In both courses, the Instructor signed me off, I don't know how normal that is. Had I known, I'd not have wasted my time doing both, although I did have a significant amount of sea time before taking the CC and had my own boat for a couple of years before the Dazed Kipper..

Coastal and Yachtmaster float courses are more intense.
 
If in doubt, go to the RYA.
https://www.rya.org.uk/courses-trai...s/professional-courses/Pages/day-skipper.aspx

"Pre-course experience 5 days, 100 miles, 4 night hours on board a sailing yacht"

So, you don't need to do comp crew, but it is one way of getting the required pre-course experience.
There are other ways, crewing for someone, a charter holiday, buying your own boat.....

IIRC, the experience has to be on a yacht not a dinghy or dayboat, there is some arbitrary LOA limit selected to annoy a few people.
 
Get a book (Cunliffe?) and swot up on the theory beforehand as there is only so much information you can absorb in a limited time. After that you will be ok. My wife and I (long term dinghy helm and crew) booked a weekend on a yacht in the Menai Straits, as though we had sailed on yachts, we had not done much pilotage in narrow waters and we were both going straight to a Coastal Skipper course, without doing either Competent Crew or Day Skipper Practical course. My wife was helming and given a course to steer by a Day Skipper candidate in the final hour of his course and he was completely baffled when she said that if she steered that course then we would gybe. Your dinghy sailing experience has give you the wind awareness, so what you will get from a Day Skipper course is some thoughts on running a yacht. If you can get some experience in a motor boat beforehand, that would also be useful, even if it is just a RIB.
 
Thanks all.
I'm going for it. I did the theory (material, not course) and found that this knowledge require constant refresh if not practically applied so the faster the better. As for reasons, I want to be able to charter boats in the Med (ICC) but I am also looking for my first boat now and I do expect that most (all) of my sailing will be single/short handed, even if having passengers. Therefore I want to have some professional tuition.
 
Tammany said:
Cheaper & better insurance plus ability to hire boats are the only real benefits
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I have very good insurance cover & at very reasonable cost, i do not have any quals, when i started sailing it was learn from others & i started with a Mirror dinghy & first "Yacht" was a Silhouette 2, unlike today when a "starter boat" is 35 ft +
 
Pikor said:
Hi Ladies and Gents,

I have a possibility to go directly on Day Skipper course being (only?) a dinghy sailor. The theory is covered as well as VHF - no issues here. However, having a conversation with other sailing schools they were insisting on doing Competent Crew first and building a mileage and so on and so forth, expecting person going straight to DS to struggle. Now, I am not afraid to jump into deep water, I am also not afraid of failure, it is a learning experience. I am also confident that I can do it. My confidence may well be a result of ignorance though :). What I am trying to establish is an opinion how much of this is real and how much is a sales pitch.

Regards,
Click to expand...

I've no doubt you'll pass and get the ticket. I've had crew who have turned up with a DS ticket who have basically just gone on the course and passed with no experience whatsoever beforehand. OK, many have been a complete liability but that is really about attitude. At least you'll know how the sails work, so if you take the right approach afterwards to filling the gaps in your basic knowledge you should manage it OK.

One tip from having raced with experienced dinghy racers moving up to bigger racers for the first time is that they can seriously under-estimate the forces involved at first, so be alert to that.
 
But unless you are prepared to lie to the instructor, they may struggle to award the certificate if you have not done the pre-requisite hours and miles.

They are signing you off as having a certain amount of experience and you are creating a difficult situation if there is no way you can have that number of hours at the end of the course.

What I would suggest doing depends on how much of a hurry you are in.
If it's a rush, then ask sailing schools what is the best/quickest way to get the hours and miles in.
If it's not a rush, consider looking for other ways to get a little 'offshore' or 'yacht' experience.
Racing boats often want crew.
Club members will often take other club members along on 'rallies' and cross-channel wine purchasing expeditions.
It's all there for the scrounging.
Also consider, what is your goal?
You do not need to get every ticket in the range.
You can do YM theory ashore, build some miles over a few years, then go straight for YM offshore.

Neither does all 'instruction' have to be for an RYA 'badge'.
There is quite an alternative market, where instructors will provide bespoke 'own boat' tuition.


Having said that, doing Comp Crew and DS can be a fine introduction. Meet some new people, sail some different boats, learn some new skills. At least you should be starting off with a half-decent boat and an instructor who knows what he is doing and can do a reasonable job of passing on his knowledge.
Doing the Comp Crew might help put the book-learned theory into context, so you approach the DS course 'up and running' and get the most out of it?
 
If she were in the water I'd offer to come for a spin on my boat, maybe others here may contact you.

Maybe the now defunct Solent School of Yachting didn't take Competent Crew seriously - they certainly did for Coastal Skipper and the Yotmaster Offshore I was doing, that was not a ' come for a suntan ' outfit and had very seriously good instructors.

However the chap doing Competent Crew just got to inflate and row a dinghy about a bit and learn to tie on fenders, the rest of his instruction seemed to be by watching the rest of us; mind he was definitely an oddball in himself so maybe the instructor was at the end of his tether, I would have been, and have done a lot of dinghy instruction.

Also to the OP, if you have the chance of cruiser sailing right now, grab it; you learn a lot more in winter time when other people along aren't just out to get a sun tan and depending where you are it's a lot less crowded.
 
lw395 said:
But unless you are prepared to lie to the instructor, they may struggle to award the certificate if you have not done the pre-requisite hours and miles.

They are signing you off as having a certain amount of experience and you are creating a difficult situation if there is no way you can have that number of hours at the end of the course.

What I would suggest doing depends on how much of a hurry you are in.
If it's a rush, then ask sailing schools what is the best/quickest way to get the hours and miles in.
If it's not a rush, consider looking for other ways to get a little 'offshore' or 'yacht' experience.
Racing boats often want crew.
Club members will often take other club members along on 'rallies' and cross-channel wine purchasing expeditions.
It's all there for the scrounging.
Also consider, what is your goal?
You do not need to get every ticket in the range.
You can do YM theory ashore, build some miles over a few years, then go straight for YM offshore.

Neither does all 'instruction' have to be for an RYA 'badge'.
There is quite an alternative market, where instructors will provide bespoke 'own boat' tuition.


Having said that, doing Comp Crew and DS can be a fine introduction. Meet some new people, sail some different boats, learn some new skills. At least you should be starting off with a half-decent boat and an instructor who knows what he is doing and can do a reasonable job of passing on his knowledge.
Doing the Comp Crew might help put the book-learned theory into context, so you approach the DS course 'up and running' and get the most out of it?
Click to expand...

They are fully aware of my experience and expectations. We had a long talk about it. There was more doubts on my side really.
 
My wife and I both took and passed both the Dayskipper Theory and Practical with no more experience than you. I had been a dinghy sailor in my youth, but my wife had never been afloat on anything smaller than a cross Channel ferry. We did the theory as a correspondence course. Passed both theory and practical first time.
 
Pikor said:
They are fully aware of my experience and expectations. We had a long talk about it. There was more doubts on my side really.
Click to expand...

I've heard it said that some sailing schools will give a piece of paper to anyone who turns up with a credit card.
If they're not rigorous with the pre-requisites, do you expect them to be rigorous in teaching you what you're paying to be taught?
Maybe you should ask the RYA if those pre-requisites are 'negotiable'?

Do you want the peice of paper, or do you want to know what you've learned?

There are some borderline murky goings on in the world of sea schools, YM candidates who've never been solely responsible for a boat, as an example.
 
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