RYA Instruction - Max Yacht Size??

Richard10002

Richard10002

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Assuming I pass my Yachtmaster next month, I'm considering progressing to cruising instructor with a view to offering instruction to Day Skipper Level on board Rogue.

However, my instructor has suggested that the RYA may specifiy a maximum length/size of yacht for training, and he has advised that I dont invest any more money on either me, or the boat, until I know the situation.

Cant find anything on the RYA site - any ideas?

Many Thanks

Richard
 
Are you sure you can do that? I always thought each RTE had to have a 'Principal Instructor' who was a Yachtmaster instructor. Unless you are going to work your own boat for another school that is.
 
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Assuming I pass my Yachtmaster next month, I'm considering progressing to cruising instructor with a view to offering instruction to Day Skipper Level on board Rogue.



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Oh that it was that simple! You will need to set up a school to instruct that has to be inspected, then the vessel is inspected. You could "charter" your vessel to a recognised sea school providing it meets the specifications and you could well get your cruising instructor ticket and teach on your own boat but don't bank on it. If as you location seems to indicate, you are looking at doing this outside the UK don't expect it to be a 5 minute job to set up either. Plus you will have to pay travel expenses in addition to the inspection fee.

As a seaschool principle, you don't have to hold all the qualifications (I know of one where the principle does not hold a single RYA instructor ticket) of the courses you intend to offer, but you must have a chief instructor(s) who does! If all you intend to do is offer DS practical courses then you will go bust!!

The processes of setting up of a sea school to offer RYA courses are not easily achieved.And it's not cheap! Plus the school will then undergo an anuual inspection.
 
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Are you sure you can do that? I always thought each RTE had to have a 'Principal Instructor' who was a Yachtmaster instructor.

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having trawled through the RYA site today, that's how it looks.. and I would guess that you have to take a minimum number of DS and/or CC courses before being able to progress to YM Instructor - and rightly so.

The initial idea is to skippered charter the boat, so it will need to be coded. It seemed to make sense to be able to offer charterers the chance to do CC or DS if possible.

Perhaps I could offer my services to the RYA schools wherever I am, to build up some Instructor experience over however long it takes.

Generally there is no such word as "can't" in my vocabulary, so there will be a way... it's just a matter of finding it.

See my other reply for a bit more on our tentative plans.

Thanks for pointing this out

Richard
 
[quote If all you intend to do is offer DS practical courses then you will go bust!!

The processes of setting up of a sea school to offer RYA courses are not easily achieved.And it's not cheap! Plus the school will then undergo an anuual inspection.

[/ QUOTE ]

The research has to start somewhere, and it is only an idea at the moment. And I am not in a position to disagree with you properly yet.

However, at the moment, our plan is to live aboard the boat from the end of this month.

Whilst it is nice to be "retired", I think I need to do some kind of job/work, if not for the extra money, then for my own sanity and self esteem, (to a degree). Not sure how bothered I am about self esteem, but it's in the mix somewhere.

So, if possible, it would be nice to add a bit to our existing income by offering skippered charter, (a bit like Steve Clayton), thus I am almost certainly going to get her coded.

The advantage that we may have is that we probably dont need to earn any money to fund our living expenses, or the capital cost of the boat so, provided our variable costs are met, and there is a bit of "spends" at the end of it, that's all that matters.

There is no question that a couple with a boat can form a sailing school, and live a reasonably nice life on the earnings - there are a few of them about. We are a couple with a boat with a reasonable income before even thinking about a sailing school/charter business, so it should be easier for us.

So we cant really go bust due to offering only DS Practical, unless the costs of offering it, (both initial and ongoing), exceed what we can earn, (which they may, and which I am in the process of finding out - but if the boat was too big, it was a non starter and wouldnt warrant further research).

We might go bust by living on the boat on existing income and not working as such, but that is a different kettle of fish.

I may be trying to run before I can walk, but that's never stopped me, so I see no reason to let it now.

I'm open to any constructive criticism and advice, and we may find that chartering is as far as we get.

Wait till you see my other income generating idea /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks for the input - I'm sure I need some Devils' Advocates.

