Practice for the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence exam.

The instructor will help you to ensure you are as prepared as possible by focusing on the areas you need most improvement and ironing out any bad habits you may have. You will be pushed hard. You will enter and leave as many ports/harbours as possible. You will practice night sailing and blind navigation. You will go over all the lights shapes sound signals and collision regulations. It is not a requirement to do such a course before the exam however it is well worth doing it if only to find out your strengths and weaknesses.

The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Prep Course lasts for 4 days then an external examiner comes on board to examine you. On the afternoon of the fourth day the examiner will come aboard. The exam will last for 8 to 12 hours.

A Yachtmaster Offshore should be able to enter any well-charted harbour for the first time, with sufficient depth, by day or night.

Minimum Pre exam experience: To be eligible for this exam you must have at least 50 days' sea time (two as skipper), logged 2500 nautical miles, 5 passages over 60nm including 2 overnight and 2 as skipper - all within the last ten years. Half the qualifying sea time must have been conducted in tidal waters.

You also need:

• a VHF radio licence and
• a first aid certificate

These can each be obtained on a one-day course.

The exam

The exam will take about 8 to 12 hours for one candidate and 10 to 18 hours for two. Candidates will be set tasks to demonstrate their ability as skipper of an offshore cruising yacht and may also be asked questions on any part of the syllabus for all courses except Yachtmaster Ocean.

Examiners are independent assessors not involved in training candidates and are therefore objective when assessing ability. The RYA examines candidates on behalf of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The RYA examiner will meet you onboard and talk through the plan. Examiners understand you could be nervous and will do their best to allay your fears and make sure you are clear about what they want you to do. They are there to find out what you can do, not to pick holes.

You will be asked to undertake a short passage, but you may have to plan a longer one. In general you should skipper the yacht in your normal style.

You must know your position reasonably accurately throughout the exam, but don't make the mistake of being so busy plotting fixes that you forget to look around. Often a quick glance on deck will confirm your position from a buoy or transit.

Make sure you know how to use a GPS, but don't over navigate with it.

You will usually be given practical problems involving tidal stream and heights. You can make life easy for yourself by looking them up beforehand - it's not cheating.

You need to know how the boat will react, it's turning circle and any predictable quirks to its handling. There will be some close quarters maneuvering, usually in harbour, to demonstrate your skills at berthing and leaving pontoons, piles or moorings.

Your examiner isn't looking for first time every time success, but you will need to demonstrate competence and a good understanding of how the boat reacts at slow speeds.

Exams always include a Man Over Board recovery exercise. However you do it you must end up with the yacht stopped next to the man in the water.

Listen to the forecast before your exam and be prepared for questions about the current weather and how this might affect a passage plan. Understand how weather systems influence sea conditions and how to plan based on this knowledge. The type of boat and strengths of your crew can have a bearing on decisions based on the weather, so your examiner may ask you to consider various possibilities. There is rarely a definitive answer, so it is your informed opinions that are required.

Whether you are full in command of the yacht is the most important assessment that the examiner will make.

A good skipper leads the crew and communicates with them, making sure they understand what is going on and listening to them when they have something to say. They do not shout a stream of commands, leaving their crew in a quivering mess. Quiet competence instills confidence, helping your crew feel safe in the knowledge that the right decisions are being made.

Certificates of Competence

There are three RYA/MCA Certificates of Competence of which the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence is one. The other two are:

• Yachtmaster Coastal Certificate of Competence
• Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence

The theory is the same for Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore. The difference is that more practical experience is required for the Offshore exam. The Yachtmaster Ocean involves astronavigation. The qualifications are accepted as a worldwide standard.

Certificates of competence are some of the most useful and credible of yachting qualifications. They thoroughly test the skipper's ability, and can therefore appear daunting to potential candidates. But well prepared skippers with the right experience needn't worry. With the practice and preparation you get from doing the prep course, you should be able to relax sufficiently to let your skills shine through any exam nerves.

Where will you sail?

You will sail mainly in the Solent. Here is a map of the Solent. You may go out of the Solent as far as Poole to the West and Chichester to the East. You will visit as many places as possible so that you are familiar with them before the exam.

The Solent is a great place to do your Yachtmaster Offshore. The mix of interesting tides, plenty of varied traffic and the number of ports and harbours means you know you will be tested thoroughly in these waters.

Accommodation

Accommodation during a sailing course is on board the yacht. There are almost always three double cabins and two single berths which provide accommodation for eight people. However, there would only ever be a maximum of five students on board, plus the instructor.

Showers/Facilities

There are showers on board, but most nights you will be in a marina with good hot showers and shoreside facilities.

Food

Except for supper on the evening you join the boat, we cater on board for all meals. We provide food that is healthy and nutritious, including salads, vegetables, white and wholemeal bread, chicken, lean minced beef, muesli, cereal, yoghurt and good quality orange juice. In fact, just the kind of food that you might buy yourself. For snacks there is plenty of fruit, but also a supply of chocolate and biscuits.

If you have any special dietary requirements, we can normally accommodate these. Just let us know when you fill out your booking form.

Location

Our boats are based in Shamrock Quay, Southampton. Getting to Shamrock Quay is very easy. It's about an 8 minute taxi ride from Southampton Central Station, or 15 minutes from Southampton Airport if you are coming from abroad. If you arrive by car there is plenty of free parking and there is security 24/7.

Occasionally a course may start on one of our boats when it is not at Shamrock Quay. It may be very close to Shamrock Quay or in Portsmouth. We will give you plenty of notice when this is the case.

