5 key points to take away
1 QUICK PLOTTING TECHNIQUES
Karen’s quick plotting technique really helps if, like us, you have a very small chart table. Simply plot your latitude using your Portland plotter or ruler. Then measure off your longitude along the top line of the chart from the nearest major longitude line eg 002°. Move the dividers down to in-line with your latitude plot and draw an arc on your first line
2 DEVIATION AND VARIATION
In the end, I solved this by learning to literally translate ‘error east/compass least’ and ‘error west/compass best’ into plain English! In other words: Compass error West – compass will be bigger than True; Compass error East – compass will be less than True. Learning how to use a pencil mark on the error scale on the Portland plotter to avoid the mental arithmetic entirely was another gem.
3 EXTRAPOLATING TIDAL STREAMS
One particular ‘lightbulb moment’ was calculating tidal streams. We’d only ever interpolated the tidal streams, estimating the rate between the mean spring and neap rates shown in the tidal atlas. The exercises highlighted that a big spring tide will be higher than the mean rate, and extrapolating this accurately makes a big impact on your course to steer.
4 REMEMBERING LIGHTS
Learning the lights felt really complex, but Karen taught us to look for the patterns. Remember a clock face for the number of flashes of the N, E, S and West cardinals (E is three flashes, South six, West nine and North continuous) is a great tip. For remembering the lights for towing vessels, adding an extra masthead light to represent the vessel it is towing, plus another for boat length over 50m, and another for tow length.
5 TEMPLATES FOR SECONDARY PORT AND TIDAL STREAM CALCS
Rather than working it out from scratch each time, Karen encouraged us to develop our own, or use standard templates for calculating tidal information. It helps reduce errors, speeding up the planning process and saving brain cells for other tasks.
consistently too far east of our course, even after the tide had turned, and the tide didn’t push us as hard west to Cherbourg as had been expected.
Still behind schedule, the water didn’t flatten out when the tide turned east again. Now very tired from hand steering, less than two hours from Cherbourg we had to concede that we simply could not punch upwind, with or without the engine. The whole day had been a domino effect of one little thing after another.
So, as the sun faded, a quick change of plan. We altered course for St Vaast, rocketing down on the tide, arriving just as the lock gates opened at 2300. In the end, it was a good result, landing in our favourite spot, although it had been a very long day on a little boat with no self-steering.
After two days’ sleeping, having a sailing coach on board and racing in our blood meant, of course, a thorough debrief. Naturally, over some lovely seafood and French wine. We realised that our brains were not getting younger, and clearly there had been some ‘gaps’ in our navigational planning. For a long time, I’ve felt aware that I didn’t have a complete handle on chartwork, despite owning a certificate that says I do. The decision was made. Let’s have a crack at our RYA Yachtmaster and find out what we do and don’t know.
A COURSE IN ‘JOHARI’S WINDOW’
Stage one of our plan was enrolling on an Intensive RYA Yachtmaster Theory course with the Emsworth School of Navigation
– six days completed over two weekends. Compared to my memories of scary nightschool, the experience was a refreshing change. Karen Dorontic, the principal, turned out to be an amazing teacher, with astounding levels of patience and a gift for not making you feel stupid, despite most of us coming up with some bizarre calculations and answers. Her empathy with our learning process, the pitfalls and the mistakes we would make as we progressed through the topics and papers, was clearly based on her own experiences.
We had an interesting, mixed group on the course; a couple refurbishing their yacht to cruise around the world, two people who take people sailing on club-owned yachts, a Solent based cruiser, and my brothers. One who, like me, did his theory exam many years ago, the other a confirmed dinghy sailor now doing a bit more yacht racing. Straight into the first session, and many of us were picking up some great tips. Frequently things that sounded obvious, although only once you had been told. For us, it was timesaving things, such as using the dividers to transfer positions from the side of the chart rather than struggling with parallel rules, and unlocking the delights of a Portland plotter. Both were far more useful for our tiny navigation table. Then, there were the really useful ways of remembering things. Who knew the cones on cardinal marks point to the black section? Easy.
