US sailing qualifications

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Vid

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It's time to do my Coastal Skipper practical, but rather than do it in the UK I am toying with the idea of doing it in America and make it a bit more of a holiday. I know there are sailing schools in Florida, and no doubt elsewhere, who run the US Sailing courses.

Does anyone have any experience of these qualifications and how they compare to the RYA standards. Also, if there are any downsides to having one compared to a RYA qualification.

Any ideas on good US sailing schools also appreciated.

Many thanks

David

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Don't forget their buoys are all wrong. WRONG way round in channels, WRONG colours (yes, thats how colours is spelt) for general bouyage. They also pronounce them as "boooeeys"..

AND you'll come home useing words like "Prioritize".... *shudder*

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Neraida on 12/07/2004 08:44 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
... but that's not how you spell BUOYS!

(After all, if it were spelt like that "booees" would be correct, wouldn't it?)

<hr width=100% size=1>Nobody is perfect.
I am a nobody.
Therefore I am perfect. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif
 
My knowledge of this is a bit of out of date. However, it used to be the case that US qualifications were much less well regarded than UK ones. Basic skipper licensing for pleasure boats is a state rather than a national function: these were brought together under North American State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) certification. The US Coast Guard also runs a training and qualification system under its Recreational Boating Safety Scheme. Their basic qualification was, I think, the OUVP (commonly known as the six-pack) which permits skippering of small boats with up to 6 passengers. The criticism of these qualifications is that they are too theoretical with no practical examination, and so lack credibility.

As a result there have been moves in recent years to develop training programmes similar to ours. CWBB (Original Version) where there are a number of regulars from Florida who would both give you the current position and point you in the direction of the better schools there.
 
My wife and I actually did our qualifications in the US - we took ASA (American Sailing Asssociation) course 101 (keel boat sailing) and 103 (coastal cruising) which were OK. They are pretty thorough on theory & safety and following the US Coast Guard's safety rules. I would say their levels don't quite map to RYA but a whole thread was devoted to this

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=ym&Number=342093&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post342093>http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=ym&Number=342093&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post342093</A>

We thoroughly enjoyed the approach and thought that sailing in Chesapeake bay was just fantastic. I feel that the Americans might have a slightly more laid back attitude as well, which does help beginners like my wife who is now a firm convert and we actually bought a boat recently.

You can also have a look at www.asa.com,


Good luck

Thomas






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we don't have anything like what you have in England. courses are here and some people take them for their captains lic for prof boat skippering, sport fishing, water taxi, basically anybody that charges a fee etc. the only 'gov' course is a basic course that can be done over computer from boat us and states for reduced ins. rate. takes about 20 min. take yours at home or be sure that what ever you take here will be reconized when you get home, and would not take our schools' word about it either. check with 'www.chapman.org'

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I have an RYA Coastal Skipper Cert (shorebased and on the water) and a US Sailing Bareboat Cert, I am also an ASA Certified Instructor. The two systems are not easily comparable so I would not like to say which one is better. Also the US has two bodies giving out qualifications, the United States Sailing Association (US Sailing) and the American Sailing Association (ASA) The ASA has been giving out qualifications longer, but US Sailing is the official governing body of the sport in the US.
I have no personal experience of any East Coast schools but Blue Water Sailing (ASA) and Annapolis Sailing School (US Sailing) both have good names as does Steve Colgate School. Contacts for both organizations are www.american-sailing.com and www.ussailing.org
Yes as another person pointed out the US uses a diferent system of buoyage ILLA-B instead of ILLA-A the B system is in use in all of North and South America as well as Japan and the Phillipines and is essentially backwards compared to the A system. However you can always take a correspondence I course on this later in the UK here I can recomend International Yachtmaster Academy (if theRYA still lets them use that name) in Southampton.
Would your American qualification be recognised in the UK, mabe not, but I am sure you would have fun getting it.
Good luck.

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If you read my bio you will see that I have an interest in this matter from a professional point of view.

