Yacht Master - Typical Course

Meet at Landers for a drink a meal and generally get to know each other. Introduction to the boat and stow your gear. This is one of our standard training yachts, a modern, clean and very well equipped Jeanneau 40. Substantially larger and more comfortable than a typical sailing school yacht, this is after all a holiday for you as well as a training exercise! We then aim to get a good nights sleep ready to start bright and early the following morning.

Tea or coffee at about 0730, followed by showers and breakfast.

Tuition starts in earnest at about 0930 with a thorough safety briefing and familiarisation of all the relevant equipment on board. We aim to leave the dock at 1130 ish, for a sail up the Solent, familiarise ourselves with the running rigging, sail controls and handling characteristics of the boat. Lunch at anchor. The afternoon is spent revising your navigational skills and boat handling. This allows the instructor to get a good idea of any areas of weakness.

We normally tie up at a marina, usually in Cowes for the first night at about 6.00pm. Supper goes into the oven to heat up, and we go off to the pub for a well-earned drink and to discuss the day. Supper back on board at about 8.00pm, maybe a cheeky glass of wine to wash it down and then bed.

Usual start, tea or coffee at about 7.30 - 8.00am, showers and breakfast and then back to the task in hand.

Perhaps some 'parking' exercises in and amongst local pontoons and jetties. Lunch and then out onto the Solent to hone nav.skills. The obvious emphasis of the yachtmaster prep. course is to prepare you for the exam at the end of the week. To this end, the instructor will set you tasks to test your fluency in all the areas that you will be tested in.  The remit of the examiner is not to try and catch you out or trip you up, but to provide opportunities for you to show what you can do, so try not to worry too much!

We generally undertake a night sail on the Wednesday if conditions are appropriate.  Not all night, but you will be tested in this area, so we will need to practise this.

By wednesday morning the routine will have become well established. The day will be spent with further navigational and sailing challenges.  MOB will be done under sail although it has now become acceptable, apparently, for this to be done under engine.  In addition to recovering the 'man' overboard, the exercise demonstrates accurate handlilng of the boat under sail - a skill which will need to be demonstrated at some point.  Navigational theory, and rules of the road will need to be demonstrated at a very competent level, so we will be firing questions at you as we go!

The day of the !  It would be normal to collect the examiner at some point late in the afternoon. He / she will almost certainly have planned a night sail, so be prepared for that.  We would stop for supper at about 6.00pm before setting off for the night exercise.  The length of the night exercise will depend on how many candidates are on the course, and how long it takes the examiner to get a fair impression of each candidate.  It might go on for many hours!

At breakfast the examiner will explain what he / she has planned for the rest of the day. This could be anything that he / she feels is appropriate, but a candidate will usually be asked to plan a long offshore passage, a cross channel trip for instance to demonstrate offshore skills not testable in the Solent.

We aim to tie up in the home berth by about 2.30 pm, which should see you on your way by about 3.30 after we have emptied and tidied the boat. This allows you to miss the Friday afternoon traffic if you have far to go. Whatever the result, you will certainly have learnt a great deal. Good Luck