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The Yachtmster Offshore Practical Exam - Notes from an Examiner
The Yachtmaster practical preparation course is about ensuring that you are ready for your RYA Yachtmaster
Practical exam, or RYA Coastal Skipper Practical exam. It takes place on a school boat over several days
to give you the best opportunity to prepare your skills for the examiner who joins towards the end of
the course. The exact format of the course will vary according to your own strengths and will seek to
improve any weak areas to the level required for the Yachtmaster practical exam.
Many candidates like to polish up on theory such as tides, meteorology and collision avoidance, and apply
their practical skills to the boat in close–quarters manoeuvring, night pilotage and emergency routines.
A Yachtmaster practical Instructor (who may well be an Examiner themselves) will guide you through areas of the
Yachtmaster Practical exam to help you reach top performance. They will have passed the RYA Yachtmaster Exam
themselves and will understand how to work on those key areas which can make a difference such as boat
control under sail. If the boat is under control it gives time to deal with other problems! They will also help
you to realise your own weaknesses and improve on them.
The RYA examiner joins the boat for the last day or two of the course. Their job is to give you the chance to
demonstrate your ability by setting a number of tasks. There are no sneaky tricks or attempts to “catch
you out”, it’s just boating! There is some guidance in the booklet RYA Syllabus and Logbook (mostly
the red tabbed pages) and the range of exam topics is given. In the front of the booklet the experience requirements
are given. It makes sense to summarise your sailing experience so that it is easy for the examiner to check. You will
need to show that you have amassed enough experience and taken charge of a vessel on various passages.
The requirements are higher at RYA Yachtmaster Practical level than for RYA Coastal Skipper. Do make sure that your
First Aid certificate is in date. Talk to Mustang if you have any questions or concerns about your experience.
So, what can you do to prepare for your Yachtmaster Prep course? Firstly spend some time brushing up on your theory before
the course. Revise those lights and shapes that you don’t see very often and look through the Almanac to be sure you can find
the key pages when you need to. Before the exam, read up on the exam area. Some people like to make notes of key areas, local
regulations such as speed limits and VHF channels in use. Before arriving have a general look at tides for the week- whether
springs or neaps and any particular difficulties that they may cause with port entry. In the days before the course, get a
feel for the weather patterns in place and how they may change during your Yachtmaster Practical. This preparation is good
seamanship and applies equally well for any trip whether RYA Yachtmaster Practical exam or a holiday weekend.
When the RYA Yachtmaster examiner joins the boat there will be a little administration to do, usually completing the Application
Form and checking your Certificates and experience logs. The examiner will expect that some candidates may be a little nervous and
will be keen to help settle you into your role. You can expect to be given a number of things to do during the exam, with others of
the crew taking their turn as well. Some parts may be straightforward skippering tasks “can you please take us to such-and-such harbour”,
whereas others may be probing your understanding “can you talk me through this synoptic chart”. Part of the Yachtmaster practical exam
will be conducted during night hours. You can expect to be anxious before and tired after. The best advice is to run the boat as you
normally would. Not everything will go right first time though most should. The examiner will not expect you to be perfect in all
things- none of us are!
Don’t worry if you see the examiner scribbling in a note book after a manoeuvre. The examiner has to make a report and recommendation
to the RYA Qualifications panel. The report includes areas on preparation, planning, pilotage, boat handling, seamanship, navigation,
chartwork, weather and collision regulations. The biggest area of the report is left for “Overall Ability as Skipper” which is where
it all comes together. In this area can go all those other areas such as how well skills and knowledge are applied in decision making,
how the crew are managed and above all whether the candidate is actually in charge- especially in emergency situations such as Man-Overboard
drill. The panel review all reports and make the decision on awarding the RYA Yachtmaster Practical Certificate. It is very unusual for
an examiners recommendation to be rejected. Your Certificate then arrives through the post. No student can be guaranteed a pass, but Mustang
Sailing has a very good record of successfully preparing students for their exam. Congratulations on getting so far, RYA Yachtmaster
Practical is a real achievement!
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