I think maybe your chances of missing some or all of your course due to weather are higher in Scotland. So for doing a course, the south has it's attraction. Plus of course, sailing in an area you know well, you probably don’t formally navigate much. I know I don’t in the solent, I’ll just have a quick glance at HW portsmouth, and the weather forecast, and that’s all. I should probably consider doing any training I want to do in Scotland, on that basis.
I can't answer about those that go straght for the exam.what do people usually fail on? or is it more often a general feeling of them not being quite ready yet? And the big one - how do people who have been sailing their own boat for years take the rejection? I suppose they'll know if they've cocked things up, and they'll probably known if they were fumbling their way through things and not looking their best. I would worry a bit that under the gaze of an inspector I might start doubting myself and not look as competent as I would normally be. I've only ever sailed solo or skippered with friends who know less so it would be a new experience. But then after a week of training surely I'd have got into my groove by thenDo many fail if they did a weeks course first or is it mostly those who go straight to the exam?
Given that YM Practical candidates will claim to have logged a fair distance and hours as skipper and at night just to get the examiner on board, does it not perturb you that their knowledge of IRPCS is in need of revision? Its not like learners sitting their driving test to be allowed on the roads unaccompanied. These are supposedly experienced and skilled mariners demonstrating competence. If they need a week of tuition to achieve that level what kind of numpty behaviour were they guilty of before?
Other than colregs which you'd think was basics perhaps as he says there's more to it than we expect. I don't think anyone was thinking the week before would be to give all thats needed to be passed more to practice the RYA way and find some gaps in knowledge which might otherwise result in a fail. If there are too many gaps to learn in a week then fair enough its still going to be a fail. I haven't done a practical course yet so i still don't know what I don't know that I don't know. Finding that out will likely be worth the price of admission. But then some things I know I don't know very well are from lack of practice. I need to get my hours on the water back up first.
I think that in general leisure cruising, people and especially with their own yachts, are generally competent at what they do. The practical exams take you beyond that and really are a searching test of one's abilities. As soon often pointed out on here, hardly necessary for a 'percentage' of sailors. But there's a lot more out there who don't have boats and want their skills improved for many varied reasons.
Aye, that.
Like many an ither expat, ah cannae thole ra Solent neither. But ah'm glad so mony ithers cannae see past it, 'cos it keeps ra bugrs oot o' mair interestin' waters.
There's a wheen o' yon wee titchy gaff cutters roon there. Nobit wrang wi' 'em; ah'm thinking it's the big fat ersez on yon RYA Examiners that's the problem....
+1. Did the preparation course first with 3 others and instructor. Picked up lots of excellent latest practice which had not been gleaned between cruising and boat maintenance. 2 passed the exam later. The otherwas awarded day skipper; he needed more night practice.
I've never kept an actual log but it occurs to me I have photographic evidence of all my sailing back to the late 90s. More recent digital photos are time stamped and the most recent are GPS stamped. Is it legit to go back and use that info to create an equivalent of a log for use to prove mileages? Maybe thats why everyone who sails now seems to have a youtube channel
I think you are overstating the weather risk in Scotland. If its bad enough for a YM course not to go to sea from the Clyde or Oban its probably bad enough not to go to sea elsewhere in the UK. Now it might be less pleasant, but I doubt the cancellation rate is significantly different. There's plenty of coastline too so it shouldn't be too hard to find somewhere that is not known like the back of your hand.
I understand your point, but the YM course expects you to know the rules and apply them properly and confidently. Miles can be easily built up on long passages across quiet areas or just by keeping out of everyone's way - and so actually knowing the IRPCS rather than knowing how to avoid colliding are not the same thing!
