Yachtmaster Ocean Theory

R

RichV

Member
Joined
27 Apr 2006
Messages
30
Visit site
Hi folks,

Can someone shed some light on YM Ocean courses and exams for me please? I want to take the theory course over the winter by distance learning (cheap) and one school says there's a written exam at the end, which I would need to take under invigilated conditions at an RYA training centre, since I want it to be valid for commercial work, MCA requirements and all that.

However, no other schools that I've searched so far say anything about an exam for the theory course. Everything else seems to suggest that at the time of the voyage oral exam, there would be a written exam for those who haven't got a course completion certificate. Those with the course completion don't need to do the exam.

So does anyone know what the real story is?

Thanks in advance.
 
When I did my Ocean course there was an exam at the end which I had to pass before I received my certificate of completion of the theory element. This is then followed by the viva or oral examination following your 600 nm passage before awarding the full OYM qualification. The RYA will clarify.
 
RichV said:
Hi folks,

Can someone shed some light on YM Ocean courses and exams for me please? I want to take the theory course over the winter by distance learning (cheap) and one school says there's a written exam at the end, which I would need to take under invigilated conditions at an RYA training centre, since I want it to be valid for commercial work, MCA requirements and all that.

However, no other schools that I've searched so far say anything about an exam for the theory course. Everything else seems to suggest that at the time of the voyage oral exam, there would be a written exam for those who haven't got a course completion certificate. Those with the course completion don't need to do the exam.

So does anyone know what the real story is?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You need to do the oral exam to get the certificate of competence.

Bit like the new yachtmaster coastal. You can get a coastal skipper course completion certificate but then need to do an exam to get the yachtmaster coastal certificate of competence.

It is so hard to understand the course structure from the RYA website - go to courses and training and you think there would be a straightforward chart showing what you can do - but no it is completely baffling.

I found this on their site the other day but can't find it again I think their site needs a decent author.....
Fortunately I'd saved a copy I hope you find it useful.

RYA.jpg


________________

ARC. Antifoul Removal, Epoxy Coatings, CopperCoat

Noisekiller Marine. Automotive acoustic technology now available for your boat

Sail for Fun. Yacht and Motorboat charter
 
Last edited:
It is quite a long time since I did the theory part of offshore. From what I remeber it was mainly sight reduction based on air or rapid astro reduction tables with some ocean weather stuff added. There was an exam at the end.

The practical part requires documented out of sight of land navigation without GPS for a couple of days which is then reviewed which may include a Viva.

I never bithered with that as I have an RN Ocean Navigation Certificate
 
I did the theory on board Rogue in Lagos, taught and supervised by Rob of www.rusailing.com . Pretty sure I had exams for each section, and specifically recall being invigilated for the Rules exam.

I'm sure the oral exam took place during the practical, and was carried out by the examiner.
 
hijeck - astro in YM.

Anyone want to put predictions on when astro finally disappears from the YM Ocean syllabus?

For the price of a good sextant one can have 5 backup handheld GPS's and enough batteries to keep them going for months.

:D
 
As above, there is an exam at the end of the course, plus the qualifying passage and sights which may need an oral discussion. A bit like YM offshore theory, then the practical.
 
For the Ocean certificate the shorebased course is not mandatory. What you must have are:

Yachtmaster Offshore certificate (not just the 'theory')

The qualifying mileage, i.e. an 'ocean' passage.

A 'day's work', i.e. sun-run-sun plus compass check by sun azimuth

The oral examiner will test you thoroughly on the whole syllabus if you don't present with the shorebased completion certificate.

A course completion certificate needs to show more than that you just received the texts by post, hence the exam at the end. Coursework is not enough as you could have got a mate to do it for you.
 
Sounds to me that the "Distance Learning Centre" is not an RYA Recognised Training Establishment and therefore cannot issue Certificates. No certificate for the shorebased course (Ocean Theory) is not a stopper but the examiner for the RYA Ocean Certificate of Competence will put you through the wringer on astro theory. If you need the qualification for MCA Cs of C I have heard that the MCA are demanding certificates for both the shorebased course and the final C of C assessment after completing the afloat requirements.
 
nimbusgb said:
Anyone want to put predictions on when astro finally disappears from the YM Ocean syllabus?

For the price of a good sextant one can have 5 backup handheld GPS's and enough batteries to keep them going for months.

:D
Click to expand...

I'm waiting. I learned to sail before YM but have kept my sextant and tables for more than 30 years on the basis that I might have to get a piece of paper at some stage. Now SWMBO is whinging about how old and tatty they look on my bookshelf and there's pressure to get rid of them.

I'm amazed at the rose coloured glasses many people seem to view astro through. It was only ever reliable on a small boat in clear skies and smooth seas. In the tropics the heavy overcast and short twilight meant you could put the sextant away for 8 months of the year.

The US FCC has recently dropped the morse requirement for US amateur radio licences so maybe the RYA will think about it.
 
Ocean Theory Cert mandatory, or, Must do written exam!

Malabar said:
Sounds to me that the "Distance Learning Centre" is not an RYA Recognised Training Establishment and therefore cannot issue Certificates. No certificate for the shorebased course (Ocean Theory) is not a stopper but the examiner for the RYA Ocean Certificate of Competence will put you through the wringer on astro theory. If you need the qualification for MCA Cs of C I have heard that the MCA are demanding certificates for both the shorebased course and the final C of C assessment after completing the afloat requirements.
Click to expand...

"For the Ocean certificate the shorebased course is not mandatory."

Since when?

"EXAMINATION FOR RYA/DoT YACHTMASTER OCEAN CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE"
Candidates who hold a certificate of satisfactory completion of the RYA/DoT Yachtmaster Ocean Shorebased Course are exempt from the written section of the exam."
 
