RYA RADAR course

[tom52]

Has anyone done this course?
Is it any good? Worthwhile for a new RADAR owner ?
Any recomendations for where to do the course in the Poole area?

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[Mirelle]

Radar courses

Absolutely vital; I would go so far as to say (and wiser heads than mine say this too) do not buy a radar set without going on a course.

I really mean this.

There is such a thing as a radar assisted collision - a collision caused by an incorrect interpretation of a radar picture. These are now rare as between ships, not least because all ships bigger than coasters have Automatic Radar Plotting Apparatus (ARPA) and all professional deck officers are trained in its use.

This is not the case with yachts. Quite honestly, if you use a radar set for collision avoidance in fog without at least an understanding of the principles of plotting, you may increase your danger, rather than diminish it.

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Mirelle on 29/12/2003 16:41 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Dominic]

Re: Radar courses

Agreed.

Fully.

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[zephyrsailor]

Re: Radar courses

yep agreed.

the bit about how the scanner works is a bit dull and unnessacerry (sp.) imho. but learning how to read the radar and tune it in properly is vital

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[ashanta]

Good series currently being printed in PBO!

Regards.

Peter.

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[petery]

Re: Radar courses

I installed a basic Raymarine radar/plotter which comes with a cut down version of ARPA and lets you display radar images over your chart/position; shows you graphically the relative courses and speeds of up to 10 targets and warns you of potentially dangerous situations etc etc

I had planned to go on a radar course, but an instructor, on another MCA exam course I attended, thought it wasn't really necessary with the facilities provided in the Raymarine kit - so I didn't.

After a number of channel crossings this year, one in fog, I had no problems in interpreting the images in the Traffic Separation Zone and sailing along the French coast - dodging the fast ferries.

I have to say I was totally disillusioned with the content and quality of the RYA VHF course - I felt it a total waste of time. Perhaps the Radar course is better.

Only time will tell whether I was right not to attend. ... but if any other Raymarine owner found it useful - I'll give it a whirl.

.. one thing I did remember to do though, was to add the radar to my ship's radio licence!

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[qsiv]

Re: Radar courses

Once AIS is fully rolled out (next year), that should finally remove the last vestige of radar assisted collision, as it will display a rate and direction of turn against all targets. They will also soon be able to send 'SMS' style messages to individual ships saying ' I will pass you on your port side' or whatever. A later enhancement is to able to sound an alarm on the remote ships bridge if 'your' ARPA senses a collision possibility.

The sooner receive only AIS kits become more affordable the better.

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[PerL]

Re: Radar courses

One of the benefits of doing a radar course is that you find out that ARPA stands for Automatic Radar Plotting Aid. Am I splitting hairs? I am splitting hairs! Sorry... Just getting back at the world in general for having to work today.

To be a bit more constructive, a radar course is extremely useful. I finished mine just before christmas with a practical on a rail cargo ship between Trelleborg and Sassnitz. Fantastic experience! The thing with radar is that not only will you need to understand what you see and how to see it - you also need to understand what you can expect other people to see.

Don't know how common it is but my radar has something called MARPA (mini-ARPA) which uses GPS rather that a gyro compass (or something like that - it came with the boat). But even so, you need to understand plotting in order to understand ARPA or MARPA output.

The course should be well worth the money.

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[Mirelle]

Lots of redundant shipping lawyers?

Lovely thought. However, please forgive a note of gloomy pessimism! Bridge equipment is amazingly good now, compared to what it was, yet ships still collide. I suggest that this is partly because the equipment is so good that people take it for granted; the SIRC work on collisions and near misses in the Channel showed ships regularly accepting CPAs of two and three cables. And speeds have increased; most large containerships are now scheduled pilot to pilot at 24 knots.

<hr width=100% size=1>Que scais-je?