Yachtmaster milage

[Uricanejack]

Lot of comments about YM and experience.
Never having kept a log book. I just figured I've done way more than that. Mostly quite a while ago.
Last year I thought I might give it a go. even contacted the RYA.
Problem no logged miles.
So I started a log.
Got quite a few to start with bringing my boat home. arround 400 at least 3 legs over 60 miles.

But this season I don't think I have added 250. None of my little trips were over 60 miles.

So I think it might take me quite a while to reach the 2500 required.

Of course my typical sailing day.
If its nice out.
Starts well after breakfast and walking the dog. round about lunch time.
Pick a spot 10 to 15 miles away or less.
Head out put the sails up. Take em down when I get there. Not bothered how long as long as I have steerage way the engine stays off.
Light winds I don't get far.

I guess the experience required is more than I thought.

I wonder how long it takes an ordinary sailor doing weekends and two or three week long trips a year

 

[soapbox440]

Ive been sailing weekends and the odd week here and there for 3 years and logged about 1100 miles - and that includes many early starts and midnight trains.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

With the kind of sailing you describe, I would question why you want to do your YM exam. It's not just the number of miles you've sailed, the idea is to experience different conditions, longer and more challenging passages, and coping with unfamiliar coastlines and harbours.

My advice: go on a 5-day Coastal Skipper course (preferably in a different area to where you usually sail), learn from similarly (but differently) experienced peer skippers and (hopefully) a very experienced instructor, and find out where your strengths and weaknesses are. While you're there, ask the instructor how he thinks you would get on in a YM exam.

 

[DJE]

You don't need an official mileage log book (but that won't stop the RYA trying to sell you one). I gave the examiner a written summary of my sailing over the five years or so before the exam with notable passages listed seperately from the "cruising and racing Chichester to Poole" sections. He reckoned that he would know within half an hour whether or not it was true.

 

[dom]

I wonder how long it takes an ordinary sailor doing weekends and two or three week long trips a year

I don't keep a log book either and didn't sail much this summer. But the log (B&G counter that is) registers a surprisingly high 1650 miles. A few cross channels (max trip was 120 miles this year) together with general messing around seems to have added up to a good bit more than I'd have initially estimated.

 

[lw395]

A few friends of mine have built up their miles deliberately for YM.
Get 2 or 3 friends.
Organise a weekend to St Vaast or Cherbourg. (or whatever makes sense from where you are).

Sometimes the owner was not skipper, so one of the others took responsibility for planning, forecasts, decisions etc.
One of my friends had plenty of miles, as race crew, but got his hours of skippering this way.
It can be good fun and gets more out of your boat.

Also log every last little trip, it adds up.

I don't think it's hard to do the miles over 3 or 4 seasons.

 

[Sailfree]

I think it's not the mileage that's important but having done approx 2500 NMls it is hoped you will have experienced a variety of weather and sea conditions.

I am finding moving port to Poole is giving me a different experience as I am feeling my way out with depth alarm always going off and needing to hog the centre and deepest part of the channel. Been also feeling my way accross the shallows by No 5 buoy going to Solent but other weekend with strong easterly wind and big rollers I decided it was unsafe and went to far end of swash channel.

I don't think anyone would consider Poole as particularly taxing but it is completely different from the Hamble.

Hence doing 2500 mls in the Solent on sunny days does not prepare you for the YM practical.

 

[cmedsailor]

I only keep records of long trips (mimimum around 20-25 miles each way and usually with overnight) and a few club races since 2006. So far 8693 miles and 105 "trips" (including many night passages, offshore passages and an English Channel / Biscay crossing as a delivery crew). If I was going to keep records of each time I exit the marina just to sail around or go fishing and so on, I have no idea how many miles I would have logged.

 

[blackdogsailing]

I only keep records of long trips (mimimum around 20-25 miles each way and usually with overnight) and a few club races since 2006. So far 8693 miles and 105 "trips" (including many night passages, offshore passages and an English Channel / Biscay crossing as a delivery crew). If I was going to keep records of each time I exit the marina just to sail around or go fishing and so on, I have no idea how many miles I would have logged.

