yachtmaster coastal

[john_morris_uk]

I do agree, but will say that the RYA are quite specific about methods, naming, notation etc. and during those miles most people will refine what they learned to their preferred way of working. The RYA want you to do everything the RYA way so revisiting the theory before the exam is a very good idea. The syllabus isn't necessarily best and current practice either (education always lags, I'm not saying this is bad) and when I recently redid the DS Theory there's still significant content based around stand alone GPS units and associated techniques when most of us now use plotters and plotter based techniques. How many maintain the skills for a green screen radar set, for instance? I'm sure a good examiner would use their judgement, but less stressful to know the "correct" answer to the test question

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. There is no RYA approved way of doing things on a yacht. There are safe ways and there are dangerous ways and so long as you present yourself and sail competently and safely and are able to navigate and answer questions about the syllabus sensibly and appropriately then there will be no problems.

 

[lustyd]

There are safe ways and there are dangerous ways

And the person deciding which is which is required to accept the RYA version as safe and therefore pass you, that's my point. Aside from that "dangerous" and "safe" can be subjective and change over time, and an exam isn't the place to debate an instructor with new ideas and information they may not be aware of.

 

[laika]

Aside from that "dangerous" and "safe" can be subjective and change over time, and an exam isn't the place to debate an instructor with new ideas and information they may not be aware of.

I think you've got 2 choices. Do you want a right / wrong answer dictated by the RYA, or do you want a highly experienced sailor who has passed the skill bar to become a YM examiner to use their experience to determine what is safe and effective? You seem to not want the former which leaves the latter, *necessarily* subjective version which I think most of us here prefer.

This question is about YM Coastal so we're talking about YM Examiners here. Perhaps you've had a bad experience with dayskipper where there's less of a bar to entry on the folks doing the assessment and probably rather more variability in diligence and skill.

 

[lustyd]

You seem to not want the former which leaves the latter

I didn't say I wanted either, I stated the fact that it's easier to pass an exam with a given body when you've recently revised their version of the content. As I said, this is true of any exam with a syllabus.

I didn't have a bad experience, I passed with flying colours (again). The experience reminded me of several things I'd forgotten or set aside because they weren't useful for our cruising, it's definitely worth revisiting occasionally.

 

[john_morris_uk]

And the person deciding which is which is required to accept the RYA version as safe and therefore pass you, that's my point. Aside from that "dangerous" and "safe" can be subjective and change over time, and an exam isn't the place to debate an instructor with new ideas and information they may not be aware of.

On the contrary. There is no ‘RYA version which is safe’ that is compulsory to follow. There are lots of ways to do things on a yacht and it’s for that very reason that there is no proscribed way. Of course if you gybe all standing and nearly knock your crew out then the examiner is going to determine that you are not safe but generally so long as you do things in a safe and reasonably competent way you’re going to be okay.

As regards the theory questions again if you can demonstrate that you understand (for example) tides and can reasonably calculate tidal heights at standard and secondary ports using whatever method you want then no examiner is going to fail you. I appreciate that people are taught to calculate secondary reports using crocodile jaws and other such RYA wats but if you present yourself and say actually I use interpolation in my head or some other method can show that you can do it reasonably accurately then you’re going to pass. Again you may have some mathematical clever trick that you use to find secondary port tidal heights but so what? If you can show that you can do it and you have some understanding of what you are doing then you’ll pass.

Let me put it another way.

If I fail a candidate then I have to justify the failing. I have to write an account in which “the candidate was asked to do such and such and given every opportunity but repeatedly failed or mucked up in someway.” It’s not just a matter of failing to do something once (unless it’s some catastrophic disaster) as usually people are given a chance to put things right. In fact in my briefing I often say don’t worry if things go wrong because it really helps me to see how you put things right. Things don’t always go to plan at sea and it’s how you deal with it that I’m interested in.