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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

How to prepare for your Yachtmaster Offshore exam

• Theo Stocker
• August 16, 2024

In an age of digital navigation and walk ashore pontoons, how hard can the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore be? Theo Stocker prepared to take the test to find out

Many very competent and highly experienced yachtsmen and women don’t have any qualifications at all and are content to keep it that way, but for some reason, not being a Yachtmaster bothered me. I was pretty sure I was up to the standard, but I didn’t know.

Once you’ve got the ticket, you become an RYA Yachtmaster, something I’ve wanted to do for years. My friend Andrew and I have been talking about doing it since before his son Daniel, now 16, was born. Perhaps it was time to finally get on with our RYA Yachtmaster Offshore.

Every course I have done up to this point, from RYA Dinghy Level 2 all the way up to Coastal Skipper (some 20 years ago) has been one of the RYA’s ‘course-completion’ qualifications – do the week and if you can do what’s on the syllabus, you get the ticket, signed off by your training centre.

The RYA Yachtmaster Certificates of Competence (Coastal, Offshore and Ocean), however, are run by the RYA under the authority of the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) and as such, they are the pinnacle of training for amateur sailors, and the start of the ladder of commercial qualifications, required for anyone who wants to work as a professional seafarer. You have to meet the pre-entry requirements, but passing is based purely on how you fare during a potentially gruelling day-long practical exam.

It’s now 51 years since the RYA took over examining Yachtmasters from the Board of Trade (now the MCA) in 1973, and Yachting Monthly was, in a small way, involved in shaping some of the practical seamanship elements of the exam.

Clearly, a lot has changed in the intervening years – navigation technology, engines, deck-gear, marinas, and not least the boats themselves. I was eager to see how the RYA Yachtmaster scheme has changed with the times, and if, like many other aspects of sailing, it has simply become easier, or whether it is still the challenging test it always was.

The crew (L-R): Matt Sillars, Andrew Eastham, Row Staples and Theo Stocker

What was I letting myself in for?

From the outset, the RYA were keen to emphasise that Yachtmaster is not an attendance-based course, but a one-day exam in which an examiner will form an objective opinion of your abilities, and will recommend you to the RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Qualification Panel to become a Yachtmaster, or not.

Technically, no instruction is required before the exam and the theory course is not compulsory. However, taking the exam is a significant investment of time and money if you’re not confident of passing, and you will certainly need theory knowledge of the level of the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore shorebased course, with practical experience and skills to match that, to stand any chance of passing.

It is strongly recommended, therefore, that you have a few days’ preparation, ideally immediately before the exam, with the same boat and crew as you’ll have for the exam so you’re at the top of your game. You don’t want to be getting to know the foibles of a boat or crew whilst trying to exude an air of calm and knowledgeable competence.

A hearty meal every evening, and the occasional beer, keep the crew going

Many sailing schools offer places on a Yachtmaster preparation course, normally of five days, for four candidates, with two days of examination at the end of it, as only two candidates can be examined in any one 24-hour period, the exam being a marathon 8-12 hours for one person, and 10-18 hours for two. No more than four candidates can be examined at a time, as they are long days for candidate and examiner alike.

It was also made abundantly clear that while we had four days to prepare, this was not a course on which we could be taught what we needed to know; this should have been gained over our years of experience. The week’s aim was to run through the whole Yachtmaster syllabus to strip away any bluster, revealing to the cold light of day our weaknesses and bad habits.

Rough edges would be polished, but if we were learning new skills for the first time, then we probably were not quite ready for the exam just yet. No pressure!

What Yachtmaster Offshore instructor Matt Sillars says

The week is not a course to learn to be a Yachtmaster Offshore. You need to have done 90% of the work beforehand. The preparation days are about checking skills and finding where you need more work, rather than being taught skills. It’s also very difficult to fake experience and an examiner will spot someone exaggerating their skill set very quickly.

Matt helps Theo and Andrew with some last-minute revision of tidal corrections

Getting prepared for the Yachtmaster Offshore

As I prepared for the week, I quickly found I’d had significant ‘skills fade’ in my detailed knowledge of the Collision Regulations, particularly lights, shapes and sounds, and buoyage light characteristics.

You’ll need a good working knowledge not just of the most common parts of the rules, but of the whole lot, including some of the more esoteric corners of the rule book. Professional seafarers are expect to know every word verbatim; Yachtmasters need to be getting at least 80% of the lights and shapes right, and importantly be able to demonstrate that they understand them, to pass.

