RYA Yachtmaster Coastal

The intermediate skipper qualification — demonstrate competence to skipper a yacht on coastal passages by day and night.

Course Overview

What is it?

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal is an examined qualification that certifies your ability to skipper a yacht safely on coastal and short offshore passages, including by night. It is the step up from Day Skipper Practical — both in syllabus depth and in the standard of seamanship expected from the candidate.

Who needs it?

Experienced Day Skippers ready to take charge of overnight coastal passages, those working towards the full Yachtmaster Offshore, and anyone seeking commercially endorsed skipper qualifications for charter or delivery work.

Duration

No fixed course length — preparation depends on experience. Exam itself is 6–10 hours of continuous assessment afloat, plus a separate theory paper for the Theory certificate.

Cost Range

Exam fee GBP 200 – 350. Preparation courses GBP 800 – 1,500. Theory paper GBP 100 – 200 separately.

Prerequisites

RYA Day Skipper Practical or equivalent experience
Minimum 30 days at sea, 2 days as skipper, 800 nautical miles, 12 night hours logged
RYA First Aid certificate (valid within 3 years)
RYA VHF/SRC certificate

What you learn

**Night navigation** — pilotage, fixes, watch routine, light identification at distance
**Advanced pilotage** — complex harbour entries, restricted visibility procedures
**Tidal calculations** — full tidal curve method, time-of-tide problems, complex secondary ports
**Heavy weather seamanship** — reefing, storm sails, heaving-to, sea-anchors
**Crew management** — watch rotations, briefing, handover, dealing with seasickness
**Advanced COLREGS** — restricted visibility, traffic separation schemes, RAM scenarios
**Electronic navigation** — radar plotting, AIS interpretation, integrated chart plotter use
**Passage planning** — multi-day coastal passages, tidal gates, weather window assessment

Certification

RYA Yachtmaster Coastal certificate (no expiry). Commercial endorsement requires sea-survival training and revalidation every 5 years. The Theory paper is a separate certificate but is often taken alongside the practical preparation.

Advanced Navigation

EP construction, complex courses to steer, leeway, and the navigation discipline that separates Day Skippers from Yachtmasters. Includes electronic-aid integration.

An estimated position (EP) is your best calculation of where you are based on your course, speed, time elapsed, leeway, and tidal stream — when you cannot get a visual fix. EPs are continuous; you should always know your EP, even when GPS is working, so that you can cross-check the GPS and recover if it fails.

Constructing an EP

Start from your last known position (fix or GPS)
Plot your course steered (CTS) from that position, length = boat speed × time
Apply leeway: shift the end point downwind by the leeway angle
Apply tidal stream: add the stream vector (set and drift over the same time period) from the leeway-adjusted point
The final point is your EP, drawn with a triangle around it

Symbol convention: fix = circle, EP = triangle, dead reckoning (DR, before tide and leeway applied) = arrow only. Exam markers want to see the symbols correctly used.

Leeway is the difference between the boat's heading and her actual track through the water, caused by the wind pushing the boat sideways. Typical leeway: 0° for motor-sailing or downwind, 3–5° for close-reaching, 5–10° for hard on the wind in heavy weather. Estimate by eye from the wake angle behind the boat — the angle between the wake and the centreline is the leeway.

Exam Tip: The exam regularly tests EP construction without a GPS column on the chart plot. You must be able to do this entirely by hand — bearing, distance, leeway, tide, in that order. Practice the sequence until it is automatic.

Night Sailing & Pilotage

Night navigation, light identification, watch routine, and the disciplines that make a 0300 landfall safe instead of fatal.

Night entry into a harbour is the moment that separates Day Skippers from Yachtmasters. By daylight, you see buoys and headlands; at night, you see lights — and you must identify, time, and confirm each one before committing to the approach.

The night-pilotage sequence

Approach from a safe sector — well offshore, slow, with sea room
Identify the leading lights by their characteristics (colour, period, sectors)
Time the light with a stopwatch — confirm the period matches the chart description
Confirm the bearing to the light is approximately what you expected
Look for the secondary marks — channel lights, transit beacons, marina lights
Watch other vessels — their lights tell you the channel they are using
Listen — buoy bells and gongs are sometimes the first confirmation in fog

Light characteristics: F = fixed, Fl = flashing, FFl = fixed and flashing, Oc = occulting (more on than off), Iso = isophase (equal on and off), Q = quick (60+ flashes per minute), VQ = very quick. Period is always given (e.g. 'Fl(3) WR 15s' = group of 3 flashes, white-red sectors, every 15 seconds).