Bizarrely, one of the most entertaining sessions was learning the Colregs (collision regulations). We were in hoots visualising all those bells and gongs going off in poor visibility. Yet once again, Karen gave us really helpful tips for working out lights, especially for towing vessels, which initially felt like a sea of colour we’d never remember.
The intensive nature of the course means there is a vast amount of information to process but without the luxury of a few days to absorb and reread what you are learning. Almost inevitably, that meant some of us ‘hitting the wall’. By day two of plotting estimated positions and courses to steer, I could no longer figure out Variation and
Deviation. The phrase ‘Error East Compass Least’ rapidly became another maths maze. Plus or minus? The more I tried to think about it, the more it went wrong. One candidate put his dividers down saying: ‘I’ve completely forgotten what it is I’m trying to achieve’. I began to wonder how we’d ever got our boats anywhere around the Solent, let alone to St Malo, Chausey, and Tréguier.
HOMEWORK HUMILIATIONS
With a lot of exercises to practise before the second weekend, it was hard to cram our homework into a busy fortnight. Somehow we did, although mealtime conversation got down to the level of ‘what do two red lights mean?’ Riveting stuff! The family Whatsapp was busy that week with shrieks of frustration as we all made chartwork errors.
Back in the classroom, we all compared notes. Everyone had struggled with their homework. Mark didn’t get a single question right first time. Number blindness set in as we all plotted the wrong information, dates and data and tried to use the tidal height tables to calculate tidal stream rates. We’d done it all. One man owned up to plotting the date as a position on his chart. At least we were all suffering in the same boat.
Undoubtedly, it was a painful process to go through, as we all fell into the pitfalls and traps deliberately set in the exercise questions. However, it was true that practice makes perfect. Through comparing our random attempts with the answers, we were all learning from our errors.
THE FOG IS CLEARING
With homework horrors behind us, our practice paid off as we went through our exam papers. Everyone passing the Colregs paper was a confidence boost. Bang the gong! While we waited to hear our results, the bemused conversation went along the lines of, ‘Were those yellow and red lights a Hovercraft that was fishing? Or an air-cushioned, displacement fishing vessel?’
COURSE DETAILS
Officially speaking, the RYA Yachtmaster Theory course builds on that which is taught in the shore-based Dayskipper course. However, for most people who have sailed regularly, then jumping straight to Yachtmaster theory is unlikely to be a major problem. The course covers advanced navigation techniques including: position fixing; course shaping and plotting; tidal knowledge including secondary port calculations; navigation in restricted visibility; Admiralty publications and electronic position-finding equipment. Much of this will be familiar to even the most casual cruiser, but as Liz discovered, some of the specifics might well need a bit of study. The meteorology tuition includes the taking and interpretation of forecasts, plotting of weather systems as well as weather prediction.
FURTHER COURSES
Many people who jump straight into Yachtmaster Theory may find that it turns up a weakness or gap in their knowledge. It can often be helpful to identify areas of weakness and consider a training course that might help raise your level ahead of a Yachtmaster practical exam. Several schools offer courses on many of the subjects in a Yachtmaster exam and they can help you to improve your knowledge. On the other hand, it might just be an area you devote more time to in the lead up to Yachtmaster Practical.
COLREGS
The one area where there are no shortcuts are Colregs; you just need to know your stuff – and finding the time to learn isn’t difficult.
So far as the MCA is concerned, this is the crunch. Examiners are encouraged to demand high standards in this subject, and there’s no reason for a candidate, knowing full well they are going to be grilled extensively on this, not to have the regulations solidly in their mind.
The best way to be exam-proof is to invest in A Seaman’s Guide to the Rule of the Road (Morgans Technical Books Limited (£12.50), available for modest money online or in any chandlery.
Place it prominently in the heads some months before the exam and devote five minutes of each day to digesting its contents.
The book makes it easy and should leave you with no excuse for not having a thorough working knowledge.