Where to take RYA Coastal Practical @ Christmas / early Jan?

Doing mine in Gib.
Just for fun as the company is paying.
Looking forward to learning the proper way of doing things rather than my ad hoc versions.
 
birdseye said:
On which argument you will of course take the course in the Falkland islands or maybe off Cape Horn!:D

RYA coastal skipper isnt about survival in apalling conditions , its about a beginner learning to sail close to the shore where his / her beginner level skills wont be overcome and where he wont be put off .
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Hmm, not sure if if I would call YM coastal a beginner's course. My recommendation would be Cornish Cruising with whom I have no professional relationship.
I would also question the recommendation for Navathome: I did my YMO theory with them and
It was very much "pass the exam, understand nothing". I learnt far more about astronav from a delivery skipper in three days crossing Biscay.
 
Quiddle said:
I would also question the recommendation for Navathome: I did my YMO theory with them and
It was very much "pass the exam, understand nothing". I learnt far more about astronav from a delivery skipper in three days crossing Biscay.
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With all due respect, what did you expect from a theory course? Serious question.
 
capnsensible said:
With all due respect, what did you expect from a theory course? Serious question.
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Serious answer. Unnderstanding.
Specifically, all the exercises involve plotting positions around 50deg and the plotting sheets were set up for this. With hindsight I feel a bit stupid but I believed, after the course, that those plotting sheets could be used on any passage, which of course, they cannot, but that was the only latitude used during the course.
I have a degree in Geosciences which included modules in Astronomy and Planetary Science so you may think I should know better. However, the Navathome course focused, IMO, solely on providing an ability to pass the theory exam with no overarching view of the subject beyond the exam questions.
 
capnsensible said:
With all due respect, what did you expect from a theory course? Serious question.
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I found my YM theory course a few years ago was packed full of conversation and scenario planning as much as teaching techniques. It was an intensive 4 day course and it may have helped (although it didn’t feel like it at the time) that the other attendees had pulled out as a group leaving me as the only pupil. But I found it a very rich experience.
 
Quiddle said:
Serious answer. Unnderstanding.
Specifically, all the exercises involve plotting positions around 50deg and the plotting sheets were set up for this. With hindsight I feel a bit stupid but I believed, after the course, that those plotting sheets could be used on any passage, which of course, they cannot, but that was the only latitude used during the course.
I have a degree in Geosciences which included modules in Astronomy and Planetary Science so you may think I should know better. However, the Navathome course focused, IMO, solely on providing an ability to pass the theory exam with no overarching view of the subject beyond the exam questions.
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Thanks for responding and raising some interesting points.

The course you did with Navathome as the provider is the RYA Ocean Theory course. As with the other providers, the RYA have licensed them to use their product in a way that makes it more accessable to a wider number of peeps. Same with Day Skipper and Coastal Theory. And thats exactly what they are, prep courses for you to go out and do it for real.

You would have used exactly the same stuff if it was a 5 day in the classroom stuff but without the Instructers annecdotes to flesh it out a bit. :)

Yup, you use 50 degree lat in the same way as on the other courses you use a made up chart area. You dont get worldwide on those.....and Im sure you will recall you were introduced to reductions and plotting at 50N and 50S with east and west longtitudes too.

Now you have had a chance to put the course into practice, the extracts from the Almanac and sight reduction tables (heavy) might make more sense?

But there are without doubts some shortfalls in the course....1980!!!!!! It does still work but seems odd.

The RYA training staff are highly aware of this. All the other courses have seen extensive scrutiny and have been thorouhly re designed. YMOcean is last on the list and hopefully will be ready in the autumn, Ive been itching to get me mitts on it!

However, I reckon even as it stands, its a great primer when taken together with either the excelent tips books by Tom Cunliffe and Tim Bartlett. They kinda breathe life into it. But of course no substitute for taking and reducing sights on a rolly boat....

So, think of the things you now know post course. You know where to look for world wide passage planning. Charts, publications etc etc. You know about time zones and the movement of the Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars relative to Greenwich.

With the information given you have been shown how to reduce a sextant angle to a true altitude of all of those and plot them. Sun run sun, meridian and star sight reduction and plotting.

You probably picked up more than you think. Most people dont look for deep insightful explanations of the PZX triangle actually (boring) but want to become adept with the pro formas;. That works! And good luck as you put all that into practice...... cant emphasise that enouggh, its the only way. Oh, tip. When you have taken a sight and the reduction is clearly pants, dont struggle, just bin it and take another. Sun of course.


Right enough waffle. Question. Did you raise any of this directly with Navathome? They are online from 0800 to 2000 every day of the year. And its not too late to go back to them!!

Happy cruising! :encouragement:
 
RupertW said:
I found my YM theory course a few years ago was packed full of conversation and scenario planning as much as teaching techniques. It was an intensive 4 day course and it may have helped (although it didn’t feel like it at the time) that the other attendees had pulled out as a group leaving me as the only pupil. But I found it a very rich experience.
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Yeah, 4 days is a real crammer! One to one really does help though. No hiding place! :)
 
capnsensible said:
Yeah, 4 days is a real crammer! One to one really does help though. No hiding place! :)
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You reminded me of the course instructor’s name above - Tim Bartlett.

