YM exam?

[Daedelus]

I was very impressed with my examiner.

After about an hour on the boat he couldn't hold back any longer and said he wasn't going to do anything silly or try and catch me out, but he wanted a go on the helm. (Boat was quite new and v smart). He showed us all how good he was by finding her groove within a minute or so pointing out that she would sail hard on the wind but ease her off a degree or three and she would settle much more happily in the groove. He then didn't let go of the helm for some while but obeyed instructions on where to steer and was clearly enjoying himself.

However, I put down passing to overall crew management. I had the helm for coming off the pontoon, MOB, getting into Cowes when the tide was whistling out and coming alongside at the end and for the rest was sat back keeping an eye on things, occasional bit of nav and warning the helm that if the echo dropped to 2.0m he was to crash tack and go on a reciprocal course as we felt our way over the gap in the Bramble bank. Ultimately though it was my suggesting that it was tea and cake time and SWMBO had excelled herself with the Dundee cake: extra large slices all round. I think it was the cake that was irresistable and did the trick.

 

[ukmctc]

A friend is thinking of doing this in the near future.
Is it still a good 'qualification', or has it been dumbed down over the last few years?

Anyone done their practical recently?
Apart from the obvious MOB, Blind Navigation, what else is necessary & what has changed in what examiners look out for? Since morse/signal flags are no longer in the syllabus, what is the current emphasis on?

Having spoke to various people around the country over the last five years, it all depends on the area, the examiner and the school. In general in answer to your question "Yes" and "YES"
This is due to the lowering of standards at instructor level in general, however there are still some good ones out there, but this is due to individual instructors putting more in than RYA doing the same.

 

[prv]

Name some! There is no country requires ICCs for vistors and I doubt there are many/any that require ICC for their own citizens.

Don't know what relationship it has with ICC, but certainly Germany requires a Segelschein (sailing license) before its citizens can skipper a boat, and I believe Poland is similarly regulated.

Pete

 

[Roberto]

Don't know what relationship it has with ICC, but certainly Germany requires a Segelschein (sailing license) before its citizens can skipper a boat, and I believe Poland is similarly regulated.

Pete

Depending on the size of boat and/or distance sailed from the coast, one needs official qualifications in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France for motorboats above xxHP, Croatia, to name a few

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

many countries insist on compulsary examination for ICC (DS standard)

Name some!

Don't know what relationship it has with ICC, but certainly Germany requires a Segelschein (sailing license) before its citizens can skipper a boat, and I believe Poland is similarly regulated.

Depending on the size of boat and/or distance sailed from the coast, one needs official qualifications in Spain, Italy, Portugal, France for motorboats above xxHP, Croatia, to name a few

No quarrel with any of that, Prv, Roberto, but Sailfree's assertion was specifically referring to ICCs. If he was getting ICCs confused with official qualifications in general he could have corrected himself in post 59 so he did mean what he wrote.