Article continues below…

The history of the RYA Yachtmaster scheme as it turns 50

The RYA started examining Yachtmaster candidates in 1973 but in fact the very first Yachtmaster certificates were awarded much earlier.…

12 expert skills to take you beyond Yachtmaster

Rupert Holmes outlines the skills that mark out the good sailors from the 
great ones, with experience and reflective learning…

The lights shown by trawlers shooting gear, towed vessels of the bizarest dimensions and sizes, and the sound signals of vessels in all sorts of pickles were initially, at best, a little foggy.

It’s easy to feel that in normal, coastal sailing you come across these intricacies so rarely as to make them irrelevant, but the point of the Yachtmaster is that you are able to operate at sea not as an amateur, but on a par with professional seafarers.

Indeed, with a commercial endorsement to your RYA Yachtmaster, you could easily be one of them, if you ever fancied a career change. Knowing the rules also diminishes the chances of ending up in front of an inquest. The detail is fiddly, but it’s not impossible to learn.

Everyone knows the motoring cone, but do you use it? And what about the other shapes?

IRPCS are something you just have to know, and it would be a real shame to fail your Yachtmaster because you hadn’t brushed up beforehand. For ease, many examiners will use packs of flip cards to test your knowledge of lights, shapes, buoyage and collision avoidance during a quiet moment on exam day. It’s not meant to be an interrogation, but if you’re getting more than two in ten wrong then the examiner won’t be able to pass you.

One little tip with sound signals are that it is easy to get overwhelmed once you start adding in all the extra sounds to the basic signals, but there are only a few distinct meanings to remember. These then get added together, but can easily be broken into their composite parts to help you decipher their meanings.

A safety brief can be tailored to your crew, their level of experience and their familiarity with your boat

Yachtmaster Offshore training

The forecast for the week couldn’t have been much better. Typically, the only day there wasn’t sunshine and a decent breeze was the day we had the photographer on board, but the rest of the time there was enough wind to get our teeth into – there’s nothing like trying to sail onto a mooring if there’s no wind, and it’s often a stiff breeze that makes marina manoeuvring tricky.

The aim for day one was to run through the full gambit of skills that would be tested in the exam for Matt to get an idea of where Andrew and I were at. With the food and kit stowed, the day began with the usual safety briefings, engine checks and discussion regarding firefighting.

Safety briefs

A good skipper will always make sure their crew have had a safety brief. If you sail with the same crew on a regular basis, you don’t need to give them the same briefing every time, but an occasional reminder of the main points is probably a good idea, as the details quickly fade. For us, the safety brief was about making sure the people we had on board knew where everything was on a boat they hadn’t sailed before.

Keep tethers and first-aid kit somewhere accessible

For a crew of novices, we would have included things like how to use a fire extinguisher and how to put on a lifejacket, but for experienced sailors, it is sufficient to show them where safety kit is, so things like tethers, fire-fighting equipment, seacocks and softwood bungs, as well as how the distress and MOB functions on this boat’s particular chartplotter and VHF radio work, are all relevant.

On deck, knowing were the MOB recovery kit, engine fire extinguisher and liferaft are is all important.

I’ve been doing engine checks for years, and it’s easy to be familiar with your engine at a basic level. Various acronyms exist to help remind you about what to check, but advice has changed recently to add in one sensible step to an engine check and that is to isolate the engine before opening the case.

You may do this already, but if you don’t, there’s a risk that in the usual melee of getting ready to set sail, someone on deck goes to start the engine while you’ve got your hand on the drive belt. Better switch off the isolator so this can’t happen until you’re done.

The acronym I found most helpful was: IWOBBLE: Isolate; Water (strainer); Oil (level and colour, engine and transmission); Belt (wear and tension); Bilges (empty); Leaks (no oil or fuel spills); Exhaust (clean, and water once the engine has started).

Every boat is different, such as MOB marking systems

It’s worth making sure any experienced sailors on your boat also know how to do some of these so that you as skipper don’t have to be the one with your head stuck in the engine bay when the engine fails on the way into harbour.

Dabs of high-vis paint on the relevant fittings can help direct you to the correct nut to loosen or tighten for each job.

In the exam, you may not have to bleed the engine, but you will need to talk through how you would handle various engine emergencies, from fires to fuel starvation, overheating and prop wraps, so spend time getting familiar with the fuel, water and cooling systems on your boat’s engine so you can point at the right bits.

Marina manoeuvres fill many cruising sailors with dread

Yachtmaster Offshore marina manoeuvres

With the boat and crew ready to go, it was time for our first go at ‘pontoon bashing’. It’s always going to be a little nerve-wracking handling a boat you don’t know well in the confines of a windy and tide-swept marina, so it’s a useful tool for the instructor to quickly get a gauge on your level of confidence and ability.

