If you’ve completed your RYA Day Skipper and you’re thinking about Yachtmaster, the first thing to understand is that there isn’t a shortcut between the two.
Courses will improve your knowledge and an instructor can help you develop your skills, but you still need time on the water. You need to skipper boats, make your own decisions, deal with different conditions and build experience away from the comfort of having an instructor beside you.
Yachtmaster isn’t simply the next course after Day Skipper. It’s a demonstration that you’ve developed into a competent and experienced skipper.
So, how do you get from one to the other?
Where Does Day Skipper Leave You?
Day Skipper is where you start taking proper responsibility for the boat.
At practical level, the RYA describes the sailing qualification as developing the ability to take charge of a cruising yacht on day trips in familiar waters. The motor cruising course similarly develops the ability to skipper a motor cruiser safely by day in familiar waters.
That’s a good foundation, but there’s an obvious difference between skippering a familiar passage in reasonable conditions and being responsible for a yacht on a longer and more demanding passage.
That’s the gap you need to start filling.
Start Building Experience as Skipper
The important words here are as skipper.
It’s easy to accumulate days and miles while somebody else makes all the decisions. That’s useful experience, but it isn’t the same as being responsible for the boat yourself.
Start planning and skippering your own passages.
That means taking responsibility for:
- Weather
- Tides
- Passage planning
- Pilotage
- Crew briefings
- Navigation
- Boat handling
- Safety
- Alternative ports
- Decisions when the original plan changes
You don’t need to deliberately put yourself into difficult situations. Build up gradually and extend your experience as your ability develops.
Don’t Just Chase Sea Miles
The RYA has minimum sea-time requirements for Yachtmaster examinations, but don’t treat those figures as a target to collect as quickly as possible.
There is a difference between having the required mileage written in your logbook and actually being ready for the examination.
I’d rather see someone with useful experience on different passages, in different conditions and with genuine responsibility as skipper than someone who has simply spent enough time aboard to reach a number.
Think about the quality of the experience you’re getting.
Move Beyond Familiar Waters
One of the biggest steps after Day Skipper is becoming comfortable somewhere you don’t already know.
If you’ve done most of your boating around Southampton and the Solent, you may know the area extremely well. You know the marks, the marinas, the tidal considerations and probably already have a good idea what you’re going to see before you get there.
That’s useful, but eventually you need to go somewhere unfamiliar.
Plan a passage into a harbour you haven’t visited before. Work out the pilotage. Check the tidal restrictions. Consider where you’ll berth and what you’ll do if you can’t get in.
That’s where passage planning starts becoming much more real.
Get Proper Night Experience
You also need experience after dark.
Night navigation isn’t simply daytime navigation with less light.
Lights can be difficult to identify against a busy background. Distances become harder to judge and something you’ve passed dozens of times during daylight can look completely different at night.
Spend time navigating after dark and learn how you personally deal with it.
Don’t just sit beside somebody else while they do the navigation. Take responsibility for part of the passage yourself.
Build Your Theory Beyond Day Skipper
As your practical experience increases, your theory needs to develop with it.
The RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Theory course takes navigation and meteorology beyond Day Skipper level and covers areas including position fixing, course shaping and plotting, tides, publications, electronic position finding and weather.
This isn’t knowledge you want to learn purely to pass an exam.
Use it.
When you’re out boating, compare your tidal calculations with what actually happens. Look at the forecasts before a passage and then compare them with the conditions you experience. Plan routes properly rather than allowing the plotter to do all the thinking.
Theory makes considerably more sense when you’re regularly applying it on the water.
Where Does Coastal Skipper Fit In?
Coastal Skipper can be a useful stage between Day Skipper and Yachtmaster, particularly if you want structured practical training before moving towards examination standard.
The practical course concentrates on longer and more complicated passages, including passage planning, pilotage, radar, boat handling, adverse weather and emergency situations.
But don’t think of it as simply another box that must be ticked.
The aim is to become a better skipper.
If there are weaknesses in your boat handling, navigation, pilotage or decision-making, deal with them. That’s far more important than rushing through a sequence of certificates.
Yachtmaster Coastal or Yachtmaster Offshore?
This is where it’s important to understand the difference.
RYA Yachtmaster Coastal is aimed at skippers with the knowledge and practical experience to skipper a yacht on coastal cruises, but who may not yet have the experience required for longer passages.
RYA Yachtmaster Offshore demonstrates competence to skipper a cruising vessel on passages where the yacht is no more than 150 miles from harbour, by day or night and in a wide range of conditions.
Which one you work towards should therefore depend on your experience and what you actually want to do with the qualification.
What Experience Do You Need for Yachtmaster Coastal?
