RYA sail qualification- does it also cover power?

ylop said:
Are there examiners that side of the pond?
If I understand the YM exam correctly, then under sail you'll be asked to do a bunch of stuff you might not actually do very often (sailing onto a marina berth?). You happy doing them under exam conditions without any prep?
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I'm in the UK for the winter, aiming to spend this time getting some qualifications. My boat is the US.

I wouldn't want to jump straight in to the sail exam with zero prep. I'd be doing this shortly after the power prep+ exam, and I'd hope to get an hour or two on the yacht before the examiner turned up. But I'd like to avoid having to do the entire prep course again.
 
Sea Change said:
I'm in the UK for the winter, aiming to spend this time getting some qualifications. My boat is the US.

I wouldn't want to jump straight in to the sail exam with zero prep. I'd be doing this shortly after the power prep+ exam, and I'd hope to get an hour or two on the yacht before the examiner turned up. But I'd like to avoid having to do the entire prep course again.
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Would you be bringing your own crew? If so are you confident in their ability to jump onto a strange yacht and be quietly competent? If you're hoping to join other candidates who have done the prep week together I would think there's at least some risk there too.
 
finestgreen said:
Would you be bringing your own crew? If so are you confident in their ability to jump onto a strange yacht and be quietly competent? If you're hoping to join other candidates who have done the prep week together I would think there's at least some risk there too.
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What I'm hoping to do is join the exam portion of a course. So there wouldn't be room for me to bring my own crew.
But the more I look in to this, the harder it looks to actually do. It seems like there are two ways to do YM:
- go to a school and do the prep course then exam, all with the same group of candidates
- put together a boat and a selection of candidates/crew, then approach an RYA examiner directly.

I wouldn't have any worries with doing the second route but I'm not currently in a position to supply the boat, and rounding up the crew/candidates wouldn't be straightforward either.
 
There is no official preparation course. It's up to the instructor how they run it.

An examiner we regularly used advised that basically re running the Coastal practical adapted to individual students ability was a good way of coaching. I applied that plan and found it to be really good. With no need to pursue mileage, you can spend much more time on the boat handling, close quarters sailing, mob, quick navigation, blind pilotage and night harbour entries and exits that are in the coastal syllabus.
 
Sea Change said:
What I'm hoping to do is join the exam portion of a course. So there wouldn't be room for me to bring my own crew.
But the more I look in to this, the harder it looks to actually do. It seems like there are two ways to do YM:
- go to a school and do the prep course then exam, all with the same group of candidates
- put together a boat and a selection of candidates/crew, then approach an RYA examiner directly.

I wouldn't have any worries with doing the second route but I'm not currently in a position to supply the boat, and rounding up the crew/candidates wouldn't be straightforward either.
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I can imagine that if you spoke to a school and were super flexible they MIGHT be able to do something, e.g. does everyone on the prep-week always go on to the exam? Are some more interested in the training than the test - or do any get a quiet word in their ear in the middle of the week telling them to get more practice before doing the exam? People must get sick etc. Or does someone like GoWest know of someone else planning to charter a boat for the exam who would be interested in splitting the cost? I think its probably a case of hitting the phones.
 
doris said:
I look forward to hearing the result of this one. I was YM Ocean when I needed a power qualification. All I had to do was learn the different safety checks, MOB and boat handling for serious Mobos. It took a couple of days training and a three hour (roughly) exam, a MOB then lots of boat handling tests
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I am not sure when it changed, but my 'old' ICC which I have had for decades and regularly renew shows no limit for power, it just says 'yes' for power which I take is OK for up 20 24m LOA?
 
ylop said:
I can imagine that if you spoke to a school and were super flexible they MIGHT be able to do something, e.g. does everyone on the prep-week always go on to the exam? Are some more interested in the training than the test - or do any get a quiet word in their ear in the middle of the week telling them to get more practice before doing the exam? People must get sick etc. Or does someone like GoWest know of someone else planning to charter a boat for the exam who would be interested in splitting the cost? I think its probably a case of hitting the phones.
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I got the opposite. I had booked the CS exam for the weekend at the end of the CS practical course but was advised to go for YM offshore. Having done all my sailing (except courses) with just my wife as crew, I was told my weakest point was delegating as not used to having full crew on board. Managed to pass which surprised me.
 
Sea Change said:
Well I've had a very kind offer of the use of a suitable boat so it looks like I have my solution.
Now to brush up on my YM theory... anything to choose between NavAtHome vs Skippersonline?
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The one I'm familiar with is Navathome. Mrs S was one of their instructors for a number of years. But you will hear good and bad about every provider, so it's a bit pot luck. Main complaints about online courses are from those who perhaps don't quite understand the topics and want to blame shift, plus computer nerks who reckon they can do everything better!

Good luck with whatever you choose.
 
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