As someone who normally keeps a boat on a mooring and anchors at every available opportunity, tricky marina berths are something that I rarely visit, so this was a skill that needed a little more attention for me.

‘Parking’ can sometimes look a little boring to the outside observer, but serried ranks of expensive boats and vicious bow rollers and anchors makes this an exercise to really focus the mind. It also forces you to attempt berths that in normal sailing you would often rather avoid, but may be forced to use in a busy marina.

Check prop kick astern when alongside, then try out how the boat responds in open water

Get your bearings

To start, we took time to check the depth sounder was accurate using a leadline, and checking whether it was set to depth below the keel or below the waterline – a critical piece of information. While alongside, put the engine astern and have a look which side the prop wash emerges. The stern will kick to the other side when engaging astern.

We checked the boat’s pivot point too in ahead and astern, and how long the boat needed to get steerage in either direction. All of this can be done in open water.

Assessing the wind and tide is essential before you start a manoeuvre, factoring in what these will be doing in the berth itself, and not just out by the marina entrance. At Mercury Yacht Harbour, when the tide is in full spate, you can get a nasty diagonal cross-current across the berth, and some owners simply avoid coming or going at anything other than slack water.

Letting the boat come to a stop will show how she will want to lie.

Approaching a finger berth will be easier if it is on the outside of your turn

Tricky berths

We then tried a number of different berths of ascending difficulty – coming alongside an open hammerhead was straightforward, where slotting in between two already-moored boats took a little more planning.

Getting in and out of a large bay in which several boats are moored adds complication. In this case, with a strong westerly and an ebbing tide, I concluded it would be easier to do the whole manouevre in astern rather than switching direction and losing steerage part way through.

Don’t forget to think about how you’ll get out of the berth, how other boats will lie, and whether you want wind or sunshine in the cockpit and companionway.

Communicate to crew which lines you want let go first, before you start the manoeuvre, then keep them updated with what you’re doing

Getting into finger berths was straight-forward if they were ‘open’ berths, on the near side of the pontoon so that as the boat slides around the turn, her momentum carries her onto the berth. ‘Closed’ berths, on the far side were trickier, and often demanded going in past the berth, then either turning or reversing direction.

Switching which way you want to lie in the berth may necessitate starting the whole thing in astern rather than ahead. Be ready for this to be a spectator sport as onlookers wait for a victim like Romans in a Colosseum.

Judging what the tide and wind will do to your boat are key to marina manouevring. You also need to know which way the boat will ‘want’ to go in any given situation, and then use it to your advantage – think about stern kick, slide and pivot points.

It’s easy to think about bow and stern springs, but a midships line is one of the most useful. Drive against it in forwards while steering away from the pontoon to bring the bow in and hold the boat parallel.

Motor against a stern line to hold the boat alongside

It is also helpful to think about the ‘favoured’ side every time you enter a marina row. Given the prevailing conditions, you will be pushed to one side or the other, and you want to stay on the upwind or uptide side to keep your options open and your hull clear of the bow rollers waiting to leeward.

A ball fender is a really useful tool as it won’t roll out in the same way as a sausage fender and it has more give in it. Rig it at the point of main load before a manoeuvre.

Don’t forget to have an exit strategy if the approach doesn’t go according to plan so you can get out and try again.

It’s not cheating to have worked out in advance the tidal heights for where you will be sailing on the day of your exam (the beer is optional, but also helps)

Yachtmaster Offshore navigation

Getting a boat from A to B safely and effectively is still at the heart of the RYA Yachtmaster qualification, as it has been from its inception. The tools available to help us navigate have changed dramatically since 1973, however, and even in the last decade have been transformed.

GNSS, chartplotters, AIS, smartphones and internet access have resulted in a revolution. Many sailors have ditched paper almost entirely these days, so have the traditional navigation skills of the Yachtmaster scheme become irrelevant?

On our first evening, Matt set us homework; Andrew would take us from Hamble into the Beaulieu River and I would bring us back. Hardly a challenging trip, and one I’ve often done with little more than cursory planning. That’s not the point though, as if these were unfamiliar waters, I would need to navigate us much more accurately and actively, so this short trip was designed to test our pilotage and passage planning skills.

There was a good list of things to prepare for each day, and ahead of the exam

Definitely not cheating

Electronics and internet-based sources of information were not only allowed, but expected and encouraged for this exercise, albeit we also had to demonstrate our ability to use the ‘old-fashioned’ methods of calculating secondary port tidal heights, tidal streams and courses to steer.

