Yachtmaster Exam

morvargh

morvargh

New Member
Joined
23 Sep 2006
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www.morvargh-sailing.co.uk
Hi all

I have taken the leap and booked my Yachtmaster exam, my question to you all is twofold:

1.) What was your favourite part and hardest
2.) I have a week left, what would you study in the time left?

Thanks all

fair winds

Matt
 
Sea survival was the best, weather was by far the worst
work on "time zones" just when it all becomes clear, you will think about it a bit more and it will all go to mush.....
Just be sure to show all your working out,its easy to make a silly mistake, the examiner will at least know, you know the theory...
Best of luck
Roy
 
I agree with John Morris UK - make sure you are strong on IRPCS; lights, shapes, and sounds. Tidal calcs too; vertical and horizontal movements. And have the confidence to take charge. Remember that it is a skippering exam, not just navigation - you have to know all that stuff and you have to be able to plan a passage and run the boat and crew safely.

Make a good first impression. Little things help, greet the examiner when he arrives, welcome him on board, show him around with a good safety brief. Examiners are briefed to be friendly, and they want you to pass - give them reasons to pass you and they're happy! Don't worry if you make a small mistake, most people do. It's more important to recognise that things aren't going quite the way you want and put it right.

Enjoy! Examiners are boaty people and generally good company. If you can avoid getting stressed by it, the exam can be a great experience
 
SPOTTYDOG3 said:
work on "time zones" just when it all becomes clear, you will think about it a bit more and it will all go to mush.....
Click to expand...

Keep it simple. Almanac is in UTC. During summertime we are an hour ahead. If you cross the channel they are an hour ahead of us, summer or winter. That's right isn't it? (I don't sail across the channel much these days, just trying to remember)
 
I assume you know the theory - colregs in particular will be tested. But the real testing part of my exam was the skippering - looking after the crew, rotating jobs, making sure they were fed, remaining in control whilst not falling into the trap of doing everything yourself, being relaxed.

As for practical techniques, practise mooring, coming alongside a pontoon, anchoring, mob - all under sail alone.
 
Are you doing a prep week?
If not, then a systematic approach to manoeuvres such as MOB, mooring etc under both power and sail will be important.
Practised handling on and off pontoons, short turns etc are a large part of testing your close quarters skills, both as a helm and in teamwork.
Remember you can be tested on any part of the YM syllabus, colregs are obviously a favourite, but also chartwork. e.g. what do these symbols mean???? (make sure you can find the key to the really obscure ones!)
Passage plan is worth thinking about too, e.g. sail to and into St Malo having never been there before, what preparation is needed?
The teamwork and crew management side can be as important as sailing. Make sure you know where absolutely everything is on the boat.
Good Luck and have fun.
 
Yachtmaster

Hey all

Great replies!

I've booked a full prep and then the exam so am happy with the practice bit before hand; am swatting like mad the colregs and tides etc during this week, but think that its perhaps best not to try and cram things in and then get them wrong but have the information at my finguretips if needed?

E.g. laminated secondary height sheet with steps for working instead of trying and failing to learn it all

Can you use those types of things?

I have laminated a number of things to make my working easier; working out heights, weather etc. Although i do know the theory its the maths that lets me down! :)

Thanks

Matt
 
You can and should prepare anything in the way you would use it for real. Obviously cribs for colregs etc would not be acceptable!! The prep week should cover just about everthing that will be thrown at you. However I found that I was happy with some elements and not with others, so use the week to tune up what you feel you need the most practice with. In my case, I initially found the set piece sailing manoeuvres were quite hard as they are not the sort of thing I had done for real very often.
The biggest trick is not to put yourself under pressure - easier said than done. For the practical exercises, I mentally put the examiner in the role of 'owner' and then sailed the boat my way to achieve what he asked me to do. As long as you safely achieve the objective then he will not argue. On one particular occasion I flatly refused to do as requested as I considered it too dangerous, he then agreed!!
 
Hi Matt,

My favourite part.........that's easy.....when the examiner said "congratulations"

Hardest part........that's easy, too. The 14 hours or so immediately prior to the examiner saying congratulations.

With just one week to go, I'd just chill and relax. Surely by now you either know it or you don't.

As others have said, the bigest issue is likely to be self imposed stress. I did it for my personal satisfaction, no commercial interests. I'm old enough to know better and I have a fairly responsible working life. However, boy was I stressed!