Exam Tip: On the exam, the examiner will at some point say 'You see a light flashing 3 short, 1 long, period 10 seconds. What is it?' This is a sectored light — locate it on the chart by its specific signature. Carry a list of major lights and their characteristics.

Heavy Weather Seamanship

When the conditions exceed your weather window. Reefing strategy, storm sails, heaving-to, and the discipline of when not to sail.

Reefing reduces sail area to keep the boat balanced and controlled in stronger winds. The rule of thumb: 'If you think you should reef, you should have done it 10 minutes ago.' Reefing early is good seamanship. Reefing late is dangerous and exhausting.

When to reef (typical cruising yacht 30–40 ft)

Force 4 (11–16 kt) — full sail, but watch the gusts
Force 5 (17–21 kt) — first reef in the mainsail, possibly furl the genoa partially
Force 6 (22–27 kt) — second reef, smaller headsail or partial furl
Force 7 (28–33 kt) — third reef or storm trysail, storm jib
Force 8+ — bare poles, storm jib only, or hove-to

Memory aid: 'Reef when you first think of it.' Hesitation costs you because reefing becomes harder as conditions worsen — the boat is heeling more, the deck is more wet, and the crew is more tired. Easy at Force 5; very hard at Force 7.

Sail balance matters as much as sail area. A heavily-reefed mainsail with a full genoa creates lee helm — the boat wants to bear away. A full mainsail with a heavily-reefed genoa creates weather helm — the boat wants to round up. Reef both proportionally, or live with the helm imbalance and adjust your course.

Advanced COLREGS

Restricted visibility, traffic separation schemes, and the rules that Day Skipper skipped. The full Part B + B.III in working detail.

Rule 19 is the critical extension to the steering and sailing rules. When visibility is restricted (fog, heavy rain, snow), normal stand-on / give-way rules do not apply. Every vessel is required to navigate with caution and to alter course based on radar information rather than the steering and sailing rules.

Rule 19 essentials

Every vessel proceeds at a safe speed adapted to prevailing visibility and circumstances
Power-driven vessels have engines ready for immediate manoeuvre
When a vessel detects another by radar alone, she must take action in ample time
Avoid altering course to port for a vessel forward of the beam, or towards a vessel abeam or abaft the beam — both are exceptions to normal practice
Vessels in fog should sound the appropriate fog signal (one prolonged blast for power underway; one prolonged plus two short for sail, NUC, RAM etc.)

Why no port alteration for a vessel ahead? Because two vessels meeting head-on are expected to alter to starboard. If one alters to port and the other alters to starboard, they collide. The rule prevents that scenario.

Exam Tip: Yachtmaster examiners often set scenarios involving radar contacts in fog. The candidate is expected to verbally walk through the situation: identify the target, confirm risk of collision (no bearing change), choose the right action (slow, alter to starboard, sound signal). Practise narrating this out loud.

Passage Planning — Multi-Day

Beyond the day-trip. Multi-day coastal passages, tidal gates, weather window assessment, and the documentation that proves you have done the work.

A tidal gate is a point on a passage where the tide must be in your favour to make it through, or where the conditions become unsafe at certain stages of the tide. Examples: Portland Bill, the Alderney Race, the Pentland Firth, Strait of Bonifacio. Yachtmaster passage planning is largely about identifying and timing tidal gates.

Planning around a tidal gate

Identify the gate on the chart and look up its tidal stream characteristics in the atlas
Determine the fair-tide window — the hours when the stream is going your way at a manageable rate
Work backwards from the gate to determine your departure time from the previous port
Add safety margin — 30 minutes on either side of the calculated window
Plan a contingency if you miss the window: where do you wait, how long, what does the weather forecast say?

The classic example: Portland Bill. The race extends ~2 NM south of the Bill. Fair tide is 4 hours; foul tide is impossible in significant wind-against-tide conditions (10-foot breaking seas). The Yachtmaster plan times the rounding for 1 hour after the favourable tide starts.

Test Your Knowledge

Ready to see how much you remember? Try these related quizzes.

RYA Yachtmaster Theory RYA Yachtmaster Safety & Emergency Procedures