RYA Courses - help please... books and info?

[JesseLoynes]

I'm hoping that there are a few here who can help me...

I'm currently looking at RYA yachting courses for my wife and I. The thing is, I'm trying to work out where to start. With a tightish budget, I can't really afford doing courses that don't teach me a lot just for the pleasure; but equally don't want to miss them if the experience is going to be valuable.

I've been sailing dinghies for 20 years, from Toppers to RS800s. That includes a couple of seasons as an Instructor. I've also done 5 or 6 week-long cruises on the Norfolk Broads in 30 - 35 ft yachts; and an 8 day trip from Falmouth to Cork, and then along to Bantry by way of Fastnet.

So I'm happy helming this size boat in a variety of conditions, and once I've had a day or two on board can manouvre into berths happily under engine or come alongside or to a bouy under sail. ON the trip to Ireland I was awarded my Comp. Crew and did most of the chart work, although this was ten years ago now.

So I don't want to spend a week on board being told how to change a foresail or which way to turn the wheel.

My current thought is to find a good theory and navigation exercise book to read up and see if there's much I don't know, then look at either Day or Coastal Skipper.

My wife is a reasonable dinghy sailor, but has less time on yachts and less theory knowledge.

Basically, any advice as to what the courses entail, pre-requisites, text books or centres/schools would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance...

 

[simon501]

I've done the day skipper practical to get the 'real' navigation (including pilotage) and skipper basics, and have just started a combined Day Skipper/Yachtmaster theory course with Chichester Maritime.

Hope this helps,

Simon

p.s. I'm not rich either!!!

 

[bobgosling]

I second Simon's comments. Do a shore based Day Skipper theory then the RYA ICC course which gives you an internationaly recognised certificate which would allow you to charter a yacht on holiday.

 

[nimbusgb]

Like you my sailing has been more than 3 decades of self taught dinghy and small keeler ownership and larger 50' plus crewing. I decided to skip the dayskipper and go straight to YM Offshore. It meant a bit of a stretch mentally and I spent a lot of time investigating and reading up on stuff that I might have got from a dayskipper course but lets face it this is not rocket science we are talking about!

I am doing a correspondence course though a reputable school, course is well organised and with a fair amount of supporting documentation. I spent 6 months on and off studying and then started to put in the excercises, with the knowledge firmly set it became easy to rip through them in a matter of a few weeks.

PM me for more details.

 

[Sturge]

I know PBO & Yachting Monthly publish a list of courses as a supplement with the RYA each year. Usually the shore based courses coincide with the PBO issue at Southampton. It's pretty comprehensive and has all the RYA schools listed in it. I've asked the question before and I know YBW were going to list the schools at one stage...

 

[Guest]

Do you know anyone with the RYA CD's ?

Browse through the courses / etc. on that ... ??

Reading through your post - you seem to have more understanding than a lot of twits out there ...

 

[AlJones]

Dear BSJ

Your concerns with regard to not wanting to go over the basics of boat handling and sail triming is understandable.

I would recommend to you that you PM, 'alant', a forumite with many, many years instructing under his belt as a RYA Yachtmaster instructor.

I own a school based in Gosport and have had many candidates come through with varying strength and weeknesses. These always stand out, and therfore once a certain evolution has been demonstrated to a required standard, it leaves more time to concentrate on the aspects that you as a candidate would like instruction on.

I am going to PM you anyway.

Al Jones.

 

[dedwards]

You can buy a number of Day Skipper books from amazon/ any good book shop. We have the one by Pat Langly-Price, which is pretty good. This should give you a good yardstick to compare your knowledge to.
Though I havent done it, I hear the coastal Skipper theory is not much more advanced that the day skipper one so maybe its best to plump for that if you feel comfortable with half of the day skipper content.

Its hard to make recommendations for your wife based on the info you've given but it sounds likely that she will benefit from the day skipper courses. If you are planning on doing this together it would be better for you to retread old ground than your wife be overstretched and potentially put off.