I'm sure that your examiner will be a nice guy. He will be smart enough to watch what you're doing and push you to your limits and seek out your weaknesses. Remember that no one is perfect and he'll not expect you to be.

You know for sure that there are some safe-bet skills that you'll need to demonstrate so ensure that you can do them well in a range of wind and tide conditions.

When you're asked for a passage plan, do what you'd normally do. Expected to be quizzed on it and assert your decisions.

Theory, Colregs, weather and the like are all bound to come up during conversation. I guess that I was slightly surprised by the depth of knowledge required in giving my examiner the welcome aboard briefing. We covered most of the boat systems in a fair amount of detail.

As a final reminder, try reading your logbook, the section covering the yachtmaster syllabus in detail. You should be comfortable with it all.

Best of luck. Try to enjoy it. It's a lovelly certificate to own!

David
 
All you need to do is sail the boat competently.

At YM level chart work short cuts are acceptable, if not expected. Trying to sail the boat from the chart table is an instant fail. In my exam (Rod Carr + 3 other candidates over 2 days way back in the very early 80's) I was set a pilotage task. In the debrief the examiner said he would have put the same marks on the chart - I pointed out I had not put anything on the chart (it was a grotty much used sailing school chart ready for the skip anyway) only noted down clearing bearings, his response 'exactly'. Likewise entering a river with a cross tide I simply gave the helm a transit to steer using a convenient building and something else rather than try to be clever and calculate a course to steer. Heaving too while clarifying a ships intention seemed to go down well. I shook out a reef for more power and put the examiner on the helm for a stint of short tacking as he was by far the most experienced helm on board - but he made me call the tacks which was fine.

When answering questions refer to any relevant experience - I was put into a towing situation with the tow shearing around, what would I do? Rod did not seem too happy with my answer, so I pointed out it had worked exactly as required when I did it for real. Likewise, another candidate was given the RYA blind pilotage exercise in a blacked out cabin as it was flat calm. Asked if I had ever done it - I responded that not as an exercise but on a number of occasions for real. Was asked when and where.

Worse events were having a ship sound 5 short blasts while on a diverging course and being warned that I was in shallow water. Thought I had failed on these, but was given the benefit of the doubt as this was my first time in the Solent. One of the other candidates put us aground on the bar while trying to get out of a river at low water. He passed subject to going back at a later date and doing some tidal calculations. So you don't have to be perfect and can get away with none fatal slips.

Have fun, its supposed to be enjoyable.
 
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One bit of advice given to me by an old examiner was "Never give up" if you make a bodge of something it doesnt allways mean a failure if you do well in other parts of the exam.

I have crewed on a few exams as well as doing my own.Colregs were covered comprehensively on all the exams.

You will very likely be asked to take the boat somewhere with not much water to spare so must be competent at secondary port tuidal heights etc.

Make sure you look after the domestic side of the boat as well. Detail someone to make food and drinks at regular intervals and keep the boat tidy.It all gives the impression of you being competently in charge of the boat and not just the chart table.

People I have seen fail all had one thing in common,they spent far too much time at the chart table .You need to be in command not just navigating.
 
Worst bit was making what I thought was a failure mistake early on (I gave a wrong bearing to steer on a blind pilotage exercise). He was happy that I kept composure and got out of it (reciprocal course, wait for right depth, steer correct course). Mistakes happen, just talk through it and don't lose your composure.

Best bit was sharing a bottle of wine between the examiner, me and my crew at 3am once tied up.

Tip - don't do your exam at the end of June or you've hang around at anchor just feeding people waiting for darkness! I only had 1 crew so with only 3 on the boat sandwiches were easy. But a friend of mine was told he was expected to make a full meal! I think all examiners expectations are different.

At one point the examiner told me to do something that I (politely) refused to do. I explained why at a calmer moment. He was happy with that. I have heard of someone failing for following an examiners (deliberately erroneous) command and not taking charge, but that sounds a bit extreme.

A number of times he gave good advice that I was happy to follow. He had a wealth of experience that I was delighted to mine for the time he was on my boat and we talked a lot during the exam, pretty much non stop in fact. Treat it like taking a knowledgable friend out for the day. Once I got over my early mistake I really enjoyed it.

He seemed to appreciate comments like "i think xxx because yyy, if you disagree please say". If you would ask the opinion of your knowledgeable friend, i think it's ok to ask your examiner.

