Yachtmaster Exams

My Background as a Yachtmaster

When I took the Yachtmaster practical exam myself, many years ago, I did it aboard my own boat from Holyhead. She and I had just returned from Brazil via Nova Scotia by way of a serious beating-up in the North Atlantic. She was a classy 32foot gaff cutter which at that time had no engine. I'd never been on a sailing course in my life and was extremely nervous about what sort of pen-pusher would turn up to put me through my paces. I needn't have worried.

Instead of the bureaucrat I was expecting, my examiner had a wooden leg and an old canvas smock. Both his pockets were full, but not with flip-cards and clipboards. One held a pork pie for his lunch, the other a bottle of brown ale. He kept me at it all day long, but within minutes I had him pegged for the prime seaman he was. He didn't hold my engineless state and the quirkiness of my elderly boat against me, but he made sure I knew what I was meant to know. He forgave me one or two imperfections and passed me after a serious talking-to. The whole experience gave me tremendous confidence in a scheme that until then I had viewed with cynicism, only becoming involved at all in response to a growing commercial necessity. A few months later, I became a Yachtmaster Instructor and by the following year I was examining. That was 1978, and I still love the RYA part of my work.

Arranging a Yachtmaster examination

There is no easy method of passing your full, at-sea Yachtmaster or Coastal Skipper Practical examination, but there are more ways of going about it than are generally realised.

You don't have to sign on with a sailing school to take an examination. You can still do as I did. If you have boat or are prepared to charter one for the day, just get in touch with the RYA and arrange a date. They will find you an examiner. It might even be me... It's up to you after that, so the Best of British luck to you!