Just got back to the boat this morning from London as it happens. Thinking of anchoring under Lobos fro a night or two.
 
RupertW said:
You reminded me of the course instructor’s name above - Tim Bartlett.

Just got back to the boat this morning from London as it happens. Thinking of anchoring under Lobos fro a night or two.
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Result! His books about navigating are top rate in my opinion.

Welcome back to the sunshine! Was over in the anchorage on Sunday. Nice trip but was a bit overcast for a dip. Its busy busy time of year. Lots of day trippers being ferried to and fro. Plus the usual fleet of charter cats, kite surfers, ribs etc. Good news is that by 6 or 7 they all go home and the busy anchorage settles down. Might be worth a pit stop off Papagayo beaches til late afternoon? Water here as you may have tested is a bit cool but fab viz.

Enjoy your stay! :encouragement:
 
Thanks everyone. I shall have a look at the options suggested and see who has dates and prices to suit etc.

Looking more into this I am getting confused/concerned about the course pre-requisites. I have 10 years experience and last time I counted, had somewhere over about 3000 miles logged. This year (so far) I have been on board for 50+ days, sailed 800 miles including 5 passages over over 100NM taking between 24-48 hours - so plenty of night hours. However, the majority of this has been single handed in a 24 footer which, as she is an old wooden boat, only 19 foot LWL. Is anyone going to care that I was a) alone for most of the time and b) while LOA is over the min limit LWL is not. What do those with RYA instructor experience think?
 
You clearly have more than the minimum suggested pre course experience. However (isnt there always a however) handling a mid sized cruising yacht with a few crew and discovering how to deal with equipment failure is the learning progression at Coastal level. Lots of stuff you cant do on your own.

It wouldnt be a waste to do the theory course on line and then as you suggested, the practical in January. Gib remains my recommendation for that.

Whatever you decide, good luck and hope you enjoy the courses! :encouragement:
 
Thank you. That looks like my plan atm asked on the feedback here. Time to go back to work and earn some beer tokens... meantime I have a lot of varnishing to do pre end of season.
 
Some Recognised Training Centres will be at the Boat Show. Great opportunity to talk to them, get some more advice, plus of course, deals to be done!
 
Thanks for all the advice. I thought I would come back and update, with what I am actually doing. After looking at the online theory courses, I have decided to sign up to a taught evening class. It was surprisingly hard to find one, but there is one that is not too far from where I work in Portsmouth, starting in Jan (school name / location withheld so as not to breach the advertising rules). I shall then enjoy the summer, making use of my new theory skills and then do the practical course in the autumn.
 
For the practical, I think I fell on my feet by doing it in the Solent, of all places (though I hadn't sailed there before), and in the depths of winter.

Yes, I didn't get the blue seas, sunshine and exotica that I might look for in a relaxing holiday, but there were so many different harbours, windward/leeward & rocky/muddy coasts, types of buoyage and structures, etc. within close proximity to each other, so we had a huge variety of situations to challenge us without spending long periods on passage with little happening. That it happened to be the most extreme spring tides for decades added to the fun!

It wasn't a disadvantage that there were few hours of daylight - we got far more hours practice of night sailing manoeuvres and pilotage than we would have otherwise done. Winter weather gave us a variety of challenging conditions. There was enough commercial traffic around, with some leisure, to give us plenty of crossing/overtaking etc. situations, while the marinas, harbour quays and buoys were fairly empty, giving us plenty of room and variety for our 'circuits and bumps'.

I did it then and there only because it was the cheapest option at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight I don't think I could have done any better as a learning experience, or the amount of fun we had, at any price.

I'd like to pay tribute to our excellent instructor, who was the most important factor in its success. Sadly I can't remember his name. (Southern Sailing School, young-ish chap (in early 1993!) who, I think, also chartered out a Sigma. We were in a Contessa 32.)
 
LittleSister said:
For the practical, I think I fell on my feet by doing it in the Solent, of all places (though I hadn't sailed there before), and in the depths of winter.
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Plus one for Lake Solent. You get a better variety of challenges there than in the Canaries, I found. I did dazed kipper in the Canaries and YM in the Solent. Canaries were a great holiday and lots of wind, but Solent had much more interesting challenges for the YM syllabus, in my opinion.
 
I did my YM offshore practical ( did the nav level 2 bit at a local night school, I don't think this is available now, maybe online ? ) with Solent School of Yachting who were brilliant, a serious no frills outfit - sadly gone now.

I don't know a good school to recommend - but I did find doing a sailing course in the English winter is a good idea - you get the better more committed instructors and the other students will be serious ( one of my fellow students was an RN Navigator, now commands a Type 45 Destroyer ) - not just posers out for a suntan !
 
capnsensible said:
Ive been lucky to be able to teach that Coastal Practical in the UK, Algarve, Gib, Canaries and Antigua. For me, Gib is best. :encouragement:
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I'm thinking that preference may have summat to do with the better beer and the cheaper wine! ;)

Plus.... you don't need to book a taxi to get to the airport. You can just use the dinghy!
 
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