Qualifying Sea Time for would be Career Sailors
If you have any sort of dream or plan to turn an interest in sailing into a career you will need proof of your sailing experience. The sooner you start recording the voyages and mileage you do in something like a RYA logbook, seamans discharge book or MCA record book, the easier it is convince a possible employer that you are serious about sailing as a profession.
Recording Seatime for RYA Qualifications with Classic Sailing
Before you take a RYA Yachtmaster Coastal (formerly Coastal Skipper) practical sailing exam you will need a minimum of:
- 30 days seatime
- 2 days as skipper
- 800 miles
- 12 night hours
- VHF licence and First aid certificate
Before you take a RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exam you will need a minimum of:
- 50 days seatime
- 5 days as skipper
- 2500 miles
- 5 passages over 60 nautical miles between ports includin 2 overnight and 2 as skipper.
- VHF licence and First aid certificate
RYA Professional Practices and Responsibilities
A compulsory online course for new and re-validating RYA Commercial Endorsement holders.
This course is designed to give you a better understanding of your obligations and the rules and regulations under which you operate in the commercial maritime world. More importantly, it will teach you where to find the information you need to ensure that you are operating within the law.
You can complete the course and assessment at your own pace and in the comfort of your home or office.
Best Voyages to gain navigation and watch keeping experience
If you haven’t done a day skipper sailing course, then this is the best intensive training where you have to plan the pilotage and do the navigation for lots of short passages (see Moosk RYA courses).
Perfect voyages for 60 mile plus passages
Isles of Scilly from Falmouth on Tallulah, Pilgrim. Anny and Mascotte, Cross Channel hops on Grayhound and Pilgrim all offer passages over 60 miles and night hours. If you want winter sun then Eye of the Wind, Morgenster or Oosterschelde have island hops over 60 miles.
Best Classic Sailing voyages to gain lots of miles
If you are in a hurry then a tall ship like Tecla and Oosterschelde on Ocean passages can notch up to 200 miles a day and 4-8 night hours every 24 hours. Classic Sailing probably has the biggest choice of long distance ocean passages on sailing vessels on one website so just put ocean passages into our search facility and chose between Atlantic, Pacific or Indian Ocean, Mediterranean or Caribbean. We have Southern Ocean, Round the World, Cape Horn and other great rites of passage for your logbook and cv.
Recording Qualifying Sea time towards Yacht rating or Deck Officer with Classic Sailing:
The sooner you start recording sea time on vessels over 15 metres length on deck the better. Even refit work in port has value.
If you sail on our larger vessels you can usually count it as qualifying sea time if you talk to the mate or Captain and explain what you are trying to achieve. It helps to obtain a Seaman’s Discharge book or similar sea time record book for your country of origin to be taken seriously, but an RYA logbook is usually ok on British ships.
If all you do is just get proof of time on board, night hours and miles and a skippers signature logged – that is a good start.
If you are British you will need an upto date MCA (Maritime Coastguard Agency) Training Record Book which you can download from the MCA website. Its a bit like a nautical NVQ where you have to gather evidence of your practical experience at sea. Tasks vary from washing decks to understanding the limitations of trial manourvres using Automated Radar Plotting Aids. You will need to ask very nicely to get officers or skippers to sign off any tasks completed if you are only there as guest crew.
TIP: The MCA (Maritime Coastguard Agency) Training Record Book has over 100 pages as it is a complete on board training programme which used to take cadets on Merchant Ships over 3 years to complete. As an experienced yachtmaster with a lot of past seatime Debbie managed enough box ticking at sea to get to OOW standard in about 6 months, but that was pushing it to do whilst only volunteer crew. To get you started the most useful pages are the seatime record sheets and the pro forma Testimonial letters you can hand to a Captain after a voyage or period of work and he signs it with a few comments on your competency. You now have a job reference as evidence and don’t have to chase skippers 3 years later.
Sailing is a fantastic career choice, we wish you well and see you on the water.