Rather than argue the pros and cons of the "so called yachtmaster" courses and exams that are run by a certain company in Florida and elsewhere you might ask why I have re-examined a number of people who had been through this system for their RYA Yachtmaster tickets?

These were people who were wanting to work in the marine industry and who found that the RYA tickets are the ones that a large proportion of the industry recognise and demand.

If you don't want to take your exams in the UK there are RYA exam centres all over the world now. (NZ and Ozz - South Africa, South France, Thailand, Gibralter etc etc...) Ask the RYA for the latest news.

Please note that I don't speak for the RYA - all examiners are independant.

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As I said, my knowledge is not altogether up to date. I know that what you say was true a few years ago when we regularly saw Americans coming over to the UK to get an RYA Yachtmaster qualification which at that time was internationally acknowledged as the gold standard in training.

However, I met students on ISPA courses being run by Island Cruising in British Columbia a couple of years ago; and was impressed that it did seem as if the level of training was well up to the standard we might expect here, even if the recognition for these courses was not so universal.
 
Complete mistake - I thought I was replying to another thread, on another forum, completely unrelated to sailing showing a US warship armed with lasers that blow things up. I just meant to read about sailing qualifications in the states, not participate!!!
I would have got away away with it, having quickly realised my mistake and immediately deleted my post, but now you have quoted it and it will be here forever to sully the good name of my family for generations to come.
 
emkay said:
Complete mistake - I thought I was replying to another thread, on another forum, completely unrelated to sailing showing a US warship armed with lasers that blow things up. I just meant to read about sailing qualifications in the states, not participate!!!
I would have got away away with it, having quickly realised my mistake and immediately deleted my post, but now you have quoted it and it will be here forever to sully the good name of my family for generations to come.
Click to expand...

We could both delete and let's see what happens.
 
FWIW, my experience of chartering in the USA is that they really aren't interested in what your qualifications are and simply want a credit card to cover the insurance excess (deductible in US English). Hence there is no demand for "real" qualifications.

I was once asked to complete a four question multiple choice "exam" that was laughable. On the last charter I did this summer, I asked the representative a couple of questions on the boat set-up which he answered. Then he simply said; "You seem to know what you are doing - here are the keys."

Just to be clear, IALA-B only reverses the lateral marks (port and starboard colours) - the top marks are the same shape in both systems. Most of the time this is self-evident, but when coming into an unknown harbour in the dark with several channels branching off it could catch one out if not suitably briefed.

90% of pleasure vessels I have seen in USA waters have been motor boats - and this summer we saw the biggest in-marina crash ever - an 80' motorboat ramming another one of the same size at 5 knots - it wasn't pretty. It is often though of as just driving a car - just a pity they don't realise that the road moves and you have no lateral grip!

So to answer the original question - you could do it out in the USA but I don't think it would progress you as far as an RYA course / qualification. But the weather can be great if you chose the right location (make sure it's tidal) and fuel is cheap - petrol is currently £2.25 on the street for a UK gallon of basic un-leaded.
 
Go to Victoria in British Columbia and get the best of both worlds: there's an RYA accredited school there if memory serves, and you get to cruise one of the best bits of water on the planet, with orcas and humpbacks plus some phenomenal fishing... Your money will go further too than south of the border and they ain't amurricaan either. :D

Edit: Doesn't look like they're around, but I found this...



http://www.vancouversailingclub.com/courses-and-certifications/10-courses/15-bareboat-chartering-standard-asa-104
 
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My wife and I did the RYA Dayskipper in the mid 90s on a sovereign sailing flotilla holiday in Greece

We wanted to do some sailing inJanuary this year in the BVI and decided we wanted to ' re certify' with an instructor and did a one week course run through an ASA programme. We did a composite of three ASA courses over the week, and I would say its broadly comparable to the RYA.

The one notable difference is that life jackets don't seem feature in the ASA culture!

Re the recognition of it, I believe that almost all charterers will acknowledge it, and you can also get the ASA to issue anICC ( though there is a charge)
 
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