Sea Miles

[philfin]

Hi,

This may appear as a bit of a daft question but....I'm curious as to what the mechanics are of "logging" sea miles for the possible purpose of Yachmaster qualification. Does your own log count? and do you simply take a photocopy or is there more to it than that?

 

[HoratioHB]

When I did mine I had lost my log book so had to 'reconstruct' it which involved looking in diaries and photo albums mainly. I was a bit worried about this but the examiner said that he had to take my word for it anyway as it was all on trust. So if you have been clever enought to maintain and not lose you orginal log book all he should want is a look at it during your exam.

 

[jstr]

It's all set out in the book G15 04 from the RYA - it may even be on their website. Basically:

50 days (nights aboard) 2500 miles inlcluding at least 5 passages over 60 miles acting as skipper for at least two of these - two must be at night and 5 of the "days" must be as skipper.

There's a section in the logbook - described above for all this information.

You need an RYA first aid certificate too

 

[Sans Bateau]

You are only fooling yourself if you were to 'generate' bogus passages.

 

[Richard10002]

I just filled out page 31 in RYA G15 04. No other proof available.

Some specific trips, but one entry was "Various Irish Sea N.W. Coast, I.O.M. N. Wales. Ireland - Experienced Crew/Navigator - 600 days, 12,000 miles, 1600 night hours".

With hindsight, during the day, the examiner asked me quite a few questions "in conversation" which were his way of confirming that I had done what I said I had done.

As a matter of interest, during my prep week I remember my instructor, (Rob), asking me how my stern gland worked ... I thought at the time he was making conversation, but I'm pretty sure it was his way of finding out what I knew of the mechanics of the boat ... I probably launched into a detailed description of the minutae of the thing, thus confirming what he was looking for.

Very clever these RYA bods <g>

 

[HoratioHB]

[ QUOTE ]
You are only fooling yourself if you were to 'generate' bogus passages.

[/ QUOTE ]

Got me wrong there - I was as honest as my memory and photo album allowed and was very conservative for just that reason. I was ceratinly not advocating fabrication!!

 

[MarkG]

When I was logging miles for passing courses I would keep my log in the RYA log and boat log. However not all sailing was in my own boat, so that bit went only in the RYA logbook.

Nowadays I keep my own boat logbook, then annually I will tot up boat log info and enter a single entry into the RYA logbook. I mostly do that as I'm running out of entry lines in there.

I must say though that I don't have a particular need to make the RYA entry, just habit and interesting to see how the years sailing miles change.

 

[philfin]

Thanks everyone. Not such a daft question afterall then.

As it happpens, I have exceeded the noted criteria quite a bit just in the last 3 years. Next question would be, is there a time limit?

Thanks again.

 

[Salty]

time limit is ten years.

 

[Mudhook]

I was told when doing my YM that examiners have a shrewd idea of the likely ratio between days on board and sea miles, and if the log evidence they are presented with seems like a lot of miles for the days they will look for evidence of a transatlantic or long delivery passage that might explain it. If not, you can expect more searching questions. Apparently cases of people making up their logs - NOT the kind of reconstruction Horatio mentioned - are not uncommon. The number of miles per day is surprisingly low. Fakers beware!

Regards, Mudhook

 

[DJE]

Interesting, I've got the log books for the last 8 years on my boat here at the moment and I was just going to write up a summary to take to my YM exam in a couple of weeks. I've found the bit about the candidate's responibility to ensure qualifying passages are logged but I don't believe it has to be done in the RYA logbook. I was planning to hand him a couple of pages of typescript as summary. I might take along the log books but I don't really see the point, they're mostly weather forecasts.

 

[philfin]

Thnaks everbody again. Basically it is an honor system then, which makes sense. I guess you will always get a few people who will cheat, as in any walk of life but as someone mentioned you would only in reality be cheating yourself. As my grandmother used to say "cheats never prosper" in the long run anyway.

Regards

 

[amadeus]

So if you take the bluffer who hasn't actually done much sailing but fills in the logbook creatively, he or she will start the exam with little real experience to back up their knowledge. Once things start getting sticky with engine"failure" virtual fog and fenders overboard the cracks will open up and the candidate will look very stupid. Personally I was a slow track candidate taking 23 years between YM theory and taking the exam. I would have done it sooner but a career and 3 kids intervened. I really enjoyed the exam as far worse things had happened to me during my years of preparation. The highlight was finding the Skerries bank (unlit) buoy while hove to eating turkey curry in the dark. Worst bit was anchoring under sail in a hailstorm. I would recommend the experience as it gave me a goal to work towards and a feeling of real achievement and confidence that I am "good enough" despite the hair raising scrapes that we still get into.

 

[danekerold]

I also have a question? I have recently joined the yachting world however pria to this I was working onboard a cruise ship for 9 months. I did 2 trans atlantic crossings and many hours at sea. Does this count towards hours required for a yacht masters qualification?