Start/Finish Times

We find it is better if you arrive the evening before your course starts. This way you can start getting to know the yacht, the skipper and your crew mates before the course really gets under way. If this is not possible then you need to be at the boat by 8.30am on the first day of the Sailing Course.

You can expect to get away by 5pm on the final day of your course, possibly earlier. If you are catching a train we recommend you do not book a ticket in advance as we can't guarantee you will get away at 5pm on the dot. It may be a bit earlier it may be a bit later.

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing", Billy Connolly.

Whilst the weather sailing of the south coast is actually fairly mild it is important to have the correct clothing. We provide state of the art Musto Oilskins that are brand new every year.

Space on a boat is always at a premium, so you should pack your clothes in a soft holdall that can be stowed away in a locker. Bags with wheels or metal buckles should be avoided, as these may damage the woodwork on boats. You will need:

• Sleeping bag.
• Pillow.
• Towel.
• Warm clothing. It can sometimes be considerably cooler at sea than on land.
• Fleeces and thermals are good for chillier times of the year.
• A sunhat/baseball cap.
• A woolly hat for cold weather.
• Suncream.
• Sunglasses.
• Retaining strap for glasses/sunglasses.
• Sailing gloves.
• Non marking shoes (Trainers or deck shoes).
• Non-slip/non-marking waterproof sailing boots (not agricultural-type wellies). These can be purchased from the chandlery at Shamrock Quay for about £30.
• Waterproof clothing (unless you have asked us to provide it for you).
• RYA Logbook, if you have one, if not we can provide one for £5.
• Current passport (if sailing holiday or trip may involve other countries).
• European Health Insurance Card (if sailing holiday or trip involves other EU countries).
• Health insurance documentation (if applicable).
• For clothing, remember that you will be outdoors most of the day. A range of sporty, layered clothing is best. Jeans are OK, but not ideal as they are hard to dry if they get wet. You want to be warm, comfortable and able to move easily. We provide waterproof Musto jackets and trousers free of charge. Just let us know your sizes on the booking form.
• Soft bag for all your belongings (no hard suitcases please).

We provide all safety equipment such as lifejackets and harnesses.

There is no prescribed syllabus to this course. It is designed to give you practice and fine tune what you know already before an external examiner comes on board.

In Yachtmaster Offshore exams the candidate will be expected to demonstrate competence based on broad experience. In Yachtmaster Coastal exams the candidate will be expected to demonstrate understanding but may not have had the opportunity to practice all aspects of the syllabus under a range of different weather conditions.

Candidates may be given the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge or competence in the areas listed below. In each section the examiner will expect to see the candidate take full responsibility for the management of the yacht and crew.

You will practice everything in the Yachtmaster Offshore Exam syllabus which is as follows:

Questions will be confined to the International Regulations and although candidates must be aware of the existence of Local Regulations, they will not be expected to memorise specific local regulations.

•General rules (1-3)

•Steering and sailing rules (4-19)

•Lights and shapes (20-31)

•Sound and light signals (32-37)

•Signals for vessels fishing in close proximity (Annex II)

•Distress signals (Annex IV)

2. Safety

Candidates will be expected to know what safety equipment should carried on board a yacht, based either on the recommendations in the RYA Boat Safety Handbook (C8), the ISAF Special Regulations or the Codes of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Vessels. In particular, candidates must know the responsibilities of a skipper in relation to:

•Safety harnesses

•Lifejackets

•Distress flares

•Fire prevention and fighting

•Liferafts

•Knowledge of rescue procedures

3. Boat Handling

Candidates for Coastal Skipper examinations will be expected to answer questions or demonstrate ability in simple situations only. Candidates for Yachtmaster Offshore will be expected to answer questions or demonstrate ability in more complex situations and will also be expected to show a higher level of expertise:

•Coming to and weighing anchor under power in various conditions of wind and tide

•All berthing and un-berthing situations in various conditions of wind and tide

•Recovery of man overboard

•Towing under open sea conditions and in confined areas

•Boat handling in confined areas

•Boat handling in heavy weather

•Helmsmanship

•Use of warps for securing in an alongside berth and for shifting berth or winding

4. General seamanship, including maintenance

•Properties, use and care of synthetic fibre ropes

•Knots

•General deck work at sea and in harbour

•Engine operations and routine checks

5. Responsibilities of Skipper

•Can skipper a yacht and manage the crew

•Communication with crew

•Delegation of responsibility and watch keeping organisation

•Preparing vessel for sea and for adverse weather

•Tactics for heavy weather and restricted visibility

•Emergency and distress situations

•Victualling for a cruise and feeding at sea

•Customs procedures

•Standards of behaviour and courtesy

6. Navigation

•Charts, navigational publications and sources of navigational information

•Chart work including position fixing and shaping course to allow for tidal stream and leeway

•Tide and tidal stream calculations

•Buoyage and visual aids to navigation

•Instruments including compasses, logs, echo sounders, radio navaids and chartwork instruments

•Passage planning and navigational tactics

•Pilotage techniques

•Navigational records

•Limits of navigational accuracy and margins of safety

•Lee shore dangers

•Use of electronic navigation aids for passage planning and passage navigation

•Use of waypoints and electronic routing

•Use of radar for navigation, pilotage and collision avoidance

7. Meteorology

•Definition of terms

•Sources of weather forecasts

•Weather systems and local weather effects

•Interpretation of weather forecasts, barometric trends and visible phenomena

•Ability to make passage planning decisions based on forecast information

8. Signals

•Candidates for Yachtmaster Offshore and Coastal Skipper must hold the Restricted (VHF only) Certificate of Competence in radiotelephony or a higher grade of certificate in radiotelephony.