Yachtmaster Ocean is fundamentally different from the two levels below it. There is no practical exam on the day; instead you prove yourself by planning and completing a genuine ocean passage of at least 600 miles, navigating by sextant along the way, and then defending that passage and your understanding of ocean sailing in an oral examination with an examiner. You must already hold Yachtmaster Offshore. The certificate says that you can be trusted to take a yacht and its crew across an ocean, and in the coding system used worldwide it removes any distance-from-safe-haven limit. For Australians it is the natural goal for anyone planning a Pacific crossing, a delivery career or offshore racing at the highest level.
At a glance
| Type | Certificate of competence (exam) |
|---|---|
| Duration | Oral exam of about 1.5 to 2 hours, plus a written paper unless exempt |
| Minimum age | No separate minimum (you must already hold Yachtmaster Offshore) |
| Stage in the pathway | Stage 10 of 10 |
Exam prerequisites
| Prior certificate | RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence (holders of an MCA OOW Yachts less than 3,000 GT certificate may sit the exam, but only Yachtmaster Offshore holders receive the Ocean certificate) |
|---|---|
| Qualifying passage | A non-stop passage of at least 600 miles, of which at least 200 miles must be more than 50 miles from land or charted navigational objects, lasting at least 96 hours, on a yacht up to 500 GT |
| Your role | Skipper or in sole charge of a watch, fully involved in planning and preparing the passage (navigation plan, checking the material condition of the yacht, stores, spares, crew) |
| Astro navigation | Successfully navigated the yacht by celestial navigation on the passage: planning, reducing and plotting a sun-run-meridian altitude or sun-run-sun sight, plus a compass check using a celestial bearing |
| Time limit | The passage must have been completed within the 10 years before the exam |
| Documents | The narrative account of the passage (submitted at least 48 hours before the exam), the yacht log pages for the passage, and your navigational records including sight forms and plots |
Assumed knowledge: Everything at Yachtmaster Offshore level plus Ocean theory, and the lived experience of a proper offshore passage.
What is assessed
- Passage planning for oceans: routes, seasons, currents, pilot charts
- Celestial navigation in practice
- Worldwide meteorology and tropical revolving storms
- Crew management, watch systems and provisioning on long passages
- Yacht preparation, spares, self-sufficiency and seaworthiness
- Communications, weather routeing and emergency procedures offshore
What you get
RYA Yachtmaster Ocean Certificate of Competence. Commercially endorsed, it qualifies you to skipper a coded vessel anywhere in the world. It also satisfies the AMSA prerequisite for Sailing Master Offshore (near coastal) in its own right.
Finding a qualifying passage from Australia
The 600-mile, 96-hour, 200-miles-more-than-50-from-land rule rules out most coastal passages. Sailing down the east coast, even Sydney to Hobart, usually fails the distance-from-land test because so much of the route hugs the coast. The classic Australian qualifying passages are offshore departures:
- East coast to New Caledonia (roughly 800 miles from Brisbane or Bundaberg, about 1,050 from Sydney), the most popular option, typically sailed May to July with the seasonal rallies and returned in October.
- East coast to Vanuatu or Fiji (1,000 miles or more).
- Sydney or Brisbane to New Zealand (1,100 to 1,300 miles), a serious Tasman crossing best made in the shoulder seasons.
- Darwin to Ambon or across the Arafura and Timor seas into Indonesia (Darwin to Ambon is about 600 miles, so plan the route carefully to satisfy the distance-from-land requirement).
- Fremantle to Bali or Cocos (Keeling) (1,400 miles or more), the great Indian Ocean departures from the west.
- A leg of a round-the-world or Pacific cruise, which is how many Australian Ocean candidates qualify.
If you do not own a boat, crewing on a delivery or joining an offshore rally as watch leader can qualify, provided you were genuinely in charge of a watch and involved in the planning, and provided you took and worked the sights yourself.
The oral exam
You submit a narrative account of the passage at least 48 hours before the exam. The examiner reads it, then spends 90 minutes to two hours with you going through the passage in detail: why you chose the route and the season, how you prepared the yacht and crew, how the weather developed and what you did about it, how you navigated (with your sight forms and plots on the table), what went wrong and how you handled it. They will move outward into passage planning for other oceans, worldwide meteorology, crew management and yacht preparation. If you have not completed the Ocean theory course you also sit a written paper on sights, sight reduction and worldwide meteorology.
Questions about Yachtmaster Ocean
Do I need to own a sextant?
You need to have used one on the qualifying passage and to bring your sight forms to the exam. Many candidates borrow or buy a plastic training sextant; owning one is not required.
Which Australian passages qualify?
Typically east coast to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji or New Zealand, Darwin into Indonesia, and Fremantle to Bali or Cocos. Coastal passages such as Sydney to Hobart usually fail the distance-from-land rule. See the Ocean passages guide.
Where it sits in the pathway
Before this: Yachtmaster Offshore. This is the top of the scheme; the next steps are commercial and career options on the working commercially page.