Tips on Passing the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Exam:

These mostly from local RYA instructors. Contact me off-list for a more robust version of what follows.
So what’s it like? What does it take to pass? These are the burning questions each candidate asks, and the answer can’t really be known. The RYA won’t tell you and neither will the instructors or examiners. But here are a few insights that might help.
Sailing skills are considered a given, but you’d better be on your game at all times. You will suffer “engine failure” or “wrapped lines” at every inopportune moment, as well as man overboard (MOB) also at the exact time you have something else on your plate. Expect to deploy sail (using the proper sails) to sail out of or into marinas, dock and undock smoothly, sail onto and off mooring balls and anchorages, and navigate and pilot the boat without various pieces of information or electronics.
The boat crew will be expected to feed the examiner dinner, as the exams can run from eight hours to all night, but in all cases will include a nighttime portion. It is advisable that you make this simple, with sandwiches and thermoses of coffee. Cooking in the galley introduces unnecessary safety risks. You really should be looking at every small thing around you while asking “is this safe?”
You’ll be expected (as skipper) to give a safety briefing. In mine I advised everyone that the greatest likelihood of an actual MOB was during MOB drills. That’s when people are running around the boat near the lifelines and looking at the water instead of other things. Accidental jibes happen often in real life during MOB.
Instructor Gavin Shaw (shown in video) likes his clients to present the test to the examiner as a fun “day-sail” for clients. The exam is purposely designed to induce stress, and the examiners are looking to see how you handle it. They will work to convince you you’re failing if they can. If you lose your patience or resort to yelling, it’s bad. They really want to see if you can be trusted with significant responsibility. Panic is contagious, and if you lock up and can’t function, you’re done.
Gavin advises that you don’t have to be skipper all the time. Delegate authority and let others sail and steer. This way it’s fun for everyone. And when they screw up it isn’t on you, although you can and should advise corrections when you see the need. As skipper you will always be asking for adjustments to sail trim, so make sure you know how. You ask for these things by way your crew. You don’t always jump in to do them yourself. Finally, don’t race! Slow everything down. The examiner has only 8-10 hours for the exam, while you have all the time in the world. Slow is easy. Reefed sails and lots of time eaten up on simple tasks. The examiner can always extend the exam.
At the end of my exam, my examiner Christian called me below for a one-on-one recap. This was the moment of truth and my heart felt like it was in my throat. I was seriously thinking I might have failed. There were a number of minor things I knew I’d done wrong and had no idea how strictly I’d be graded. Christian noted a few of these, but I worked to stay upbeat. Gavin had said it would be almost impossible to ace the test. But Christian sensed my concern and reassured me that he was going to pass me. I made a point then to shut up and not talk past the sale.
He told me that he’d passed me based on two things really; the first being the safety briefing that was a real safety briefing, calling out that there was real risk to what we were about to do. He’d also taken note of a small event early on when a guest crewmember had slipped a line early that I was in the process of using to spring off of. She was quite upset about it at the time and following Gavin’s advice I let her know that it was all cool. Big smiles and as much enthusiasm as I could muster.
Finally, what if you fail? Pass rates for Yachtmaster Offshore are rumored to be in the 30-40% range, so a lot of people fail on their first try. If you fail, the examiner is obligated to discuss the situation with you (written reports of all examinations are sent to the RYA). They’ll tell you why you failed and give advice on what remedial work you can do. In rare cases they’ll advise you that it’s not a good fit and don’t bother to retest. In these, it’s almost always an issue of leadership or emotional stability.
See the link below for RYA course descriptions.
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