RYA Day Skipper Theory training. Possibly on-line ?

sarabande

sarabande

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 May 2005
Messages
36,182
Visit site
Being an ever so kind parent, I am going to buy my daughter the Day Skipper theory course for Christmas.

What a total shambles the RYA website is ! Sluggish, incredibly difficult to navigate around, and its GUI looks like a 6th form IT practice.

What also amazes me is the range of charges for the course: from £440 at Marlow, to less than £100 at one of the sailing clubs, with online coming in at around +£250. Someone somewhere seems to be exploiting the market.

From my own experience, a sailing club course is fun, and there is collateral learning as people chat to each other. But an on-line or distance learning course might suit offspring, to integrate it into her rather fierce work schedule. What is a good provider of an online or distance learning course please ?


Oh PS, I know the RYA is a complex organisation, but they really should review their washy-washy online presence. It sucks.
 
Online courses have taken off big time. Makes it much easier to fit around lifestyle these days. I found when teaching it a a club, if someone missed a session or two they were inclined to think because of that, they were behing and may as well give up.

A 5 day intensive course is great but finding the time is often difficult.

Seems to be why modern computer literate people go for online.

There are a few around but if you want a reccommend, try the Navathome site. Yes Im very biased on this! but I happen to know how good they are. Best PM if you want to know more.... I dont work for them but my wife does! ;)
 
capnsensible said:
Online courses have taken off big time. Makes it much easier to fit around lifestyle these days. I found when teaching it a a club, if someone missed a session or two they were inclined to think because of that, they were behing and may as well give up.

A 5 day intensive course is great but finding the time is often difficult.

Seems to be why modern computer literate people go for online.

There are a few around but if you want a reccommend, try the Navathome site. Yes Im very biased on this! but I happen to know how good they are. Best PM if you want to know more.... I dont work for them but my wife does! ;)
Click to expand...

+1 for Navathome
 
I fully understand the attractiveness of an online course for busy people, but I think it is a terrible shame to miss out on what (and how) you can learn by doing the course with others. (So I conclude from my experience of studying sailing, and of teaching other subjects.)

Can you discuss preferences/availability with her, or does this have to be a surprise?
 
My dad chose to do the Coastal theory course online and didn't seem to enjoy it. Both a degree of technical trouble and, necessarily because of the format, a very prescriptive approach.

Then again, he probably wouldn't describe himself as "modern computer literate people" :D

Pete
 
sarabande said:
Being an ever so kind parent, I am going to buy my daughter the Day Skipper theory course for Christmas.

What a total shambles the RYA website is ! Sluggish, incredibly difficult to navigate around, and its GUI looks like a 6th form IT practice.

What also amazes me is the range of charges for the course: from £440 at Marlow, to less than £100 at one of the sailing clubs, with online coming in at around +£250. Someone somewhere seems to be exploiting the market.

From my own experience, a sailing club course is fun, and there is collateral learning as people chat to each other. But an on-line or distance learning course might suit offspring, to integrate it into her rather fierce work schedule. What is a good provider of an online or distance learning course please ?


Oh PS, I know the RYA is a complex organisation, but they really should review their washy-washy online presence. It sucks.
Click to expand...

May as well just read the book.
The whole thing about sailing courses, is contact with other people of varying experience.
 
How lovely. Might be worth checking, too, what evening courses the local school/library/community centre/adult Ed outfits have on offer for the Autumn? She’d then get the benefit of shared learning. Just a thought.
 
KAL said:
How lovely. Might be worth checking, too, what evening courses the local school/library/community centre/adult Ed outfits have on offer for the Autumn? She’d then get the benefit of shared learning. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

I did Yachtmaster theory evening classes at local school. But my local adult education has now gone due to local council austerity. Think the same has happened nationally.
 
I've done both the NavatHome and the Kipper Sailing online courses, and the Kipper Sailing one (sometimes branded "Skippers Online", I think) is the better of the two.

Navathome seems like it's written by an amateur computer programmer who happens to sail. If he's a professional programmer then he learned to program in the days before user interface design concepts were widely accepted. It's basic, but it works. Parts of the lessons are flash animations he created himself.

Instead of writing his own code., the guy who did the Kipper Sailing course has bought himself a subscription to the iSpring teaching / presentation software, which appears to have enabled him to concentrate on higher quality lessons. They are recorded as powerpoint style presentations, over 100 slides for some sections, with a very clear voiceover and worked examples. Each subject has a lesson, a set of exercises and then he works through the answers for the exercises.

I believe both courses are Mac / PC compatible (I have a Mac and was able to use both courses) but the iSpring software allows the Kipper lessons to be downloaded onto your Android phone or tablet (and iPhone / iPad too, I guess?) and watched offline. I quite appreciated this. I guess due to the flash the NavatHome wouldn't work on either Android or iPhone.

The two courses are more or less the same price. Both have an address you can email if you need help, and you'll get a reply from an actual instructor. Both sets of instructors seem about equally good, but I think I needed less help with the Kipper course.

You will probably find a discount code if you google "navathome discount" or "kipper sailing discount". I'm pretty sure they both have free trials, so I suggest you try both before spending your money.
 
Perhaps Duncan Wells' training videos are a better Christmas gift: http://westviewsailing.co.uk/video-tutorials/

The RYA training materials (two training charts + almanac) can be had from the RYA shop (or eBay/Amazon if you don't want to deal with the RYA website at all). Order those for her and wrap them for under the tree along with the £55 for the 3 months video access and a nice set of chart pencils and such.

The videos are excellent quality and enable you to learn at your own pace, and rewind and repeat if you didn't understand something, as often as you like (which is difficult in classrooms). I've learnt my DS and YM theory from these and then just did the RYA practical course. The syllabus is available from the RYA too, although I didn't notice anything missing unless it changed since then.
 
I undertook my online day skipper with Ardent Training. I would give them 5 stars. Such a friendly and helpful bunch of instructors, not that they were really needed. The course content was so clear and easy to follow.
 
scotty123 said:
May as well just read the book.
The whole thing about sailing courses, is contact with other people of varying experience.
Click to expand...
Indeed. In the early Noughties my wife and I took a an evening course at what used to be called a "Tech", now known as an Institute of Technology. It was run under the auspices of Glenans, which used to operate in Ireland at the time, but was open to all. The Q&A always brought out extra insight, and it was good to encounter inland waterways and seaborne mobo types, as well as the usual 'rag&stick' brigade.
 
JSpalding said:
I undertook my online day skipper with Ardent Training. I would give them 5 stars. Such a friendly and helpful bunch of instructors, not that they were really needed. The course content was so clear and easy to follow.
Click to expand...
Give that @sarabande posted this back in 2019 I am quite sure that this was sorted quite some time ago. ;)

I did my Yachtmaster Theory 10 years ago online and loved the flexibility of the course. It was rather different to Day Skipper some 30 years earlier where I was frustrated with the pace of the course; it went with the slowest member of the class. At the time they were just introducing the new Cardinal Buoyage system (I was your youngest in the class) and many were struggling with the new system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top