While chartplotters on your phone may have freed us up from the old cliche of the skipper bobbing up and down to the chart table like a rabbit, it is equally as easy to fall into the trap of staring dumbly at our phones, driving a triangle across the screen, all but unaware of where we are in relation to the real world.

The trick is to be able to use every source of navigation information to make sense of the world around you and to sense-check that information against multiple sources of data.

It takes time to put your passage plan into the plotter and to make sure the plotter is set up to give you the information you need

It felt like cheating to be able to get tidal heights from my phone, but I also found the planning stage almost busier as a result. Many online sources of data, especially data, come from unknown origins and can vary a surprising amount, so don’t assume that what a screen is telling you is accurate data. Navionics and Admiralty EasyTides can disagree by up to an hour at times.

It’s also easy to let a machine work something out for you and suggest a route that makes sense on screen, but doesn’t work well in reality. It won’t factor in a good offing from a shallow lee shore, and nor will it care if the waypoints, and therefore the courses you’re steering, are easily identified visually from on deck. A single, long course, with an obvious headmark will be much easier for the helm to steer than lots of short ‘artificial’ courses. Secondary port calculations caused us both headaches as we dragged the process out of our long-term memory. Which way to interpolate and between which numbers is surprisingly easy to get wrong under pressure.

The strengths of paper

Inputting our plans into the chart plotter also takes time, as much from finding where all the dratted functions are in the plotter’s menu options as form the basic principles. For most plotters, planning remains something they do not do well, and using paper is often still faster and easier to get an overview of where safe water is. I’ve also yet to find a way to calculate a proper course to steer on a chartplotter yet, even for a single hour, let alone a longer passage.

When it comes to pilotage, a plotter or phone on deck is enormously helpful to see where you are. It isn’t however, the easiest way to present the essential information you need at your fingertips, and a notebook with pre prepared information is the best place to list expected tidal heights, alongside a sketch of buoys, lights, courses, radio comms and anything else you’ll need to know.

A sketch chart can quickly convey a huge amount of information

In many ways, the job of a small vessel navigator has got harder rather than easier, as more and more tools are at our disposal to use. Not only do you need to be able to read a chart and plot a fix, but you need to be able to navigate your way through multiple phone apps, plotter menus and be able to extract the right information from your radar and AIS.

It is very easy to get distracted from the main thing, which is keeping your head up and out of the boat, and for your bubble of awareness to shrink as you become more and more reliant on flicking from one screen to the next.

Coming out of Beaulieu, I was able to quickly check on my phone that although the height of tide promised on Navionics wasn’t huge, it was rising, and the Bramblemet tide guage was showing an extra 30cm of water. We would be fine.

A good crew will hold an accurate course and feed you information as you go

I’d put in a direct route, but used the cross track error function on the plotter to keep us to starboard of track, increasing our offing to windward, clear of Stansore Point and Calshot Sands. I had also tried to pick waypoints close to easily visible marks, even though this gave us a slightly longer route.

I knew we could cut the corner with an eye on Navionics once we got closer. At no point did me pulling my phone from my pocket or referring to the plotter raise any eyebrows, though I realised at the end that having been asked to plot a visual fix at some point, the objects I’d picked for a three-point fix weren’t on the chart, and I’d omitted to go back and plot a proper one.

Practising using just one of these tools to find your way forces you to get familiar with what it can do and how it works

Blind navigation

There’s nothing quite like losing one of your senses to sharpen your use of another. While the traditional ‘blind navigation’ exercises known and loved by sailing instructors are less ‘blind’ than they used to be, they are no less challenging than they ever were. They are also the best way to learn how to use one method of navigation that you might otherwise avoid if at all possible.

Over the four days, we conducted various exercises, all within a pretty small area at the bottom of Southampton Water, finding arbitrary spots of water given to us by Matt to locate. He would pick spots on the chart, and ask us navigate from one, to the next, to circle another and to stop at another.

Even on deck with all the tools at your disposal, it’s a good simulation of finding your way into an unknown narrow channel or rock-strewn harbour approach. We tried it using the charplotter route functions, just the radar, and just visual pilotage.

The harder part came when we were asked to verify one means against the other so that we had to juggle different systems in short order – information overload and unfamiliarity with the radar, plotter or phone app being the thing that was likely to distract us at the critical moment.

Using VRM/EBL from an identifiable radar target to follow a course to an unmarked position

How do you, for example, make sure that you stay precisely on a line between two imaginary points using radar alone? There is a way, it turns out, using the VRM/EBL function (Variable Range Marker/Electronic Bearing Line), by measuring to the imaginary point from a known, identifiable and charted point on the radar screen, then floating the VRM/EBL centre to this point, measuring the course and range from this point to your current location, then floating the centre back onto your known radar contact.

