You can't call yourself a Yachtmaster if.....

[oldvarnish]

.... following on from a thread in PBO which is bemoaning the lack of practical skills displayed by some owners, I wondered what kind of skills you ought to have before you can claim to be a true and properly rounded YM?

Here's for starters: You can't call yourself a YM if you can't get from the Needles to Cherbourg without an electronic aid.

Take it away.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Get back to port without an engine; in the event of engine failure.

 

[dancrane]

Get back to port in the event of engine failure.

I like that...I recall a blissful example of incompetence where the crew of a sailing yacht called for help when they ran out of fuel......or was that only a dockside myth?

When I took delivery of the Osprey, I found that I didn't know how to release those ratchet webbing-straps, securing boat to trailer. Puzzled over it for ages, then had to ask.

 

[jerrytug]

Get back to port without an engine; in the event of engine failure.

In a flat calm, with the tide running you on to the Goodwins?

To me the main thing is a crew who totally trust you and a 'happy ship', although you won't hear it directly to your face, moaning and sarcasm being normal, but if you hear it for the first time when they think you're asleep, or they're drunk, that is a definite feeling of accomplishment compared to RYA method secondary port calculations..

 

[capnsensible]

In a flat calm, with the tide running you on to the Goodwins?

Kedge.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I like that...I recall a blissful example of incompetence where the crew of a sailing yacht called for help when they ran out of fuel......or was that only a dockside myth?

I have been assured by an acquaintance of mine who is a retired senior coastguard that he once had a sailing yacht demand that the Tobermory lifeboat be sent to tow them in from Ardnamurchan because their engine had failed. It was a cracking sailing day and their sails were in working order but ... they had a table reservation at a Tobermory restaurant for 7.30 and didn't want to miss it. No lifeboat for them, thought it's entertaining to imagine them explaining the nature of their distress to a bunch of tough lads from Mull dragged away from their workplaces, homes, families and dinners to carry out the "rescue".

 

[Resolution]

....if you can't get from the Needles to Cherbourg using your electronic aids.

 

[Bav34]

I like that...I recall a blissful example of incompetence where the crew of a sailing yacht called for help when they ran out of fuel......or was that only a dockside myth?/QUOTE]

I'm guessing you're not a YM then?

To become one you should need experience and judgement gleaned from many hours at sea.

When my gearbox failed close to Ile Chausey I sailed to the entrance and got a yacht to tow me in. Look it up on a chart, you'll see why.

My insurance company told me to get to Granville.

I sailed there ... lee shore with rocks ... and another yacht towed me in.

In your eyes that seems to make me incompetent.

 

[jerrytug]

Kedge.

Bower!

 

[oldvarnish]

....if you can't get from the Needles to Cherbourg using your electronic aids.

Love it!

 

[Ariadne]

Pointless thread, I've met quite a few Yachtmasters whom I wouldn't trust in a punt, let alone on the high seas in a boat; strangely enough many of these come from highly regarded 'Blue Ensign' yacht clubs!!!

Don't get me wrong I've nothing against the money making, self publicising machine that is the RYA or what it stands for, but Yachtmaster and all the self opinionated bolux that goes with it, its schools and the examiner system c'mon get a grip!

And don't get me started on those have a Commercial Endorsement and believe they can actually handle a 200 ton boat, because they have the 'Ticket', but have no experience in the commercial world!!!!

 

[jerrytug]

I've been towed in on a flat calm day, when the gearbox popped off the Owers. The CG was informed of our status and they sent the lifeboat to tow us in to Itchen Ferry, their decision we did not request it.
The 'yacht' was a 50 ton ferro gaff schooner covered in long weed and barnacles, (and that was just the decks), her reluctance to budge sorely taxed the poor lifeboat engines.
As we came up the Itchen, on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, we could clearly hear, over the water (and the screaming lifeboat motors) the outraged tut-tutting and pipe-sucking from the massed ranks of blue-blazered commodores giving us the evil eye.
Nothing wrong with a tow, isn't towing and being towed all part of seamanship anyway? It sounds good to say you should be able to sail out of situations but really, sometimes you can't.

 

[Salty John]

.......if you look at the chart and say "What are these little numbers all over the land?"

 

[LadyInBed]

You can't call yourself a YM if you need a bit of paper to say you can do it!

 

[aslabend]

You can't call yourself a YM if you need a bit of paper to say you can do it!

Very Groucho Marx "I'd not join any club that would have me as a member".

Still, you have a point, I don't think you call yourself a yachtmaster unless you realise that the bit of paper just means you passed muster on that one day & that every time you put to sea subsequently is still going to be a test of some sort.

 

[fireball]

I've said before. I wouldn't trust our instructor from day skipper theory with the tender let alone our big boat...

There are YMs that I'd happy trust ... But not because they have a YM - but because they've demonstrated that I can trust them....
Not that I have a boat to entrust them with now ... Not sure I'd let them lose on the dinghy ...

 

[Hial]

If you can't tie a bowline, I know one who can't!

 

[dancrane]

When my gearbox failed close to Ile Chausey I sailed to the entrance and got a yacht to tow me in...insurance company told me to get to Granville. I sailed there...lee shore with rocks...another yacht towed me in. In your eyes that seems to make me incompetent. I'm guessing you're not a YM then?

Why so touchy? Surely by continuing under sail and unaided, as far as anyone could safely go in the circumstances, you showed yourself to be thoroughly competent?

Although, I'll admit I am just mystified by any sailing person wanting (other than for professional reasons) to classify his/her experience on a non-mandatory table of hierarchy. Were all sailors frankly incompetent before the scheme existed? Are YMs today entirely and utterly to be relied upon, now that the classification exists?

Reminds me of those painfully-insecure schoolboys, yearning for the boost in respect they thought they'd get from wearing a prefect-badge. Tragic, but funny. :biggrin-new:

You can't call yourself a YM if you need a bit of paper to say you can do it!

Much more neatly expressed than I could have put it. :encouragement:

 

[Daydream believer]

When my gearbox failed close to Ile Chausey I sailed to the entrance and got a yacht to tow me in. Look it up on a chart, you'll see why.

My insurance company told me to get to Granville.

I sailed there ... lee shore with rocks ... and another yacht towed me in.

In your eyes that seems to make me incompetent.

Depends why the gearbox failed !!!!!!!

 

[Daydream believer]

You can't call yourself a YM if you need a bit of paper to say you can do it!

But you cannot call yourself a YM if you have not got that paper either