Whilst it is very important to do a Yachtmaster preparation course at an RYA Training Centre, there is a lot more that you can do yourself to ensure a successful outcome to your exam.

Firstly it is important to realise that as most preparation courses are over 5 days with the exam on the 5th day, if you are the only candidate with perhaps one other, your instructor will have four days to get you up to speed, but if there are four candidates, then the exams will be over two days and so there will be only 3 days for practising and learning anything that you need to learn. It makes sense therefore to learn as much as possible before your preparation course.

RYA Theory - There are very few people who have passed the Yachtmaster exam without having completed the RYA Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster Shorebased course. So I suggest that it is really important that candidates complete that course which can be done at an RYA Training Centre either over 5 consecutive days or over two weekends one of which will be 3 days, or in Britain at night school over about 7 months in the winter, or online with one of several navigation schools that offer internet based courses that you can do at home. Click here for a short list of on-line schools that I recommend.

Revision - Your examiner will test you on lights & shapes, sound signals, weather, rules of the road and buoyage. All of this you will have learnt in your Coastal Skipper / Yachtmaster Theory course, but you will not remember them well enough to pass the Yachtmaster practical exam and there will not be enough time to revise them during your Yachtmaster preparation course. The best way of learning them is by buying flip cards from any chandlery or direct from www.flipcards.co.uk  They cost is 5 pounds per pack and you only need 5 packs, so for a total investment of 25 pounds in the weeks leading up to your exam you can learn them and be able to answer questions on them correctly & without hesitation. My children aged about 8 & 10 helped me learn them and in a very short time knew them better than I did!
You will also probably be tested on chart symbols and you will be expected to have a good working knowledge of them, I advise that candidates should buy their own copy of chart number 5011 which is in fact an A4 book with all the chart symbols that you are likely to encounter on a chart. The cost of this book is 10.60 GBP and it is a very worthwhile investment - but buy the book long before your Yachtmaster preparation course as you won't have time to learn them during the course.

Traditional Navigation – Many candidates have learnt traditional navigation during a theory course and since then have been totally reliant on GPS for their navigation, the first time that they have actually drawn a tidal vector, a DR and an EP or a fix on a paper chart when out on the water is on their Yachtmaster preparation course. Under the pressure of being examined they cannot remember as to how many arrows go on each line or where the arrows should be. This will immediately show the examiner that the candidate is probably using traditional navigation for the first time that week, and it unlikely that the examiner will pass the candidate when he or she has shown that their navigational skills are not even up to Day Skipper standard. In order to ensure that you get this vitally important part of the exam right on the day I suggest that candidates practice using traditional navigational techniques whenever possible during the months and / or years before taking the Yachtmaster exam. It should not be a chore, it is fun and it really does work!

Passage Planning - The examiner is very likely to ask you to produce a passage plan for an imaginery passage and it is extremely likely to be located in the English Channel.  What the examiner is looking for is to find out if you understand tidal gates and heights, he will NOT expect to see a plan that involves sailing against a tidal stream UNLESS you are taking the motor cruising Yachtmaster exam in which case sometimes with a wind against tide situation when the sea will become very rough it is quicker in a motor cruiser to go against the tide to ensure that the wind is going with the tide and the waves therefore will be much smaller and so the motor cruiser can go much faster. For more advice on passage planning please see my article on that subject by clicking here.

On the day – Be well prepared for your exam, make sure the boat is clean and tidy and have your log book, 1st aid and VHF certificates ready to show the examiner and a passport size photograph with your name printed on the back ready to give the examiner. In addition make certain that your application form for the exam is fully completed, you should have either a cheque made out to The Royal Yachting Association or credit card authorization already made out for the exam fee. The Yachtmaster Offshore exam fee for 2010 is 170 pounds, the Yachtmaster Coastal exam fee is 149 pounds and a conversion exam 95 pounds.  If all of this done before the examiner arrives it may well impress him or her and start your exam on a positive note.

If during your Yachtmaster preparation course you have been shown the correct way of doing a particular exercise don't under the pressure of being examined revert to your way of doing it, just because you feel more comfortable doing it the way you have always done it.  The examiner would prefer to see you trying to do it the correct way not very well than a way that is considered to be incorrect.

Securing the boat to a pontoon - If asked to do this during an exam the examiner is trying to find out if you know how to tie up a boat correctly and so tie the boat up using one rope for each job and preferably use a round turn and a bowline through the middle of a cleat. NEVER tie the boat up using combined brest and spring ropes or one rope for both springs.

Gybing - both accidentally, without warning or badly executed is the single most frequent cause for Yachtmaster exam failure.  When sailing with the wind more than 30 degrees abaft the beam always have a gybe preventer fitted. Never gybe without giving the crew loud and adequate warning and don't put the wheel over to take the stern of the boat through the wind until the crew have the mainsale sheeted in. Remember this is a sail cruising exam  not a sail racing exam!! There is no hurry, safety is paramount.

Finally - if you are male and occasionally don’t shave, or look upon a couple of day’s growth of beard as looking cool.  I would like to suggest that this is not the right day to enjoy the luxury of not shaving.  The examiner if he is male will I am sure give you and your exam the respect that you & the exam deserve by shaving that morning, I suggest that in return, if you give the examiner the respect that he deserves by shaving yourself, it might just help him or her overlook a few deficiencies in your knowledge of the RYA Yachtmaster Syllabus.

To read another article on the RYA Yachtmaster Exam click here - To got to my Yachtmaster Training page for Sail Cruising click here - To go to my Yachtmaster Training page for Motor Cruising click here - To read an article on the Yachtmaster Exam by James Stevens the RYA Cruising Manager and Chief Examiner click here.