Simply steer to keep the object sliding along the EBL and when it reaches the intersection with the VRM, you’re there. Knowing the buttons to press to make this happen on your radar is another matter entirely and caused us many headaches.

Electronics are definitely not cheating. You’ve got to be able to use them, and to know what info you can trust and what you need to cross-reference. Navigation hasn’t really changed – you’ve still got to use multiple sources of position information to reliably work out where you are and where you need to go.

Rather than three bearing lines, it might be a GPS fix or a radar range, a depth and a transit, but relying on one source of information alone to determine your position never has been considered good seamanship.

Next month – Find out how Theo and Andrew got on with the rest of their prep week and whether they actually passed their Yachtmaster Offshore exam at the end of the week…

With thanks to the Hamble School of Yachting for the use of their Sun Odyssey 37. Hamble School of Yachting offers a range of sailing course, charters and adventures, from Competent Crew up to professional MCA qualifications. 

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RYA Yachtmaster Coastal / Yachtmaster Offshore Prep & Exam

Preparation course overview.

The RYA Yachtmaster Coastal / Yachtmaster Offshore Preparation course enables those who hold the required prerequisite experience to sit the RYA Yachtmaster Coastal or RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exam to fine tune their existing skills prior to sitting the practical exam.

About the course

The preparation course is run over 5 days and designed to assess your level of competency against the RYA Yachtmaster Coastal or RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exam syllabus found in the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus and Logbook (G158/15) and is intended to fine tune your existing skills and polish any areas of weakness prior to the exam. The subsequent exam is then run over two days, following the preparation course.

Prior the prep course, we advise that you read the exam syllabus and give yourself an honest appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses. Try to address any shortfalls beforehand and then during the preparation course be open with your instructor about your abilities and what you need to work on in the run up to your exam.

During the prep course your instructor will frequently update you on your progress and ability and recommend which exam you should aim for – whether Coastal or Offshore.

The syllabus is taught in a ratio of (4:1) students to instructor.

Please follow the link if you are looking for the RYA yachtmaster offshore professional course

Prerequisites

Rya yachtmaster coastal exam (sail).

Candidates must be aged 17 or over and require;

• A Radio Operators Qualification – A GMDSS Short Range Certificate (SRC) or higher grade of marine radio certificate
• A valid first aid certificate
• Seatime – 800 miles logged within 10 years prior to examination, 30 days living on board, two days as skipper and 12 night hours.

For holders of the RYA Coastal Skipper Practical course completion certificate, the seatime requirement is reduced to 400 miles, 2 days living on board, 12 night hours, two days as skipper.

Half of the qualifying seatime must have been gained in tidal waters. For sizes of vessel please refer to page 73 in the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus and Logbook (G158/15).

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Exam (Sail)

Candidates must be aged 18 or over and require;

• Seatime – 50 days, 2,500 miles, including at least five passages over 60 miles, acting as skipper for at least two of these passages and including two which have involved overnight passages. Five days’ experience as skipper.

At least half of the qualifying seatime must have been accrued in tidal waters. For sizes of vessel please refer to page 73 in the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme Syllabus and Logbook (G158/15).

Full details and definitions on qualifying passages can be found here .

Exam overviews

The exam will include an assessment of your skippering skills, boat handling, general seamanship, navigation, safety awareness and knowledge of the IRPCS (collision regulations), meteorology and signals. You will be set tasks to demonstrate your ability and may also be asked questions on any part of the syllabus for all practical and shorebased courses up to Yachtmaster Coastal level.

The exam will include an assessment of your skippering skills, boat handling, general seamanship, navigation, safety awareness and knowledge of the IRPCS, meteorology and signals, with particular emphasis on command skills, boat handling under sail and power in confined spaces, plus navigation and pilotage techniques in daylight, at night and in reduced visibility. Adverse weather conditions and coping with emergencies are also covered.

The examiner will set tasks to enable you to demonstrate your ability as skipper and may also ask questions on any part of the syllabus for all practical and shorebased courses up to RYA Yachtmaster Offshore.

Exam Duration 

The exam will take around 8-12 hours per candidate candidate. No more than two candidates can be examined in 24 hours. Whilst one candidate is being examined the remaining candidates will act as crew.

Qualifications

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal Certification of Competence.

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence.

Dates and pricing

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• Certificates of Competence
• RYA Yachtmaster

What is an RYA Yachtmaster?

