Recommend me an online RYA course provider?

[salad]

Hello everyone,

Just looking for a recommendation for a course provider who can deliver the RYA Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore theory courses online?

Theres a lot out there, so I'm sure quality varies a bit. I've shopped about a bit, but I'd like to hear what you guys may recommend.

Many thanks

 

[boomerangben]

Navathome worked for me.

 

[WoodyP]

Any reason why you would not take a course on board?. I did a shore based dazed kipper before a week long on board course. Actual real life nav. and sailing was much better.

 

[Hacker]

Navathome worked for me.

+1 from me as well

 

[salad]

Any reason why you would not take a course on board?. I did a shore based dazed kipper before a week long on board course. Actual real life nav. and sailing was much better.

The goal is to do the practical also (on our own boat when we get it), but since my wife and I are doing the courses at the same time, doing it online cuts down on childcare needs and time off work. It's part of our research to see if we like the whole concept. I've done the essential nav course and that went fine, so feel like diving in straight away whereas the boat might be next season.

Dazed kipper lol.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Having had the dubious pleasure of doing both, I thoroughly recommend Skippers Online (formerly known as Kipper Sailing) over Navathome.

Clearly both are qualified instructors, but Navathome comes across like a retired computer programmer decided to create a website, but he doesn't have any experience of user interface design and everything is a bit cludgy and clumsy. You can't navigate through the answer fields using your tab key, and they took exception when I complained about it. When I did it a couple of years ago they were still using flash animations, and the site had to be whitelisted in Safari.

Skippers Online is, in contrast, much better presented - he uses an off-the-shelf online education platform and has concentrated on the quality of the tutorials. The lessons are displayed larger and much clearer, with consistent style and better narration. An advantage of the 3rd-party platform is that you can download an app and download the lessons to your phone or tablet for offline viewing.

They both have a free trial of the first lesson, so try them for yourself and see the difference in quality.

You will also find a discount if you google "skippers online discount code".

 

[salad]

Just to update this thread. I ended up going with Urban Truant. They offer a price match, so it ended up costing £230, which I thought was very reasonable.

Had a few hours at it now and I find the interface nice to use and the content solid. Plenty of videos. I wish they would provide explanations for certain terminology they use, which are outside the scope of the course, or not use them at all. A little info box would be nice for those.

Need to wait for my kit to come through before continuing further, but so far so good.