 

[Melody]

Dear BSJ

Here is some info on what to expect on an RYA Day Skipper course. It’s based on what we do, but most schools will be similar -

Firstly, the instructor is not going to waste his/her time teaching you things that you already know. During the first couple of days you will be asked to undertake various tasks and the instructor will assess your existing level of knowledge and sailing ability. You will be asked to act as skipper for the day. This will involve planning a passage from A to B, taking the yacht safely out of port, giving instructions to the crew, appointing people to helm, ensuring the sails are correctly trimmed, reefing when appropriate, navigating, keeping the ship’s log book, and piloting the boat into your final destination.

During the passage the instructor will ask questions. These may be about situations that arise, for example relating to navigational aids that you pass or to the collision regulations as they would apply between you and other vessels that you see.

He/she will watch how you perform the various tasks and will then focus on any areas of navigation, sailing, or theoretical knowledge that you need to work on.

At various points during the course you will carry out exercises. These will include boat-handling, anchoring, man overboard drill, etc. Normally the instructor will demonstrate these first, and then each of the Day Skipper students will carry out the manoeuvre. We often find that although students may have done plenty of berthing, they rarely practise man overboard. Depending upon the area in which you live you may also not have had much practice at anchoring, berthing stern or bows to, picking up buoys, etc

The course will also cover meteorology, some engine work and maintenance (such as bleeding of fuel system), and a discussion of emergency equipment, and what to do in emergency situations.

The Day Skipper course nowadays includes the use of electronic navigation aids such as GPS chart plotters, and Navtex, which you may not have used before.

The Day Skipper course includes a night passage of at least four hours, navigating by lights and practicing night recognition of vessels by their lights. This is something that many students will not have done before.

If you take a group course there will be up to five students on board. In some cases they may all be doing the same course, although they may be a mixture of students with some on skippers’ courses and some Competent Crew. If you do not want to be with other people and are prepared to pay a premium it is possible to arrange a private course for two people. Having said that, you will frequently learn from watching others.

In fact one of the main advantages of taking a recognised course is that you will be sailing with a good skipper and it is likely that you will learn a lot simply from watching him/her. I suggest that when you book you make sure that your instructor will be an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor, and not merely an RYA Cruising Instructor. Although there are some good Cruising Instructors around, having someone who is actually passed the Yachtmaster Instructor course is one of your best guarantees of quality training.

You may feel that you are already at Day Skipper level and would prefer to do a Coastal Skipper course. Many schools will be happy to accept you and monitor your ability over the first couple of days before advising you which course you should be on. However, if you have not already done an RYA course, you may underestimate the standard that will be expected of you at coastal skipper level. You would be expected to carry out the same manoeuvres as on a Day Skipper course, but this time not only under power but also under sail. Coastal skipper courses include much longer passages, probably with a long overnight sail involving watches, and less pilotage.

As far as CDs are concerned, we like the ones by Longbow Training - www.longbow-uk.com. For a book, try the new Day Skipper book by Tom Cunliffe. Can't remember what its called but you will find it on the RYA website at www.rya.org.uk

Instructors love to have experienced dinghy sailors on their courses so I'm sure you will have a great time.

 

[Birdseye]

With your previous dinghy and chartering experience you know how to sail a boat. So a practical course is not what you need, and dont kid yourself that you can be taught the 48 hours worth of day skipper theory in the 4 days or so that a practical instructor will have you and 5 others on his boat. Leaving aside the fact that to successfully teach practical skills requires a different set of skills to making a theory course interesting. The cost of such a theory course will be typically £100, way less than the practical one

I suggest you get yourself a day skipper or yachtmaster evening class at a local sailing club - that way you learn from practical sailors and gain contacts / have fun as well. Usually much cheaper than local college courses which in our area arent always taught by qualified instructors.

If you need a bit of paper for chartering abroad (and many places dont require anything other than your money) go for the ICC. Again you can often do that at a club at a small cost.