The RYA Yachtmaster® Certificate of Competence is often the ultimate aim of aspiring skippers. It is a well known, highly respected qualification worldwide, proving your experience and competence as a skipper. Unlike other qualifications in the cruising programme, there is no formal training course to become an RYA Yachtmaster. Instead, provided you have sufficient experience, certification and seatime, you can put yourself forward for an exam to test your skills and knowledge. There are a number of RYA navigation courses that will help you prepare for your exam. Many RYA Yachtmaster candidates also choose to book themselves into an RYA training centre for some specialised exam preparation training, but this is not compulsory.

You are capable of coastal passages

You are competent to undertake passages up to 150 miles offshore

You have the knowledge and experience to sail worldwide

• Arranging your exam

The Coastal and Offshore exams are practical tests afloat, and the Ocean is an oral exam. Find out more about qualifying passages, exam fees and how to book. 

With an RYA Yachtmaster Coastal, Offshore or Ocean Certificate of Competence you can start a career at sea.

You'll need to have the appropriate qualification for the vessel and area of operation.

If you want to work commercially, you'll need a commercial endorsement.

Find out more about other RYA professional qualifications.

• Getting the most from a Yachtmaster Fast Track course

Can you really become an RYA Yachtmaster in as little as 14 weeks? Check out our top tips for getting the most from a Yachtmaster Fast Track course...

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. How to pass the practical exam.

• 5th September 2022
• by Pete Green

How to pass the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore practical sailing exam:  Here are our top tips!

Why take the RYA Yachtmaster Exam?

Several organisations around the world offer professional sailing qualifications. One of the most renowned, and the oldest, is the Royal Yachting Association Yachtmaster Offshore qualification. This recognises that the holder is competent to skipper a sailing yacht on a passage 150 miles from a safe haven. There are plenty of excellent and accomplished sailors on the oceans who do not wish to acquire ‘tickets’, but many boaters do sign up for exams each year, so why bother? Courses can teach you the core skills that a modern sailor should have at their fingertips. Sailing with people from diverse backgrounds and with knowledge of different cruising areas helps you realise where the gaps in your own knowledge are and can inspire you to learn new ways of tackling fundamental skills. Most yachting establishments require their employees to have a recognised professional qualification. Without one, sailors will find it difficult to gain work as an instructor, yacht delivery skipper or find employment on a charter vessel.

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Practical Exam and pre-course requirements.

The practical exam usually takes 8-12 hours for one candidate and 4-9 hours per candidate where more than one person is being examined. Sailors can be asked questions about any part of the RYA syllabus including areas such as: boat handling, navigation, man overboard, safety, meteorology, adverse weather conditions, long passages, and general boat husbandry. There are also pre-exam requirements. A candidate must hold a Radio Operators Certificate and a valid and acceptable First Aid qualification.

Potential Yachtmasters must have spent a minimum of 50 days at sea with 2,500 miles in their logbooks, including at least five passages over sixty miles. Two of these should have been as skipper and two completed with night passages. Half the sea time must be in tidal waters in a vessel less than 24m. Several sailing schools around the UK offer to arrange exams and assessors; often there is an option to spend a prep week beforehand on the vessel that will be used in the exam.

Halcyon Yachts Top Tips for a successful RYA Yachtmaster exam:

Some sailors breeze through the exam, enjoying the experience and remaining calm and confident throughout. Most people though find the whole thing nerve-wracking and uncomfortable. So, what can you do to make the experience a positive one, how best to prepare and how should you present yourself to the best advantage? We asked some leading Yachtmaster Instructors and Assessors for their top tips: here are our favourites.

