Cruising Forums

magwas · 10-02-2009, 09:04 PM

I hope this is not too offtopic here, where everyone have thousands of miles and Yachtmaster Ocean,. I just do not know other place to ask.

I want to get a skipper cert. My first goal is any ICC. I have an inland cert, and started to do thing to get the Hungarian 12NM one. This is equivalent to RYA Coastal Skipper. In Hungary the certificates' meaning and prerequisites are roughly the same as the RYA ones.

I want it cheap. My original plan was to attend to theoretical courses here, get the miles and experience through crewfinder, and do the exam. But the rules have recently changed. The requirement for miles have changed to a requirement of going to a practical course. As there are only two companies giving practical courses (the ones which have lobbied out the change) and the sea is 700km away, god knows how high prices they will ask.

I am attending the coastal skipper navigational course here anyway (I want the knowledge, not just the paper), and I guess I do radio and medical here as well.

What I am looking for is a way to go to the exam elsewhere in EU, without the need to attend (and especially pay for) additional courses.

I have figured out that I could do the trips which require to be skipper in UK waters, because there is no requirement for cert when one skippers a recreational yacht. Are there other countries with similar rules?

What I am looking for is a country where one can just go to the exam, or the hungarian theoretical course is accepted.

What I am NOT looking for is a joke cert like the Croatian day skipper one (You do some paddling in a boat in an inland pond, pay an amount of cash, and you get it no matter whether you know anything about anything. You don't even have to talk the language on which the exam is taken...).

boathead · 10-03-2009, 10:05 AM

Hi 'magwas'

O.K. I don't really know your level of experience or your location, but if you are able to travel to the U.K. The small sailing schools (often just the one yacht) especially around the North West Coast really wont waste your time/money with training that isn't needed. Shouldn't say this but....... I have sailed since I was 9 years old, never got any paper qualifications but I'm 50 years old and am still here sailing and using 'Trad.Nav' (Yeah, I have, GPS/Radar etc), rules changed and I needed at least the ICC, I didn't have to do any training because the guys where I was then moored knew where I had been through the years. They just signed on the dotted line....... thanks guys, that was years ago and tens of thousands of miles have passed.

Your case wil be different, sail training in the U.K. with small 'schools' is not expensive and very, very friendly and takes account of the skills you may already have, and if you don't have them they will train you well whilst cruising and entertaining you on their boat. So if you can sail, can show you understand pilotage etc. you can just do the 'exam', it's a process of negotiating on the basis of your curent skills as assessed by the instructor involved. Does this help at all?

Cheers.