RichV said:
Hi folks,

Can someone shed some light on YM Ocean courses and exams for me please? I want to take the theory course over the winter by distance learning (cheap) and one school says there's a written exam at the end, which I would need to take under invigilated conditions at an RYA training centre, since I want it to be valid for commercial work, MCA requirements and all that.

However, no other schools that I've searched so far say anything about an exam for the theory course. Everything else seems to suggest that at the time of the voyage oral exam, there would be a written exam for those who haven't got a course completion certificate. Those with the course completion don't need to do the exam.

So does anyone know what the real story is?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

pm sent
 
gps failure

nimbusgb said:
Anyone want to put predictions on when astro finally disappears from the YM Ocean syllabus?

For the price of a good sextant one can have 5 backup handheld GPS's and enough batteries to keep them going for months.

:D
Click to expand...

I was unlucky enough to have three fail within 12 hours off the North cost of Spain having been at sea for 5 days hove to for two nights so DR was not an option.

The Sextant was essential in fixing our position when we only had a brief view of one light as the low cloud cleared, a very tense time running DR from there on in.
 
I for one hope that the RYA does not drop the requirement to navigate by sextant. It's not hard to learn and it's a tremendously satisfying skill to have. Not unlike morse and, yes, I've had an amateur A license for approaching 30 years. I'm not an old seadog, neither am I ex signals. I'm an engineer and sit at a desk in Manchester!

To the OP, assuming you already have RYA/MCA YM Offshore, the requirements to gain YM Ocean are quite straightforward and they're shown in your logbook.

Sail a "qualifying passage" as skipper or 1st mate (defined in the logbook). Undertake a 90 minute oral with a very experienced examiner who will ask searching questions to ensure that you duly took part in the management of the passage. Your sight reductions, position fixing and compass check will be questioned. It's useful to have a clearly written log extract and plotting sheet evidence to show (IMHO).

Any aspect of the syllabus (see your logbook) is fair game for questioning. Crew welfare, boat maintenance during a passage, provisioning, world weather (the ubiquitous TRS), routings, passage planning, first aid, working & safety equipment, fuel, water and power requirements for an extended passage were all asked of me on my oral.

If you have a course completion certificate from YM Ocean Shorebased, nothing further is required.

If you don't, there is a formal exam paper to sit. Not surprisingly, it's probably about the same thing as that at the end of the shorebased course.

Good luck...... Just do it!
 
pm - private message!

Boo2 said:
Why not post it in the thread ? I'm sure lots of people here would be interested to know the answer to the OP's questions.

Boo2
Click to expand...

Sorry, can't give pm details - maybe thats why its called a pm :-)

Check my previous post ( & David jacksons fuller version) on this thread - you either require a RYA Ocean Theory Completion Certificate (with exam paper pass) or you will be set a similar exam paper during your oral examination.
 
alant said:
"For the Ocean certificate the shorebased course is not mandatory."

Since when?

...
Click to expand...

Don't know since when, but I never did any shorebased course for YM offshore or YM Ocean, and the RYA examiners didn't have any issue with this.

For the Ocean YM we spent a very pleaseant couple of hours on my boat one Saturday morning, and he asked a whole range of questions, looked at my log books and records of sights made at sea and made me do one or two more sight reductions under exam conditions - and a few weeks later a certfiicate duly arrived.

It was the same when I did YM offshore 20 years earlier - an examiner came along for a sail one day, asked his own questions and then pronounced himself satisfied.

So a course is not mandatory, even 'tho an exam is. I think this is a refreshingly sensible and pragmatic approach by the RYA - much as they are (and should be) proud of their training schemes, they seem to take the view that experience in one's own boat counts as well. So while certainly I was examined, it was done so subtly that it didn't really feel like it.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I understand what's what now. I think I'm going to have an interesting winter learning astro.

Malabar,
"Sounds to me that the "Distance Learning Centre" is not an RYA Recognised Training Establishment and therefore cannot issue Certificates."

It is a correspondence course with a proper RYA training school, so I get a real certificate. I just didn't want to travel from Hampshire to Newcastle to sit the exam with them, so have to be invigilated elsewhere, and so have another RYA centre confirm I haven't cheated.
 
RichV said:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I understand what's what now. I think I'm going to have an interesting winter learning astro.

Malabar,
"Sounds to me that the "Distance Learning Centre" is not an RYA Recognised Training Establishment and therefore cannot issue Certificates."

It is a correspondence course with a proper RYA training school, so I get a real certificate. I just didn't want to travel from Hampshire to Newcastle to sit the exam with them, so have to be invigilated elsewhere, and so have another RYA centre confirm I haven't cheated.
Click to expand...

Where in Hampshire?
I might be able to help.
 
Just finished YM Ocean theory

I've just finished RYA Ocean course and was struck by how little astro it contained - just the bare minimum to do a sun-run-sun sight. The background info was weak, with a rapid rush to the use of proformas with little or no explanation of the essential background info on time/GHA/the essentials of the celestial sphere mechanics. The course teacher knew little about the reasons for and origin of the "v" and "d" corrections for the Moon and planet GHA and Sun, Moon, planet decliation respectively. "Just fill in the boxes" was his usual reply.

I found a brilliant book- recently published and available as an e-book "Astro-navigation from Square One". Great diagrams, explanations and glossary, using up to date examples - with all the variety of calculation methods described from log methods through to the astro-calc and navpac software. It even explains the spherical trig.

Has anybody else come across this book?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

lustyd
VHF course help
4 5 6
Replies
113
Views
2K
billskip
billskip

Share this page

Top