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Yachtmaster – Shorebased Course

Yachtmaster Ocean – ShorebasedYachtmaster Ocean – Shorebased

This course covers astro-navigation, thereby revealing the mysteries of the Sextant, and global meteorology. It assumes knowledge of all subjects covered in other RYA Shorebased Courses.

The syllabus subjects are:

The course culminates in the award of an RYA Course Completion Certificate.

Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence

A person holding aYachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence is experienced and qualified to skipper a yacht on passages of any length in all parts of the world.

The Yachtmaster Ocean exam is an oral and written test of your knowledge of ocean passage making including planning, navigation, worldwide meteorology, crew management, yacht preparation, maintenance and repairs. You will also be questioned on your sights taken at sea during an ocean passage.
Yachtmaster Ocean exam pre-requisites

Minimum sea time:
Undertaken an Ocean Passage as skipper or mate of watch. The candidate was fully involved in the planning of the passage, including selection of the route, the navigational plan, checking the material condition of the yacht and her equipment, storing spare gear, water and victuals and organising the watch-keeping routine; During the passage a minimum non-stop distance of 600 miles must have been run by the log, the yacht must have been at sea continuously for at least 96 hours and the yacht must have been more than 50 miles from land while sailing a distance of at least 200 miles. Please see the 'definition of passage' below. All qualifying sea time must be within 10 years prior to the exam.

Definition of a Passage (click to view)
  1. Qualifying passages for Yachtmaster Ocean and Offshore should be non-stop by the shortest navigable route with no change of skipper. Passages such as recognised races which may not comply exactly with these requirements may be submitted to the RYA for approval before the voyage.
  2. Trainee skippers undertaking 60 mile passages are strongly advised to obtain a Coastal Skipper qualification first.
  3. For Ocean passages the following definition will apply.
    “Throughout the passage the candidate must have acted in a responsible capacity either in sole charge of a watch or as a skipper”.
  4. Ocean candidates may take their sights on a shorter passage than the qualifying passage. The examiner will determine whether the candidate is competent at astro navigation.

Examiners are responsible for establishing the level of a candidate’s competence during the exam. Where a candidate’s qualifying mileage is doubtful examiners will question the candidate carefully.

Form of exam Oral and written assessment of sights take at sea. If you hold the Yachtmaster Ocean shorebased certificate you are exempt from the written assessment.

Certification required:

  1. A DoT Yachtmaster Coastal Certificate issued prior to 1973 or an RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence. An RYA/MCA Coastal Skipper Certificate does not qualify.
  2. A restricted (VHF only) Radio Operators Certificate or a GMDSS Short Range Certificate or higher grade of marine radio certificate. A valid first aid certificate* (first aid qualifications held by Police, Fire and Armed Services are acceptable).

Minimum exam duration Approximately 1.5 hours.

Oral
The candidate must provide the examiner with:
A narrative account of the planning and execution of the qualifying passage
Navigational records, completed on board a yacht on passages, out of sight of land showing that the candidate has navigated the yacht without the use of electronic navigational aids.
The records must include as a minimum: planning, reduction and plotting of a sun run meridian altitude sight and a compass check carried out using the bearing of the sun, moon, a star or planet.
During the oral test the candidate may be required to answer questions on all aspects of ocean passage making in a yacht, including passage planning, astro navigation, worldwide meteorology, crew management and yacht preparation, maintenance and repairs.

Written

The written exam will include questions on star sight planning and reduction and worldwide meteorology.Candidates who hold the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Shorebased certificate, Royal Navy Ocean Navigation Certificate or a DoT Certificate of Competence as a Deck Officer will be exempt from the written examination.

Before you book your exam please check that you:

  1. have completed the required mileage and experience as skipper
  2. hold a VHF Radio Operators License or Short Range Certificate
  3. hold a valid first aid certificate
  4. have read the syllabus in RYA publications: G15 (sail) or G18 (power)
  5. have read and comply with the pre-requisites above.
  6. If you need a Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence in order to work on board a commercial craft subject to the MCA's codes of practice, you will need to get it commercially endorsed - see left. You can then work worldwide as a Master of commercial vessels of up to 200gt.
  7. The Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence can be used commercially in its own right. It is also a pre-requisite for the MCA's Chief Mate, Master 500 and Master 3000 qualifications.Check Course Availability
  8. *All candidates are required to hold a first aid certificate.  Acceptable certificates include the RYA’s First Aid Certificate, First Aid at Work, First Aid at Sea, or any other certificate issued on completion of a course which is a minimum of one day’s duration, recognised by the Health and Safety Executive and includes the treatment of hypothermia, cold shock and drowning.
Details of Examination (click to view)

A. AIM

The Examiner’s task is to give the candidate the opportunity to show that:

  1. He is capable of planning all aspects of an ocean passage in a yacht,
  2. He is capable of managing a yacht and her crew on an ocean passage,
  3. He is capable of navigating a yacht during an ocean passage with or without electronic aids to navigation in both Northern and Southern hemisphere.

