RYA/MCA Advanced Powerboat Certificate of Competence

• Documented minimum sea time completed on a seagoing powerboat in the last 10 years:

  • 30 days at sea, which may be reduced to 20 days at sea if an RYA Advanced Powerboat course completion certificate is held. 

  • 2 days as skipper

  • 800 miles, which may be reduced to 400 miles if an RYA Advanced Powerboat course completion certificate is held

  • 12 night hours

• Knowledge to the level of Yachtmaster Offshore Theory

• A GMDSS compliant Marine Radio Operators Certificate such as the RYA Short Range Certificate or higher.

• An RYA First Aid Certificate or STCW First Aid Certificate

• Advanced Powerboat course completion card ONLY IF claiming reduced seatime detailed above

• Photographic ID card or document, such as passport or driving license. 

• 2 days instruction on Maverick, our Humber Ocean Pro 6.8 

• Plus 1 Day hire of Maverick for the Advanced Exam

• Fuel

• Use of lifejackets and wet weather gear

What To bring with you:

• Any medication you need

• Cash/Card for lunch and evening meals

• Exam application form (if paid exam fee through RYA website)

Preparation for sea

• Preparation of vessel

• Safety brief

• Stowing and securing gear for coastal passages

• Engine operations and routine checks, fuel systems, kill cord

• Fuel system, bleeding, changing filters and impellers

Boat Handling

• 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 bouyed 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

Responsibilities of Skipper

• Skippering 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

Passage making and Pilotage

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 navigation aids and chartwork instruments

• Passage planning and navigational tactics

• Understanding the importance of pre-planning

• Planing-speed navigation, pre-panning and execution

• Use of eectronic navigation (GPS & Radar)

• Pilotage techniques and plan 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. 

Meteorology

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, barometric trends and visible phenomena 

• Ability to make passage planning decisions based on forecast information

Rules of the Road

You should be able to apply the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. You should be able to identify vessels by day or night.

Safety

Candidates will be expected to know what safety equipment should be carried on board the vessel, based either on the recommendations on the RYA website 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

• Hull damage/watertight integrity

• Medical emergency

• Towing and being towed

• VHF emergency procedure

• Explanation of helicopter rescue procedures

• Use of flares

• Man overboard - recover methods and associated hazards

• Sector search 

• Lifejackets

• Liferafts