Self taught > years of sailing > then doing RYA courses: worthwhile? discouraging even?

[newtothis]

Two practical courses and one shore based exam that put me off the RYA pathway, apologies to Captain Sensible etc who appears to run a good ship!

Assumed knowledge was zero, I’d done one weekend and wanted to learn so opted for comp crew. Other people on board doing day skipper and what was known as coastal skipper.

In an ideal world I’d learn from the other crew as they’re experienced….nope they’ve done one weekend previously too and unable to grasp the most basic knot.

The skipper had the hump with them all week, understandably, when one of them got lost doing a simple night passage and asked me to steer ‘red 370’ the skipper went nuts and said ‘what are you f’ing talking about!’

Second course, a similar boat full of misfits which included a middle aged wet blanket that lived with his Mum who accused me of nicking his wallet. I told him I didn’t need his pocket money. The skipper, another crew and myself searched the boat and found it when he was ashore, it was in his pile of dirty clothes….Mum wasn’t on board to tidy up!

Shore based exam…week started with a couple of thicko’s…‘What’s a degree?’ and after patient explanation of where North South East and West can be found on a compass…’I don’t get it’.

Exam day, they’re plotting a course to steer over the land part of the chart, I’ve finished, examiner notices what they’ve done, takes my chart and they copy it.

We all leave with the same qualification.

Isn't this just a case of 'there's nowt queer as folk'?
I've done RYA from comp crew to YM. On the comp crew course I learned more from the coastal skipper candidate than the instructor. Doing DS theory I met a bunch of people who remained friends and sail buddies for years. On my DS practical I didn't really take to the instructor, but when I crewed when my partner did hers, the guy was brilliant. YM was a mixed bag, with several good instructors, a couple of good boat mates, and one who nearly put us on Bramble Bank during his YM assessment (and who still walked away with a coastal qualification!).
Point being, it's people that's going to make or break it, not the RYA system in place. Like most things, try and get some word of mouth recommendations, then roll with the punches when it doesn't work out. A major part of being a skipper is dealing with people, so having crap crewmates is either good practice or incentive to learn to sail solo.

 

[zoidberg]

Quite a number of years ago I hunted around for a week's Preparation, focussing on close quarters handling of a smallish monohull - as I had been sailing fast multis for some years. The outfit I plumped for had an ex-RAF Squadron Leader as Chief Instructor, and we spoke much the same language. Almost 'Follow me through on the controls'....

He asked me if I minded making up a small-numbers course of just two, and it emerged the other young fellow was very much underconfident in himself.
Came the day, much of what we were to do was basically sailing West Country waters wherever 'Sir' determined, while we two sailed the boat in and out of here and there.

Yes, there were a few 'gotchas' thrown in for the unwary - such as coming alongside the pontoon at The Pandora Inn for a lunchtime pint on a fast-falling tide - but the emphasis was on enjoying the sea, wind and sunshine. I dimly recall teaching the young colleague how to take bearings with a HBC, how to plot them on a chart, and how to make some use of them. He was 'tickled pink' when his 3 LOPs worked out about right ( although I had to 'reverse' the local Variation un-noticed to get them to intersect - but that doesn't matter! )

After just a few days, he had picked up confidence that he wasn't useless after all, and could happily manage the tasks asked of him.

It emerged that the chap's girlfriend was paying for this week of focussed gentle instruction - as she had for a previous trip, which was as a 'legger' on a Whitbread boat racing from Portsmouth to Brazil, where he had been bullied and browbeaten remorselessly by his watch, not permitted to participate in anything useful, and certainly not taught anything. He came away from that cowed, crushed and convinced he was useless.

After the 'washup' alongside at Falmouth, his girlfriend collected him in an open-top sports Porsche. A 'stunner' who turned heads and brought traffic almost to a standstill..... There was a justified spring in his step when he strode along the quay to meet her.

 

[awol]

My wife accuses me of goulishness (is that a word?) when I read articles or watch the RNLI infomercial on other peoples' disasters and each time I've tried to explain it is a learning exercise. When the snows come and I go for a slide round a carpark in my car she is horrified but again I justify by claimimg it is a refresher just in case. I sail onto my mooring as a matter of course, anchor under sail, have sailed into a marina (with a crew), fly the spinnaker single-handed but draw the line at shallow rocks etc. even if the sums say I should be clear.
I can understand that some people need the impetus of a course to do things out of their ordinary and the YM practical is going to test their abilities to cope but I still worry that their new competence, just like mine driving on snow, may not last until the next season, but their wee book will.