It's been a case of an hour here, an hour there during the working week and over several days I completed three course modules working in order from the top of the course now that I have all the materials - they were duly delivered in good time on Tuesday allowing me to get stuck in properly.
Unlike the Colregs and Weather modules I worked through at the weekend, none of the modules so far have ended with a marked test. Those marked tests are, in fact, a bit of a nuisance because I have found one key drawback of the online courses. Unless you can find an independent invigilator to monitor you whilst you take the tests and attest that you did not use any reference materials etc beyond the course pack should you ever want to go for commercial qualifications based on your Yachtmaster ticket you would have to do the theory again!
Anyway, I've deferred taking the tests so far as I want to work my way through the course and then go back and revise and reprise it again before then. The point of this costly excercise isn't to obtain a piece of paper saying I'm a Yachtmaster as quickly as possible, it's to learn as much as possible and make it stick so that I can recall the information and methods when I need it at a later date.
So the very first module on the course it titles "Latitude and Longitude". Nothing new there, I know this stuff off fairly pat so it was an excercise in refreshing the memory and checking my knowledge against the facts.
I swiftly moved on to module two which covers the magnetic compass. I took a little more care over this one as, whilst I as familiar with the material, I've never used it in anger. The cheap magnetic compass on Brigantia was, frankly, virtually useless with deviation up to 30 plus degrees and I relied entirely on the GPS for steering a course. Not best practice perhaps but adequate for our needs sailing in coastal waters.
However, there will be times now when we will be sailing in situations where it is more efficient to sail a compass course than to follow a ground track (crossing the channel, for instance, where it is faster and more efficient to sail an 'S' shaped course than it is to fight the tide to try and sail in a straight line) and Erbas has the means to do so with both a fluxgate electronic steering compass and a decent bulkhead traditional compass (although we must check both for alignment and deviation as soon as possible).
Having worked through the compass module it was on to the Position module. Now the fun started! Plotting positions on the paper chart, working out Dead Reckoning positions (DR) from course and distance logged, applying tidal set to work up an Estimated Position (EP) and from that working out the COG and SOG (Course and Speed Over the Ground) and so on.
This was quite an involved module with a lot of worked examples and "homework" and it took several sessions to work through. Good stuff though!
Next up is Tides and I fear that could get somewhat mathematical which has never been one of my strengths! ...
Saturday 25 January 2014
Monday 20 January 2014
RYA Yachtmaster Theory Course - day 2
By the way, I feel obliged to mention that I am not planning on tackling the course on a daily basis! It just happens that work patterns gave me the free time to have a crack at two modules on two consecutive days!
Anyway, whilst I await the arrival of the course materials, the other module "do-able" without was the Meterology (a.k.a. weather) one. I took my time with this because it's an area of knowledge I felt particularly weak at.
I kind've grasped already the basics of highs and lows, and the resulting isobars on synoptic charts but I've always struggled to understand frontal systems and how air pressure relates to actual weather (other than that a high is "good" and a low is "bad")
Having worked through the course module I felt somewhat wiser but still a bit baffled so I searched on the Kindle app and found a book by Frank Singleton, a former Met Office man who posts on the YBW forums. I've got up Frank's nose once or twice by moaning about the useless inaccuracy of the Met shipping and coastal forecasts so hopefully buying his book will make up for it!
I shall peruse the book thoroughly over the next day or two before taking the practice paper on this module and I still need to keep brushing up on my lights and shapes. Busy, busy, busy!
Anyway, whilst I await the arrival of the course materials, the other module "do-able" without was the Meterology (a.k.a. weather) one. I took my time with this because it's an area of knowledge I felt particularly weak at.
I kind've grasped already the basics of highs and lows, and the resulting isobars on synoptic charts but I've always struggled to understand frontal systems and how air pressure relates to actual weather (other than that a high is "good" and a low is "bad")
Having worked through the course module I felt somewhat wiser but still a bit baffled so I searched on the Kindle app and found a book by Frank Singleton, a former Met Office man who posts on the YBW forums. I've got up Frank's nose once or twice by moaning about the useless inaccuracy of the Met shipping and coastal forecasts so hopefully buying his book will make up for it!
I shall peruse the book thoroughly over the next day or two before taking the practice paper on this module and I still need to keep brushing up on my lights and shapes. Busy, busy, busy!
Sunday 19 January 2014
RYA Yachtmaster Theory Course - day 1
Today, after the usual morning gallon of coffee, I did what I've been pondering doing for some weeks now and booked the on-line version of the RYA Yachtmaster Theory course with Splash Sea School.
At a cost of £293.00 it's not particularly cheap but you do get a fairly extensive study pack of practice charts, reference materials and so on. Whilst you don't get face time with an instructor like you would on classroom based course, you can study in your own time and get any help you need via email, Skype etc. which suits me better than taking time off work for study when I'd rather be sailing!
I'm kind've hoping, if not actually expecting, that I already know most of the theory fairly well. The course will, I hope, consolidate the knowledge I've gained ad-hoc from books etc. and fill in any gaps plus it will also force me to make the effort to memorise stuff that I tend to be lazy about remembering ...
Stuff like day shapes and lights!
Pending the arrival of the course materials, one of the modules I could tackle straight away was the Collision Regulations section. I worked my way through it without any qualms but on taking the practice paper I wasn't surprised to find myself a bit uncertain about the more complex lights and shapes. Is it a tow? A fishing boat? A dredger? Hmmm ... gonna have to do some revision I guess!
