Yachtmaster Journey

 

It’s been a long journey to earn my Yachtmaster Offshore and Ocean ticket. But to start at the end, post our exam, we are sailing back from Cowes to Lymington, with a classic afternoon of Solent sunshine, perfect winds and a favourable tide washing away some of the previous week’s memories. The camaraderie and relief of success echoes through the boat not only for Jonathan, Frank, Matthias and myself, but also our skipper Leon, whose rigour, diligence and patience stewarded us to success. We say little, but the bond of empathy and success is radiating amongst us.

My journey started with Leon in 2017 and since then we’ve sailed thousands of miles together onboard Regina Laska and often talked about the Yachtmaster.

 

I’m not sure why, but in 2023 I signed up for his Celestial Navigation theory course in Malta. Now it’s a long time since I did any serious trigonometry, and I’d like to pay tribute to my maths teacher from 1976 Mr Harvey, with his acetate roll and overhead projector - he did a great job on (tri)angles. Of course Leon brings another dimension to the topic and it feels structured and methodical by the end of the week.

You need your 600Nm passage with sights for the Ocean ticket, I did my sights on the way to the Azores from A Coruña in early Summer 2023. This was an idyllic passage, with my great friends Leon and Tom, sights became part of our routine, we would do a morning site before elevenses and then a noon site before we had our builders tea break in the afternoon. After a sight, I would do the calculations with sight reduction, Tom would continue fishing and Leon would film us, you can see it in Leon’s video here.

Leon planned for the Yachtmaster exams to be in April 2024, in the Solent. But Regina Laska winters in A Coruña Spain. So we needed to cross the Bay of Biscay South to North and had a fixed date for the exams in Cowes. Biscay lived up to her reputation, with North Easterlies 20-35 knots pretty much all the way, and short seas, so yes, early on my pizza ended up in the yoghurt pot. See a short video on the passage here.

 

Luckily we all recovered rapidly. The highlight of this passage was arriving at Dartmouth in Devon, such a beautiful picturesque town to sail in to, an experience which has probably felt the same for hundreds of years.

After some inevitable fish and chips, recuperation and post Biscay maintenance we sailed East up to Lymington and then onto Cowes, that Mecca for English yachting.

But for us this was practice, practice, practice, as much as we could cram for our Yachtmaster exam. Day by day the pressure mounts, we all make mistakes, we know it, we feel it, it’s unsettling, but the teamwork, mutual support and coaching lift us forward.

 

The day arrives and our examiner Allan steps aboard. He has decades of experience and a friendly demeanour, but he is all seeing and can read us all like a book.

Outside it’s blowing a gale so we decide to do the Ocean exam first.

Myself and Jonathan, we think, are well prepared with our sights, plots and charts. I go first, it starts like a friendly chat, but it’s not, it’s like a viva voce, with depth and breadth. I try and have an opinion and position on everything, but I can’t read the examiner.

Eventually we move on to the sun-run-sun, at least there is precision here. We walk through every calculation, if they are wrong you fail. The examiners page fills with agreement and eventually we get to the plot, out come the protractor and dividers, then suddenly, he agrees on my fix. The examiner writes a few notes and then offers me his hand and congratulates me, and it’s done. I can’t believe it, relief washes over me.

 

I pass Jonathan in the cockpit, we say a few words, we are in this together. I know he will pass, his notes are exemplary compared to my scrappy log book. One down one to go.

The next day the weather is better, Alan’s onboard and the joy of the Ocean exam success has quickly faded as we have the Offshore practical for the next two days. It’s the four of us now, brothers together. We each give part of the safety briefing, silently spurring each other on.

Then I go first, we spring off the dock and berth again to swap skippers, we know this routine, our instructions to each other are familiar we share supportive looks and gestures.

Then I’m asked to take us to Osborne Bay and anchor under sail. No plan for this, but check height of tide, wind and currents. We each have our hourly tidal streams and heights plotted. Allan is amongst us, I sense watching us all. The wind is helpful and we drop the anchor cleanly, it bites and we are at lunch. Lunch is not relaxing, I feel on edge, but I’ve got some space now as the others each get an examined task.

More anchoring, MOB, blind navigation. It’s a hands-on practical viva for each of us as we rotate through activities. We work well as a team, we have the confidence of the Biscay experience and a week’s practising.

My MOB felt clean, my mooring on a buoy under sail was painfully slow, lots of current, not much wind and a 20 tonne yacht. Soon it’s getting dark, electronic nav to a mark, easy if it’s lit, but harder if it’s not, but Leon has the right gear - a powerful spotlight, when we are close we light up the mark - and that’s done.

We navigate back to Cowes, lights are familiar now. Rest and sleep, one day to go. Next day is more of the same, ‘take me to here, go there...’ conditions are great blue skies steady winds. We are called below for detailed questioning, we’ve prepared for this, but the ColRegs cover a lot of ground, I get asked about fog and different lights and sounds. Feels easier than expected, but I’ve read those chapters so many times!

Soon I’m at a debrief with the examiner, he has detailed notes on me and some unhappy smilies against certain manoeuvres. But before I know it he’s offering me his hand again. Leon’s there, smiling at me, what a journey I’ve had thanks to him.

Jonathan, Frank and Matthias of course all pass, we are a great team and band of brothers. The examiner leaves the boat and the atmosphere instantly changes, we are uplifted and relaxed, smiling all round.

It’s a bright sunny day, we ready Regina Laska for our last passage back to Lymington, the familiar routine for the last time and before you know it we are leaving Cowes, the start of the end of the journey. Thank you team.