I agree with what's been said about it being real world not follow the rules sailing. For one plot my examiner said "that's very safe, a bit dayskipper, go and do it again how you'd really do it."

And another thing I had kept a few marked up charts and passage plans. He was happy to talk through those rather than me demonstrate for example that I could navigate cross channel.

And I'm sure half the exam is based on what you tell him about real world experiences. He'll simply know if you're giving it the BS.

I only took the helm about a 1/3 of the time. It's about being skipper not helmsman or navigator. I spent very little time down below, but I do have a small chart table in front of the helm which is fine for alterations but not full plots.

And yes know your colregs inside out. Easy to do, no point mucking up on that.

And it's good to do it I'm very proud of it. They should do a YM burgee so you can celebrate it.

But overall enjoy the exam. Pass or fail you'll have learned something so you can't lose, and if you enjoy it you're more likely to pass I reckon.
 
Replying to 'Elessar'

Quote: And it's good to do it I'm very proud of it. They should do a YM burgee so you can celebrate it. Unquote

__________________________________________________________

No they shouldn't! Can you imagine this forum on Monday morning, with posts along the lines of:


"Saw this ------ing prat with a YM burgee make a right cockup of [whatever] the weekend." ;)
 
I have to recommend doing the prep week with a good school (I used Hamble School of Yachting). The exercises we did in the prep week were way harder than anything the examiner gave us to do. We found unlit marks at night, did blind nav under sail, we literally had to be on top of a mark for it to be 'seen' during the blind nav etc etc.

Then again, the instructor didn't ask me to cross a hundred power boats all trying to get home after the fireworks, all of which I was give way to...

As my instructor said - "It is a fair exam, if you are good enough you will pass".
 
comments really back up what's been said above ...

best bit ... when examiner said I'd passed when I thought I had failed

worst bit ... missing MOB under sail twice ... but kept cool and picked up 3rd time round (it was gusty)

advice .. take it easy, treat your crew and the examiner exactly as you would when going for a normal day's sail ... look after your crew, keep em well fed ... explain to your crew the manoeuvre that you are about to do (not forgetting to point out safety hazards ... e.g. that the boom is about to wizz across the boat as you gybe so keep away from the mainsheet traveller etc. ... oh and don't hog the helm ... there's nothing wrong with sitting back with a cup of tea yourself

good luck!
 
pteron said:
http://www.rya.org.uk/shop/pages/pr...ultCatalog)&mode=t&type=REG(RYADefaultCatalog)

:)
Click to expand...

Had no idea what that burgee meant!! I'll look out for them now.

parsifal said:
Quote: And it's good to do it I'm very proud of it. They should do a YM burgee so you can celebrate it. Unquote

__________________________________________________________

No they shouldn't! Can you imagine this forum on Monday morning, with posts along the lines of:


"Saw this ------ing prat with a YM burgee make a right cockup of [whatever] the weekend." ;)
Click to expand...

I suppose it does make one more vulnerable to such abuse! Especially on SB where the words yachtmaster, d i c k head and mobo all in one sentence should wind everyone up quite nicely. :)
 
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Best bits were when, convinced I was failing, SWMBO came up and discreetly said he thinks you are doing well; when doing blind navigation and increasingly plaintive cries from me to helm of "Are you sure you're steering 300" were finally ceased when the examiner looks over and says to the crew, "no you're not, you muppet, you're steering 330" and helm apologising and saying he hadn't got his reading glasses on and couldn't actually see the compass; SWMBO handing out an extra large slice of her Dundee cake to examiner - who lost interest in everything else while he got round it.

Don't forget you can (and should) prepare tidal height charts for everywhere within a few miles of picking up the examiner so that when he asks you to (say) go into Beaulieu you can easily check there's enough water over the bar. Preparation is quite legit and examiners are usually pleased to see it.

Remember you are not the helm, you are in charge. A few quick, clear words of instruction to the helm on where to steer and what to look for while you sort out tea for everyone (or delegate that) is what is being looked for, although sooner or later you will have to show you can helm the boat as well as anyone. I did mine on my own boat and examiner was itching to have a go and said he wouldn't do anything unreasonable. He then demonstrated that the boat would go very close to the wind but was happier in a groove a few degrees off, he was a very good sailor and it was a real accolade to have him say you're passed.

Finally, jolly good luck with it.
 
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