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A practical structure for reviewing your logbook, revising theory and making time for the skills that need work.
Read the preparation plan ↗18 guides to explore
A practical decision guide for Australian sailors choosing between the Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore exams: prerequisites compared, who benefits from each, and the cases where skipping Coastal makes sense.
Open guideHow full-time "zero to Yachtmaster" programmes compress the pathway into 12 to 20 weeks in Australia, what they include, what they cost, where the miles come from, and the honest trade-offs against the club route.
Open guideHow night hours are counted for the Yachtmaster prerequisites, how Australian sailors build them, how to prepare a night pilotage plan, and what examiners look for after dark.
Open guideA worked example of planning a Yachtmaster qualifying passage over 60 miles on the New South Wales coast: distance, weather window, the East Australian Current, waypoints, hazards, tides, ports of refuge, watches and the logbook entry.
Open guideHow tidal heights and streams work around Australia, from semi-diurnal east-coast tides to diurnal western tides, the dodge tide and the nine-metre ranges of the north, with a worked secondary-port calculation and anchoring example.
Open guideA structured plan for learning the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea to Yachtmaster standard: the structure of the rules, which ones examiners test hardest, memory techniques for lights, shapes and sound signals, and a six-week schedule.
Open guideAustralian marine meteorology for the Yachtmaster syllabus: how highs, lows and fronts behave south of the equator, the Bureau of Meteorology products to use, sea breezes, southerly busters, East Coast Lows, the trade winds and cyclones, and how examiners test weather.
Open guideThe rules for a Yachtmaster Ocean qualifying passage and the Australian departures that satisfy them: New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean, with seasons, distances, how to find a berth and what to record on board.
Open guideWhat examiners expect in the man-overboard exercise at Yachtmaster level: the sequence of actions, recovery under sail and under power, recovery on board, the Australian factors of cold water and warm water, and the mistakes that fail candidates.
Open guideHow to plan and execute a river bar crossing or a tidal-gate transit in Australia: the physics, the timing rules, the preparation, and a tour of the entrances every Yachtmaster candidate should know, from the Wide Bay Bar to Port Phillip Heads.
Open guideA week-by-week plan for the three months before a Yachtmaster Coastal or Offshore exam in Australia: logbook audit, theory revision, boat-handling drills, night pilotage practice, supporting certificates, the preparation week and the exam itself.
Open guideHow to keep a sailing logbook for the Yachtmaster prerequisites: what to record for each passage, how to get it signed, how to keep running totals, digital versus paper, and the entries that raise an examiner’s eyebrows.
Open guideHow the RYA Yachtmaster relates to the AMSA domestic commercial certificates: Coxswain Grade 1, Master under 24 m, Sailing Master Offshore and General Purpose Hand, and which one an Australian skipper needs for charter, sail training, deliveries, tenders and motor vessels.
Open guideThe path from an Australian Yachtmaster to work on superyachts: STCW basic safety training, the seafarer medical, the commercial endorsement, where the jobs are, the yacht officer certificates that AMSA and the MCA issue, and realistic expectations for the first season.
Open guideWhat charter companies in Australia and overseas actually require from a skipper, why the Yachtmaster and Day Skipper matter, how the ICC works for Australians, and how to use charters to build skipper days for the logbook.
Open guideHow Australian offshore racing fits with the Yachtmaster pathway: the Australian Sailing Special Regulations categories, the safety and sea survival course, what race organisers require of the person in charge, and how racing builds the logbook.
Open guideHow examiners assess anchoring: choosing the spot, calculating scope from the height of tide, laying and setting the anchor under power and under sail, anchor watches, and the Australian specifics of coral, big tides, bullets and crocodiles.
Open guideWhich marine radio certificate an Australian Yachtmaster candidate needs: the SROCP for VHF, the LROCP for VHF and HF and for AMSA commercial certificates, the RYA SRC, how the exams work, DSC and GMDSS, and the radio procedures examiners test.
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