• Hull forms and their handling characteristics, propeller configurations.
• Knowledge of action to be taken in rough weather
• Significance of tidal stream on sea conditions
• Steering and power control through waves
• Understanding and correct use of power trim and tabs
• Towing, under open sea conditions and in confined areas
• Strategy up and downwind and in heavy weather

Awareness of the effects of wind and tide when manoeuvring, including

• Steering to transits and in buoyed channels
• Turning in a confined space
• All berthing and un-berthing
• Picking up and leaving a mooring buoy
• Anchoring
• Recovery of man overboard
• Awareness of ground speed and ability to hold the boat on station

• Can skipper the vessel with effective crew communication
• Preparing the vessel for sea and for adverse weather
• Tactics for heavy weather and restricted visibility
• Emergency and distress situations
• Customs procedures
• Courtesy to other water users

Your chart work and theory knowledge should include:

• Charts, navigational publications and sources of navigational information
• Chart work, including position fixing and shaping course to allow for tide
• Tidal heights and depths
• Buoyage and visual aids to navigation
• Instruments, including compasses, logs, echo sounders, radio navaids and chartwork
• instruments
• Passage planning and navigational tactics
• Importance of pre-planning
• High speed navigation, pre-planning and execution
• Use of electronic navigation - GPS (and Radar, if fitted)
• Pilotage techniques and plans for entry into or departure from harbour
• Use of leading and clearing lines, transits and soundings as aids to pilotage.
• Navigational records
• Limits of navigational accuracy and margins of safety
• Lee shore dangers

You should be able to enter and depart from a charted port by day or night. Your Examiner will give

you a pilotage exercise and ask you to explain your planning. You will need to be aware of the

problems of collision avoidance and how to determine your position by night.

You should be able to use weather and tidal information to predict likely sea conditions and make

• passage planning decisions.
• Definition of terms including the Beaufort scale, and their significance to small craft.
• Sources of weather forecasts
• Weather systems and local weather effects
• Interpretation of weather forecasts, synoptic charts, barometric trends and visible phenomena
• Ability to make passage planning decisions based on forecast information

Application of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

You should have a working knowledge of IRPCS as well as an understanding of their application. In

addition to the “rules of the road” your knowledge should include all lights, shapes and sound signals.

Candidates will be expected to know what safety equipment should be carried on board the vessel,

based either on the recommendations in the RYA Boat Safety Handbook (G103), or the Codes of

Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Vessels. In particular, candidates must know the

responsibilities of a skipper in relation to:

• Fire prevention and fighting
• Safety briefs
• Hull damage/watertight integrity
• Medical emergency
• Towing and being towed
• VHF emergency procedures
• Explanation of helicopter rescue procedures
• Use of flares
• Man overboard
• Search patterns
• Lifejackets
• Life rafts
• Awareness of risks to passengers and crew through shock and vibration caused by operating at
• speed
• Awareness of strategies to mitigate risk of injury caused by shock and vibration

Candidates should be familiar with all the equipment on board the vessel, as they may be asked to use this during the examination.