• “Practise sailing onto moorings at every opportunity as this makes you more confident for MOB under sail and sailing onto the anchor. Remember, the examiner wants you to pass, it is an opportunity to show off.”
• “Remain calm and focused, things go wrong during exams, they are long, and something is bound to go less than perfectly. It is often one small mistake that that becomes a small incident that becomes a major error that a candidate cannot recover from that leads to a sailor having to retake their exam.”
• “Know your weather and collision regulations. A candidate’s knowledge of Colregs instantly tells an examiner if the candidate is serious or not. It is an element that can be learnt long before the exam, there is no excuse not to know them. I tell my students knowing them can be a big ‘get out of jail free’ card during the exam if things are not going well.”
• “Give your crew clear, concise instructions using sailing language, practise ‘command and control.’ Tell your crew members what you would like them to do, give them time and space to do it, and then respectfully check they have completed the task.” There is no point in rushing the crew and adding stress to the exam, there is nothing wrong with taking a little time and having some finesse to your manoeuvre.”
• “Teamwork: collaborating with your crew to make sure you are all in best form and working towards a common goal, if you help the other candidates, they will help you when it is your turn to be the skipper. An examiner will soon spot a candidate who is trying to make himself or herself look better to the detriment of other sailors.”
• “Show the examiner that you care about the boat, coil down properly, close locker lids gently, show good seamanship and boat husbandry skills. Set lines and fenders correctly and efficiently, move around the boat with quiet confidence and authority.”
• “Do not try and make excuses or blag your way out of bad situations, your examiner will see straight through you. Be honest, if you make a mistake, admit it, and ask for another opportunity to complete a task.”
• “Sailing for the exam is not a race, it is not looking at how fast you can go, how hard you can push the boat to its limits. It is a cruise, a slow gentle sail to show you can be safe and in control. Put a reef in a little bit before you would normally, keep the boat flat, comfortable, and stable.”
• “Take your time, The YM exam is a snapshot of what you can do. It is a small window into your sailing life. There is no rush to do anything, it is better to do it once and controlled than to do it several times hurried.”
• “A good skipper does not spend ages down below ‘over navigating.’ Have your passage plan prepared, know where you are and where you are going, and become familiar with the navigation equipment on board. You then have plenty of time to run the yacht proficiently and look after the crew. The only time you should be down below constantly navigating is during the ‘Blind Nav’ assessment. Prepare for and master this tricky task”!
• “Practise entering and leaving unfamiliar harbours using charts, pilot books and almanacs. Become familiar with interpreting 2D images on a page into the 3D reality on the water. Do this at night as well when there are lights flashing all around you and you must pick out marks against harbour lights.”
• “The sanity check, this is my favourite thing to do, it is the checking over your task to make sure you have covered every base and have not missed anything out. It is the equivalent of the pilot’s check list.”
• “Know your skills, make sure that you have had lots of practice before going into a prep week and get your theory up to scratch. It is not something that a candidate should take lightly, and you need to make sure you are comfortable in your own skin doing the skills. Do not think the prep week will give you the skills you need to do the exam. It is a polishing week, designed to just finesse your abilities and plug the little holes in your base knowledge.”
• “Paperwork! Make sure you have all the appropriate paperwork neatly packed up and ready to hand to your examiner. It is not the training centres job to make sure you have done the correct eligibility tasks; it is purely yours. Ensure you have all the necessary certificates with you and that your logbook is relevant and current.”
• “Remember that the examiner is also a very experienced instructor. They love to teach. The RYA Yachtmaster exam is another valuable opportunity to learn from a very knowledgeable skipper. If you embrace this opportunity with a positive attitude then they will likely turn what you perceive as a mistake into a learning opportunity. The best skippers never stop learning!”

Many thanks to those who helped with this article.

Phil Somerville, author of “The Practical Guide to Celestial Navigation” – buy your copy here:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Guide-Celestial-Navigation-Step/dp/1472987586

Mark Treacher, Yacht Delivery Skipper and  RYA Sailing Instructor.

Mike Sharland, RYA Yachtmaster Instructor at “Scot Sail”. https://www.scotsail.co.uk/

Tomos Price, Chief Instructor and co-owner of “Commodore Yachting”.   https://www.commodore-yachting.com/

Pete Green, Yachtmaster  Instructor and Managing Director at “Halcyon Yachts”.   https://halcyonyachts.com/

Fantastic read and top tips!… look forward to sailing with you again soon I hope!

The Boy Scouts motto ‘Be Prepared’ is a valuable one when considering the YM, think ahead.

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Russian Company OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA"

Brief profile.

active Commercial

Facts to Consider

The founder of the organization has changed.

The company has been in business for 13 years.

The age of the organization is higher than the industry average.

Complete Profile

• 1. General Information
• 2. Registration in the Russian Federation
• 3. Company's Activities
• 4. Legal Address
• 5. Owners, Founders of the Entity
• 6. OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" CEO
• 7. Entities Founded by Company
• 8. Company Finance
• 9. Timeline of key events
• 10. Latest Changes in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE)

General Information

Full name of the organization: OBSHCHESTVO S OGRANICHENNOI OTVETSTVENNOSTIU "PREPREG-DUBNA"

TIN: 5010043203

KPP: 501001001

PSRN: 1115010001138

Location: 141981, Moscow Oblast, Dubna, ul. Tekhnologicheskaia, 8

Line of business: Other research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering (OKVED code 72.19)

Organization status: Commercial, active

Form of incorporation: Limited liability companies (code 12300 according to OKOPF)

Registration in the Russian Federation

The tax authority where the legal entity is registered: Mezhraionnaia inspektsiia Federalnoi nalogovoi sluzhby №12 po Moskovskoi oblasti (inspection code – 5010).