Given that if you are the skipper its just a self-declared trip anyway, and I'm sure very few people ever audited on those signed off by others, I don't see why not. I think the point of the structured log is really just to have the information in an easy to consume format for the person reading it. Certainly, when I chartered in Europe I was asked for a "sailing CV" which I think could neatly cover this. Just listing your trips/season/highlights may be enough. Bear in mind they want to see tidal v's non-tidal and day v's night and skipper v's crew and boat length matters to them. If you are definitely over the minimum hours in each category I don't think it will be an issue what format your evidence is in. When I did my Day Skipper the instructor said to me she can usually tell if the previous experience had been exaggerated before you've even left the marina! But the log is just a prompt to discuss experience - she also suggested that sometimes people can tell you a lot more about the pub/restaurant in the destination than they can about the sailing that got them there.
I did DS in those sort of circumstances. I learned a lot (particularly that skippering involved a lot less doing and much more making sure others knew what to do) and would strongly encourage it but I shopped around for school who I felt comfortable with and had experience dealing with people like me. I don't know that school, but for DS practical there's almost no reason to use your nearest school so if you don't like them look further afield.
Great storyI can't lay claim to being 'self-taught', for HMQueen and her officers and servants had a hand in this at various times, including a certain ex-RAF Regiment Squadron Leader with a Rival 38 out of Falmouth, and an ex-Shackleton/Nimrod Instructor/Navigator out of St Mawgan and JSASTC in a pair of Nichi 55s. Some old German wooden 'Windfall' boats figured along the way.
IMHO the RYA/DoT Scheme is as good as it gets. Certainly more so than the American Way. People have in the past had respect for the holder of a Yachtmaster Certificate - perhaps misplaced at times - and I certainly acquired some 'friends' in consequence who seemed to expect of me a certain 'Beam me up, Scotty!' skillset at times.
Thinking of just one, who didn't/wouldn't maintain the engine on his tough ould Rival 34, finding it was cheaper to drag me along on his 'ventures. I'm recalling ( from a safe distance in miles and time ) a dead-engine transit of the Bristol Channel all the way to the Royal Cork YC and short-tacking up the Owenboys River to their pontoons; an engineless night entry into Port Ellen in a gale onto anchor, right first time, and away again in the morning; the same at Loch Crinan in a near-calm; then at Oban onto a mooring, again in a gale, then another one when that first one broke....
Then ghosting into Newlyn, and a while later under well-reefed jib downwind into Castle Marina at Brest, onto the finger pontoon by the fuelling point.
My 'owner/skipper' was concerned at the speed of approach, crosswind. I was concerned to retain enough rudder authority to 'make a planned arrival', so he positioned himself ahead of the downwind shrouds, intending to hop off as soon as possible and then restrain the boat manually. Yes, I know of the other, better methods - including the 'bucket on a string' thing - but he was one of those decisive ex-RN Officer types who tended not to seek guidance very often, then ignore it.
He hopped off as he intended, but had failed to notice the nature of the finger pontoon - which had one of those concrete floats at its outer end. More significantly, he failed to appreciate the 'action-reaction' implications when his considerable weight arrived with a thump!
( I can hear the chuckles, and the comparisons with the infamous 'Barrel of Bricks' sketch )
Yes, you're right. The wee pontoon lurched wildly. Our hero's Dubarry-clad feet went skyward, he didn't .....and bounced on his bum right off the pontoon into the water on t'other side.
"What about the boat?" did I hear cry? "Did its venerable old thick GRP bow crunch some heavy French concrete, or...?"
No problem. Plan B.....
The loop of line already prepared was dropped by YrsTrli onto the cleat at the outer end of the finger pontoon and, with turns already on around the sheet winch, the boat was brought up short, alongside, with plenty to spare.
It was noted that fellah-me-lad was alive and swimming towards a safety ladder, so nowt was said, and YrsTrli occupied himself with the proper arrangement of bow and stern lines...... then the kettle.
Yes, the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme is excellent, but it's the trad stuff they don't teach that really matters.
I’ll take your word for that. I have no experience of sailing in Scotland, but a very great deal of climbing experience, which has led me to believe that 35kn plus of sideways rain is not unusual. Still, it would be a useful change of scenery for me, YM course wise.