Richard
 
A friend of mine ran a sailing school on his own boat in the Solent for years. He wasn't a YM Instuctor but ran a succesful business.
He advertised sailing courses, these were not RYA courses though were exactly the same but he could not give out qualifications. He supplemented this by occasionaly working for another school. After qualifying as a YM Instructor he continued in the same way before eventually gaining RTE status, finally being able to offer RYA courses and certificates.
Anyway my point is, he initially started part time, built up the business and turned full time. The boat was coded and all was done legally. Not being part of the RYA scheme didn't seem to hold him back too much.
 
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A friend of mine ran a sailing school on his own boat in the Solent for years. He wasn't a YM Instuctor but ran a succesful business.

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Excellent idea!

I suppose there would be nothing, other than my conscience, and a lack of customers, to stop me offering YM prep courses.

Or, more realistically, merely offering to cover the equivalent of the RYA syllabus for CC and DS Practical during a weeks charter, for say an extra £x per head, or as an incentive to charter. With an RYA Cruising Instructor qualification, my conscience would be clear in this instant.

Insurance may be an issue, but it's food for thought.

Richard
 
You could offer sea miles trips which some of the sea schools do and perhaps ways of tyros improving their skills and or widening their experience until you are able to offer certificated courses. Spinnaker handling is one that appeals to me.
 
Yes Sea miles trips can be popular, particularly if the price is right. Giving instruction within the syllabus at the same time. My friend did just that. Also speciality boat handling stuff, under power in tight marinas, berthing, stern to mooring (if you are non tidal of course).
Not sure what the max size RYA allow but I would have thought a 44 would be at the absolute top end really from a practicality point of view. I once thought about using a Sigma 41 as a school boat and thought it may be a little on the large size.
 
15m is the max allowed as far as I can tell, (see above link), so 44 is fine as far as the RYA is concerned, (it's actually a fraction under 43ft - Moody always seem a bit OOT with their model names).

I agree to a degree regarding size but, to take a few positives,

one thing a 44 forces you to do is to use skills for handling rather than brute force.

And it's a bit more comfortable for a few people to live on for a week or so..

and it's all I've got <g>

Thinking about it, I wonder if i want a bunch of students knocking my pride and joy around? maybe mile building and charter jollies could be the order of the day.
 
Hi Richard

We run an RYA recognised school in Greece and our teaching yachts are 40ft and 44ft. These are slightly bigger than the RYA normally recommend but they are both really easy to handle, especially for Med mooring.

Many people who take courses with us want to charter or buy yachts of a similar size and being large means they are nice and airy in the summer.

We had no problem getting the yachts recognised.

You need to have someone with a YMI qualification as either Principal or Chief Instructor before you can apply for recognition, and you cannot take the YMI exam until you have built up teaching experience (I think with a recognised school but you can check this).

I can give you some idea of the annual costs for equipment inspections, commercial license, RYA annual inspection etc. if you PM me.

You should be very careful of the wording of any advertising you do. The RYA are quite hot on anyone who appears to be offering RYA courses but who is not a recognised training centre (quite rightly in my opinion as it takes quite a bit of time, effort, and money to get recognised)

You could take a look at the American Sailing Association - I think they do not monitor things as much as the RYA. Maybe you could teach their courses if you can't gt RYA recognition. They are not as good, in my view, but at least you could offer a certificate at the end of the course.

Suggest you do some market research with the schools in your chosen area before you fork out - some schools are struggling at the moment. You also need to look at things like how people will get to you. Are there cheap flights, etc?

Milebuilding trips are a possibility also, although we struggled to fill our cruises for the first couple of years until we began to build up sufficient numbers of past students who wanted to sail with us to gain more experience.

Good luck.

Regards

Melody
 
Melody,

Thanks for the reply and the offer. I think I am going to concentrate on getting Rogue coded so we can offer charter holidays, and I may do Cruising Instructor so that I can offer myself to local schools as a kind of locum, wherever we are.

The idea to offer training was more to encourage people to charter, but the costs and logistics might outweigh the advantages by the sound of things.

If I progress to YMI I can reconsider.

As far as advertising goes, I would definitely be careful, definitely would not want to mislead people, and definitely wouldnt want to upset the RYA.

I wont bother you for costs at the moment, but thanks anyway.

Richard
 
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