 

[Skyva_2]

A local club may provide a course for £100, but evening classes probably not. The cuts in funding mean most Adult Ed courses will be closer to £250 - 300 in most areas.

But they should be taught by qualified instructors - the course should not get RYA approval without it.

 

[Birdseye]

[ QUOTE ]
A local club may provide a course for £100, but evening classes probably not. The cuts in funding mean most Adult Ed courses will be closer to £250 - 300 in most areas.

But they should be taught by qualified instructors - the course should not get RYA approval without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our club offers evening DS and YM shorebased courses of £100 or so and so do other local clubs.

I agree with you about the qualified instructors, but since the RYA dont seem to police the local colleges, it still happens.

 

[jonathankent]

I will add to the other comments already made. I agree that you should both do your day skipper courses, ideally theory first and then on to the practical.... if not just to get the qualification but to make sure you are taught the right way of doing things, and I imagine it will make things an awful lot more enjoyable for your wife if she isn't as experienced.

Secondly, you haven't mentioned what you intend to do once qualified.... are you planning on pottering around the Solent, a cross channel trip, or an atlantic crossing. This, I believe, will have an affect on what course you realistically need to do. The day skipper will teach you an awful lot, and as long as you have your wits about you you can put it into practice in more situations than it says you can, i.e. the wording is "to skipper a yacht in familiar waters by day", but with a bit of thinking you could apply it to anywhere. I was told by my instructor that the comp crew & day skipper are the hardest courses... once you have learnt that, the rest is just the same principal but at a higher and more challenging level.

One of the posts quoted that coastal skipper expects you to do the manouvres under sail.... the day skipper expects this, or at least it did where I did mine. We had to sail & motor on to and off of moorings, motor into numerours marina berths, anchoring, mob both under sail and motor... and the list goes on. I did comp crew to learn how to sail having never been on a yacht before, and then on to the day skipper theory & practical. I use what I learnt in the day skipper course far more than I thought.... the comp crew taught me how to sail, but once I learnt that its like riding a bike.

Whatever you decide to do, enjoy it! ... and don't forget to come back and tell us how you get on.

P.S. there are a number of posts on here recommending various sailing schools you may be interested in.

 

[Melody]

Yes, the Day Skipper syllabus includes sailing to and from a buoy and anchoring under sail, but you don't have to be able to sail alongside or pick up an MOB under sail.

 

[jonathankent]

We obviously did more than the minimum required..... not a bad thing really anyway. When doing my day skipper theory there was 4 of us in total, and the other 3 were on the 14wk fast track yachtmaster, so the level during this week was always slightly higher than what would have been done if it were just day skippers.... I wouldn't like to say exactly what was required or what was extra to the syllabus.

 

[JesseLoynes]

WOW!

That's a huge amount of useful info from everyone. Thank you.

I think it's likely we will do our theory courses, and then both work from Day Skipper up. It's definitely where my wife should start; and I'm reassured by many of you stating that the instructor has enough freedom within the course to evaluate and concentrate on the necessary things. If I do the Day Skipper, it's a good warm up, will be good fun to do together, and I'll be shore there won't be anything sprung on me in the Coastal Skipper that I've never done.

Thanks again for all the help and I'll let you know how we get on.

In response to the question of what we want to do.... Well, I'm a boatbuilder specialising in wooden boats and want to be confident to deliver boats if necessary, and we're quite seriously thinking of extended cruising out to the Med or further in later years. We reckon a teacher and boatbuilder/carpenter should be able to find a years work here or there without too much trouble... Well, that's the plan.

Thanks again, /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Jesse.

 

[arfa]

I can recommend four winds sailing for the day skipper practical - cost approx £400 for 5 days (based in bucklers hard). They were very hands on a thorough. You could always buy the pocket sized reeds skippers handbook (cost approx £8) and if all the material in it is familiar, the practical course is probably going to be a waste of time (and money).