B. FORM OF EXAM

For planning purposes, two hours should be allowed for the examination of each candidate. Exams should generally take 1½ hours.

The candidate will be required to send to the examiner evidence of completion of a qualifying passage (for definition see G15) and the planning, reduction and plotting of a set of sights consisting of at least a sun run meridian altitude and a compass check by the azimuth of the sun, moon, star or a planet, to reach the examiner at least two days before the exam.
The Examiner will cover voyage planning and yacht / crew management by oral question and answer and will verify the candidate’s navigational ability by inspection of the navigational work carried out at sea.

If a candidate does not hold a certificate of satisfactory completion of the Yachtmaster Ocean Shorebased Course the Examiner will invigilate and mark a 1¾ hour written paper.

C. CONTENT OF THE EXAM

Questions should generally be related to the candidate’s qualifying passage but may be extrapolated to refer to longer voyages. The candidate’s qualifying passage may have been a bare 600 miles, the examiner must find out if the candidate is capable of an ocean crossing. Questions should relate to the type of yacht with which the candidate is familiar.

1. Voyage Planning

a) Selection of suitable yachts for ocean voyages. Relate the type and size of yacht to the crew and the length and hazardousness of the voyage to be undertaken.

b) Crew selection. The need for compatibility between crew members, matching personal strengths and weaknesses. Disabilities and medical conditions which would make it unwise to undertake a long voyage.

c) Pre sailing checks on material condition of yacht, including hull, rigging, engine, electrics and fittings checks.

d) Spare gear required (including tools), for hull, rig, engine and electrics.

e) Navigational passage planning. Sources of information to decide strategy. Route selection. Estimating passage time. Navigational equipment (electronic and manual).

f) Fuelling and victualing, including provision of fresh water. How to estimate quantities.

g) Emergency planning. Equipping with distress alert, location and lifesaving equipment.

h) Electrics. Methods of charging batteries. Battery capacity and electrical services.

i) Communications equipment. What is available, capabilities and limitations. Equipment for receiving weather information.

j) Medical planning, availability of suitable courses.

2. Management of Yacht and Crew

a) Crew organisation, delegation of responsibilities and watch keeping organisation.

b) Crew morale – how to keep it as high as possible. Crew health and hygiene.

c) Monitoring consumption of fuel, food and water.

d) Monitoring electrical supplies, battery capacity and electric consumption.

e) Routine equipment checks and maintenance. Precautionary replacements.

f) In sailing yacht, planned use of engine in calms.

g) Use of weather reports and forecasts.

h) Heavy weather. Avoiding adverse strong winds. Preparations for very rough weather. Rough weather survival tactics.

i) Tropical Revolving Storms. Warnings, by radio and observation. Tactics on approach of a TRS.

j) Emergency repairs. Jury rigs. Repairing storm damage to hull. Jury steering.

k) Survival. Use of life raft.

3. Navigation

a) Use of electronic navigation aids.

b) Navigation by sextant. Relate to candidate’s work carried out at sea.

D. THE PASS/FAIL DECISION

In the oral part of the exam there are very few absolutely right or totally wrong answers. The aim of this part of the test should be to find out if the candidate has thought about the many aspects of voyage planning and yacht and crew management for which the skipper is responsible.

The candidate’s views on many of the subjects in these sections may be totally different to the Examiner's but they may still be perfectly workable.

The easiest way for a candidate to fail in these sections would be for him/her to show that he/she hadn’t really thought about the problem until the Examiner asked the question.

A failure might also result from a candidate showing a totally cavalier attitude to the safety of yacht or crew. The fact that a candidate has skippered a yacht on a long voyage is not necessarily an indication of competence, he may have succeeded by having luck on his/her side or the crew may have sailed the boat in spite of the skipper. That is what the oral part of the exam aims to discover.

In section 3, the Examiner must go through the candidate’s navigation in detail. Unacceptable errors, which should cause failure, include:

a) Major repeated errors in principle, whatever the resulting displacement in a position fix. These include true bearings wrongly deduced from azimuths, intercepts plotted in the wrong direction, plotting from EP instead of from a chosen position.

b) Errors which result in a displacement of a fix of such magnitude that a check should have been carried out to detect the error.

c) Failure to establish a position.

d) Compass checks wrong by more than 5º.