It's surprising how it quickly builds up. I stopped doing a cumulative count years ago but Caroline keeps a record of all hers. Over 15000 in the last 6 years !

Chris

 

[lpdsn]

I guess the experience required is more than I thought.

I wonder how long it takes an ordinary sailor doing weekends and two or three week long trips a year

I don't get the impression that the RYA would insist on seeing a log book with 2,500 miles in it. They use it as a minimum, don't-waste-your-money level. The reality is that about 8,000 miles is the norm for people who are good enough.

Just think back yourself to when you've had crew who've tried to bluff their level of experience. I met one who bluffed the owner of a boat that I used to be tactician on. Once we were out there if he'd had green skin and only spoke fluent Martian it would have been no more obvious than he was out of place. Anyone who bluffs it will look the same to a YM Examiner (or at least they should).

If you don't have much of a record, expect to be quizzed about things in more detail. I found I was asked about places I'd been that the examiner knew pretty well. He was also aware of the gotchas in those places and expected me to mention them, or he probed further. He didn't ask about other interesting places, so I guess he didn't know them as well.

I kept RYA log books for about the first 10,000 miles, after that I've just used Excel for my own interest as much as anything, but I might want to do YM Ocean one day so it's handy to keep some sort of record.

In terms of mileage I'm not doing that much at the moment. About 900 to 1,000 miles a year weekend cruising and a few hundred miles casual offshore racing on top of that. It was a lot more when I was doing regular offshore racing.

 

[Woodlouse]

I've not kept a log since doing my Yachtmaster. Doesn't seem much point since any higher qualifications require sea time rather than miles. I keep a rough tally in my head though and I seem to do about 3000 miles a year on average for both work and pleasure.

 

[Sailfree]

I don't get the impression that the RYA would insist on seeing a log book with 2,500 miles in it. They use it as a minimum, don't-waste-your-money level. The reality is that about 8,000 miles is the norm for people who are good enough.

.

I did mine with just over 2500mls. I also didn't do an official prep course just went as crew on one exam and asked a friend who was an instructor to do a weekend on my boat.

One difference though was that the 2500mls were all done on my own boat with me a skipper including many cross channels. From the one exam I witnessed there are some who have done the mileage as crew but not as skipper.

I mention this as I am just a competent skipper and no way outstanding - so if you have the reasonable mileage as skipper don't let the post mentioning 8000mls put you off. RYA judge that 2500mls with the correct "decision" making experience should ensure a pass.

For this reason I insist on my crew taking turns as skipper if they want to do their DS or YM and I do not interfere unless its a safety issue/or damage to my boat!! I do review their actions after and give my opinion on how I would have done a certain manoeuvre or action.

Last X channel my crew/nominated skipper did not commit to the log book all the tides and times (worked it out on rough paper) so when he decided to kip for a few hours it left us wondering when the tide was going to change direction. We discussed it afterwards and he will do better next time! As a result we did fail to make a course correction when the spring tide was taking us too far East. No damage just a longer than necessary journey.

 

[Skylark]

During the "getting to know you" opening discussion, my examiner seemed far more concerned with breadth of experience. He was interested in the number and type of boats I'd sailed, my experience of different sea conditions and the number and location of different ports I'd stumbled my way into.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

During the "getting to know you" opening discussion, my examiner seemed far more concerned with breadth of experience. He was interested in the number and type of boats I'd sailed, my experience of different sea conditions and the number and location of different ports I'd stumbled my way into.

Ditto. I thought I was probably going to pass when he started asking my advice on long distance sailing.

If you pass on the minimum sea time and mileage, you will be a qualified but very inexperienced skipper. Which is fair enough, enjoy building up you experience.

 

[Birdseye]

Lot of comments about YM and experience.
Never having kept a log book. I just figured I've done way more than that. Mostly quite a while ago.
Last year I thought I might give it a go. even contacted the RYA.
Problem no logged miles.
So I started a log.
Got quite a few to start with bringing my boat home. arround 400 at least 3 legs over 60 miles.