At a cost of £293.00 it's not particularly cheap but you do get a fairly extensive study pack of practice charts, reference materials and so on. Whilst you don't get face time with an instructor like you would on classroom based course, you can study in your own time and get any help you need via email, Skype etc. which suits me better than taking time off work for study when I'd rather be sailing!
I'm kind've hoping, if not actually expecting, that I already know most of the theory fairly well. The course will, I hope, consolidate the knowledge I've gained ad-hoc from books etc. and fill in any gaps plus it will also force me to make the effort to memorise stuff that I tend to be lazy about remembering ...
Stuff like day shapes and lights!
Pending the arrival of the course materials, one of the modules I could tackle straight away was the Collision Regulations section. I worked my way through it without any qualms but on taking the practice paper I wasn't surprised to find myself a bit uncertain about the more complex lights and shapes. Is it a tow? A fishing boat? A dredger? Hmmm ... gonna have to do some revision I guess!
Sunday 12 January 2014
Boat Show Weekend 2014
First thing Saturday morning, the Bosun and I headed down to the Excel Exhibition Centre in London Docklands for a visit to the London International Boat Show
Glen was on a mission to find a comfortable lifejacket whilst I had a number of targets to research.
My primary goal was to sort myself out with a really decent set of sailing footwear. Too often my enjoyment of a sail has been adversely affected, and even on a couple of occasions ruined, by cold and/or wet feet. Enough is enough and I decided whatever the cost to get a really good pair of boots.
My secondary mission was to research safety gear. I wanted to look at alternatives to pyro flares. We've got a set of expired flares with no easy way to dispose of them and I'm relucatant to spend a three figure sum replacing them with more of the same only to have the same problem in three years time.
With DSC on the VHF we already have the red distress button which arguably makes the parachute flares obsolete. How to make the hand held flares equally redundant was my quest. The red (night time) and orange smoke (day time) hand held flares are primarly intended to guide rescue assets to your location. What might be available to do that job better I wondered?
The two products I was most interested in were the Odeo Laser Flare and PLBs (personal locator beacons). Had a look at both but I wasn't sufficiently convinced at the time to make a purchase. I've still got some thinking to do and no doubt I'll return to this topic another day
Meanwhile Glen immediately collared an assistant on the Marine Superstore stand and tried on and chose to buy a Kru lifejacket with integral hood plus an add-on light. I stood waiting for an assistant to come free in the boot and shoe section only to be ignored by the staff and even elbowed out of the way by rude and impatient queue jumpers
That cost them any chance of a sale! Over to the Piplers of Poole stand and a lovely young lady couldn't have been more helpful. She cheerfully assisted with digging through stacks of boxes to find the right size of Orca Bay boots, which I'd nearly bought sight unseen on-line before the show, and showed no annoyance at all when I decided I didn't like them. In the end, it came down to just £30 more to buy a pair of Dubarry Ultima boots which are generally recognised as being the best of the best (if perhaps a little posh for my usual image!)
So, job done, we set off towards Fambridge via a service station snack lunch on the outskirts of Romford. The A12 was slow going for quite some way but we made it in the end.
Good food and quite a lot of good beer followed that evening and we were fairly late to bed. As a result we were fairly late to rise the following morning!
Bacon butties and copious coffee energised us to pack up and put the boat to bed. I really think I managed to remember everything this time! By lunch time we were on the road home.
It'll be several weeks now before we're back on board.
Glen was on a mission to find a comfortable lifejacket whilst I had a number of targets to research.
My primary goal was to sort myself out with a really decent set of sailing footwear. Too often my enjoyment of a sail has been adversely affected, and even on a couple of occasions ruined, by cold and/or wet feet. Enough is enough and I decided whatever the cost to get a really good pair of boots.
My secondary mission was to research safety gear. I wanted to look at alternatives to pyro flares. We've got a set of expired flares with no easy way to dispose of them and I'm relucatant to spend a three figure sum replacing them with more of the same only to have the same problem in three years time.
With DSC on the VHF we already have the red distress button which arguably makes the parachute flares obsolete. How to make the hand held flares equally redundant was my quest. The red (night time) and orange smoke (day time) hand held flares are primarly intended to guide rescue assets to your location. What might be available to do that job better I wondered?
The two products I was most interested in were the Odeo Laser Flare and PLBs (personal locator beacons). Had a look at both but I wasn't sufficiently convinced at the time to make a purchase. I've still got some thinking to do and no doubt I'll return to this topic another day
Meanwhile Glen immediately collared an assistant on the Marine Superstore stand and tried on and chose to buy a Kru lifejacket with integral hood plus an add-on light. I stood waiting for an assistant to come free in the boot and shoe section only to be ignored by the staff and even elbowed out of the way by rude and impatient queue jumpers
That cost them any chance of a sale! Over to the Piplers of Poole stand and a lovely young lady couldn't have been more helpful. She cheerfully assisted with digging through stacks of boxes to find the right size of Orca Bay boots, which I'd nearly bought sight unseen on-line before the show, and showed no annoyance at all when I decided I didn't like them. In the end, it came down to just £30 more to buy a pair of Dubarry Ultima boots which are generally recognised as being the best of the best (if perhaps a little posh for my usual image!)
So, job done, we set off towards Fambridge via a service station snack lunch on the outskirts of Romford. The A12 was slow going for quite some way but we made it in the end.
Good food and quite a lot of good beer followed that evening and we were fairly late to bed. As a result we were fairly late to rise the following morning!
Bacon butties and copious coffee energised us to pack up and put the boat to bed. I really think I managed to remember everything this time! By lunch time we were on the road home.
It'll be several weeks now before we're back on board.