Registration with the Pension Fund: registration number 060008054751 dated 19 April 2011.

Registration with the Social Insurance Fund: registration number 503001314550301 dated 5 May 2011.

Company's Activities

The main activity of the organization is Other research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering (OKVED code 72.19).

Additionally, the organization listed the following activities:

Legal Address

OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" is registered at 141981, Moscow Oblast, Dubna, ul. Tekhnologicheskaia, 8. ( show on a map )

No other organizations are listed at the current registered address.

Owners, Founders of the Entity

The founder of OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" is

The former founder was:

OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" CEO

Management (the functions of the sole executive body) since 29 March 2017 is performed by the managing organization AO "PREPREG-SKM" .

Entities Founded by Company

OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" is not listed as a founder in any Russian legal entities.

Company Finance

The Authorized capital of OOO "PREPREG-DUBNA" is 505 million RUB. This is significantly higher than the minimum authorized capital established by law for LTD (10 thousand RUB).

The organization is not subject to special taxation regimes (operates under a common regime).

Timeline of key events

• The new founder – UMATEX JSC .
• is no longer listed as the founder in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Latest Changes in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE)

• 09/27/2023 . Change of information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
• 05/02/2023 . Change of information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
• 10/12/2022 . Cancellation of a decision on reorganization by a legal entity.
• 06/18/2021 . Entering information about the beginning of the reorganization of another legal entity in the form of joining another legal entity.
• 05/27/2020 . Change of information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
• 12/27/2019 . State registration of changes made to the constituent documents of a legal entity related to changes in information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, based on an application.
• 10/31/2019 . Change of information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
• 11/16/2018 . State registration of changes made to the constituent documents of a legal entity related to changes in information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, based on an application.
• 03/29/2017 . Change of information about a legal entity contained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

* The date of change in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is shown (may be different from the actual date).

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Arranging your exam

You can arrange your exam in a number of ways. here's our helpful guide on everything you need to know..

Before arranging an exam, please make sure you read through the requirements for your intended examination . Once read, confirm that you satisfy the requirements and only book when ready to proceed.

Exams in the UK

You can book your exam through your nearest RYA Recognised Training centre, by using the links below. Just click ‘Change your selection’ to enter your specific location:

Centres able to arrange Yachtmaster exams

Centres able to arrange Powerboat Advanced exams

Requesting an examiner

You can also request an examiner for specific dates in the UK by clicking on the links below. Please allow a minimum of 10 working days for an examiner to be allocated to you. Whilst we will do our best to meet your request, we cannot guarantee an examiner will be available in your location or on the date you have requested. If you are arranging a Yachtmaster Coastal or Offshore exam outside of the framework of an RYA Recognised Training Centre, you will need to provide a suitable vessel and crew.  

Request an Advanced Powerboat, Yachtmaster Coastal or Yachtmaster Offshore exam

Request a Yachtmaster Ocean exam

Exams outside the UK

Exams outside the UK must be organised through an RYA training centre recognised for practical cruising courses or advanced powerboat courses (as appropriate). To find your nearest centre please use the links below, click ‘Change your selection’ to refine your search by location.

Yachtmaster exams

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Exams in New Zealand

For details of exams and fees in New Zealand, please contact Coastguard Boating Education on [email protected]

Prior to your exam

Ensure you have completed an application form. In most cases this should be done through the online exam payment service. This produces a pre-populated application form where you can complete the additional pore-requisite information. However, if your exam is being paid by your training centre on their RYA account, please ensure you complete the appropriate exam application form below, with the centre name and account number. This form can also be used by those wishing to pay by cheque.

Application for an Advanced Powerboat, Yachtmaster Coastal or Yachtmaster Offshore exam

Application for a Yachtmaster Ocean exam

Cancellations

If you decide to cancel your exam, please directly contact the Training Centre you booked with or your examiner. If you booked your exam via the online service and have not yet been provided with the examiners contact details but wish to cancel, please contact [email protected] .

Exam requirements

Please make sure you read the full requirements before booking your exam:

• Advanced Powerboat  exam requirements
• Yachtmaster Coastal   exam requirements
• Yachtmaster Offshore  exam requirements
• Yachtmaster Ocean  exam requirements
• Conversion  exam requirements

University Profile

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The university is located in Dubna, Moscow Oblast. Find the address of the university below.

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Admission Info

Find information below on admission to International University of Nature, Society and Man «Dubna».

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