But this season I don't think I have added 250. None of my little trips were over 60 miles.

So I think it might take me quite a while to reach the 2500 required.

Of course my typical sailing day.
If its nice out.
Starts well after breakfast and walking the dog. round about lunch time.
Pick a spot 10 to 15 miles away or less.
Head out put the sails up. Take em down when I get there. Not bothered how long as long as I have steerage way the engine stays off.
Light winds I don't get far.

I guess the experience required is more than I thought.

I wonder how long it takes an ordinary sailor doing weekends and two or three week long trips a year

I had the same issue and just made up a log. After all the idea is to make sure that you have the experience to qualify. If you havent it will show up in the exam whatever your log says.

 

[Neil_Y]

You won't or shouldn't pass the YM unless you can show that you have experience, the pressure they can put you under and questions they can ask sorts out those that clearly have limited experience or knowledge.

So if you have a breadth of experience even if it is in the distant past, list that down in rough mileage terms and see what you have. If you think you're up for doing the YM then have a go, if you do a prep and exam week or 5 days with an instructor you'll learn a lot whatever you decide at the end of the week. We had one guy on the boat when I did mine that clearly had less knowledge than he thought he had, so it was suggested he watched us doing the YM practical as crew.

You can learn a lot doing the prep for the exam and the instructor will tell you if you need to know more, but actual mileage is less important than experience and that is easy to spot. Have a go if you want, it's entertaining as crew or being tested.

And I had no log just listed boats and some of the passages I could remember from the distant past.

 

[Sailfree]

If you pass on the minimum sea time and mileage, you will be a qualified but very inexperienced skipper. Which is fair enough, enjoy building up you experience.

During my exam the examiner quickly established our level of competence and then asked lots of questions at our limits and gave us tasks that tested those limits so that we both felt it was a learning experience and although we both passed made us feel that we still had lots to learn.

eg Once he knew how we approached things he would set a task where that approach would not work like finding a buoy in Portsmouth harbour at night where a number of buoys lights had failed (that he already knew!) In my case it was find a particular deep spot in langstone harbour where the apparent transits from the chart were missing forcing me to navigate by taking backsights (something I try to avoid -as I don't want to concentrate on whats behind us but in front!)

 

[Sailfree]

Deleted now!

 

[Uricanejack]

I started thinking about this reading other threads about YM’s. There is often opposing points of view regarding. “Real” sailing experience without exams and fast tracks younger skippers.
I have quite a bit of experience and lots of time or miles behind me. The majority more than 10 years ago. So apparently they don’t count.
I can see why some folks would wonder why I would be interested in YM. Like you say “I don’t really need it” for what I do. Truthfully it’s just a notion I might do it.
Years ago. My sailing was quite different to what I do today. To start with I sailed other people’s boats as crew. And quite a bit of time almost 6 months as a bosun on a OYC sail training vessel.
I would also charter a boat once or twice a year for a week or so. If I chartered a boat I tended to think I had to sail a lot to make it worthwhile. So my week long trips included some fairly long days sailing particularly since I often had a “goal” destination in mind. I would also charter in the off season. Cheaper and I was quite happy to find it a bit windy.
Eventually wife, kids, cats, dogs and a few other critters got in the way and there was a gap of 10 or 12 years without going sailing.
I bought a little sail boat a few years ago to introduce my kids to sailing we had a ball with it, did a few local races and came last or nearly last. Never went far only a few long weekends away.
Got a bigger boat with the intention of venturing further. I find I haven’t gone much further, for no particular reason other than I’ve been enjoying where I’ve gone anyway. Without a deadline there doesn’t seem to be any hurry.
By getting my own boat my sailing has become less ambisous and more laid back and it occurred to me at the rate I am sailing it would take quite a long time to accumulate the qualifying miles so perhaps the experience required is more than some of us might think.

 

[LadyInBed]

Some years back I was curious as to how many miles I had done. Luckily I had kept all my old (filofax) trip logs, so went through them all and put them into a spreadsheet which I now update each year.
I find it interesting (sad) to see how my mileage, days aboard, engine hours differ over the years.