At the time of writing, the RYA states that Yachtmaster Coastal candidates normally need documented sea time within the previous 10 years including:
- 30 days at sea
- 2 days as skipper
- 800 miles
- 12 night hours
There are reduced requirements where an appropriate RYA Coastal Skipper Practical course completion certificate is held. At least half of the qualifying sea time should be in tidal waters.
You should always check the current RYA requirements before planning or booking an examination, as requirements can change.
What Experience Do You Need for Yachtmaster Offshore?
For Yachtmaster Offshore, the current standard requirements are considerably higher.
The RYA currently specifies documented sea time within the previous 10 years including:
- 50 days at sea
- 5 days as skipper
- 2,500 miles
- 5 passages of more than 60 miles
- 2 of those passages overnight
- 2 of those passages as skipper
There are additional conditions around qualifying sea time, vessel type and the discipline in which you’re being examined. At least half the qualifying sea time should be in tidal waters and on vessels under 24 metres LOA.
Again, check the current RYA requirements when you’re getting close to examination rather than relying on an old article or somebody else’s logbook.
Don’t Forget First Aid and VHF
Sea time isn’t the only requirement.
Candidates for Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore also need an acceptable marine radio operator’s certificate, such as the RYA Short Range Certificate, and an accepted valid first aid certificate.
Don’t discover that the week before you’re hoping to take the exam.
Have a look at your certificates while you’re building your experience and make sure everything you need will be in place.
How Do You Know When You’re Ready for Yachtmaster?
This is probably the more useful question than asking how quickly you can get there.
You should be comfortable being in charge.
You should be able to plan a passage properly, brief and manage a crew, handle the boat, navigate accurately and make sensible decisions when circumstances change.
The Yachtmaster Offshore examination can assess skippering, boat handling, seamanship, navigation, safety awareness, collision regulations, meteorology and signals.
If you’re still relying on somebody else to tell you what to do every time something unexpected happens, you probably need more experience.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Go and get it.
What About a Yachtmaster Prep Course?
There isn’t a compulsory formal training course immediately before the Yachtmaster Offshore examination.
However, many candidates undertake preparation training before the exam to identify and address gaps in their knowledge or practical ability.
That’s how I would view Yachtmaster preparation.
It shouldn’t be an attempt to turn a Day Skipper into a Yachtmaster in a few days.
You should arrive with the experience.
Preparation then gives an instructor an opportunity to look at your boat handling, navigation, skippering and general seamanship and identify anything that needs attention before the examiner steps aboard.
How Long Does It Take to Go From Day Skipper to Yachtmaster?
There’s no useful answer in months or years.
It depends on how much boating you’re doing and, more importantly, what you’re doing while you’re out there.
Someone who regularly skippers passages, visits unfamiliar harbours, navigates at night and takes responsibility for the boat may develop much faster than somebody who spends years going out occasionally but rarely acts as skipper.
Don’t set yourself an arbitrary deadline.
Concentrate on becoming the skipper that the qualification is intended to recognise.
The Best Route From Day Skipper to Yachtmaster
If Yachtmaster is your goal, start by looking honestly at where you are now.
Get experience as skipper. Take the boat somewhere unfamiliar. Do some night passages. Keep developing your navigation and weather knowledge. Work on the boat-handling situations you don’t enjoy and make sure your sea time includes meaningful passages rather than miles for the sake of the logbook.
Then get some experienced instruction and find out where the gaps are.
Yachtmaster should be the result of becoming a capable skipper, not the reason you start trying to become one.
If you’re not sure where you sit between Day Skipper and Yachtmaster, speak to us about the experience you’ve already got and what you’re trying to achieve. We can help you work out what would genuinely be useful next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Coastal Skipper before Yachtmaster Offshore?
The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore examination requirements do not state that you must hold a Coastal Skipper Practical course completion certificate before taking the exam. You do, however, need to meet the examination prerequisites and be capable of performing at the required standard.
Is Yachtmaster Offshore a course?
Yachtmaster Offshore is a practical Certificate of Competence examination rather than simply a course you attend and automatically pass. There is no compulsory formal training course immediately before the exam, although preparation training is commonly undertaken.
How many miles do I need for Yachtmaster Offshore?
The standard RYA prerequisite is currently 2,500 miles, alongside requirements for days at sea, days as skipper and qualifying passages. Specific reductions can apply to someone already holding Yachtmaster Offshore in another discipline.
Do I need Yachtmaster theory before taking the practical exam?
The RYA Coastal Skipper/Yachtmaster Offshore Theory course develops theory to the standard required for the Coastal and Offshore practical examinations. Candidates should make sure their theoretical knowledge is at the required level as navigation, meteorology, collision regulations and other syllabus areas can be assessed during the Yachtmaster exam.
Can I take Yachtmaster Offshore under sail or power?
Yes. Yachtmaster Offshore examinations can be taken under sail or power and the certificate is endorsed accordingly. The qualifying sea time and passages must be appropriate to the discipline in which you’re being examined.