Organising Cruising Instructor Courses

If you are viewing this page, you have probably asked me to act as trainer or moderator for an RYA Cruising Instructor Course, Sail or Motor. There’s some guidance you need to be aware of as a hosting recognised training centre, and the first port of call should be the information page on RYA Training Support (you will need to be logged in). I have amplified that guidance here. If you have any questions please do e-mail me.

Course Parameters - Sail or Motor

All instructor courses in the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme require a minimum of 3 candidates to run, and have a maximum of 4 candidates in total. You cannot put additional people on board to observe/shadow. If you are unable to meet the minimum number of candidates, if there is a genuine and unavoidable reason you can get in touch with the Chief Instructor for Sail & Motor Cruising at the RYA and they may in exceptional circumstances allow the course to run, provided you put an additional person on board as a ‘string puller’.

Courses may or may not be residential. It is common for Sail Cruising Instructor courses to be residential and Motor Cruising Instructor courses to be non-residential, but this is not set in stone. Candidates should be aware that there will be at least one late evening for a night exercise.

Unlike some other RYA Schemes you may be used to, guinea pigs/dummy students are not permitted on Cruising Instructor Courses. Whilst the right person can add value, it is considered that too much time is lost with safety briefings and that it is rare for an individual to have the right skillset across the board, so they should not be invited. This is a benefit to the instructor candidates as it means they will not loose valuable wheel time to a guinea pig.

Course Duration - Sail

A Sail Cruising Instructor Course is 5 Days. The trainer will be on board for 4 days, and the moderator on board for day 5. It is usual for the course trainer to meet the moderator on the morning of day 5, then head somewhere to write the reports and carry out admin, returning to the boat for debriefs. In some cases where two boats are running, the trainers may swap and act as moderators for each other. Regardless, the final day is still a working day for the course trainer.

Course Duration - Motor

A Sail Cruising Instructor Course is 4 Days. The trainer will be on board for all 4 days, and the moderator on board for day 4 only.

Candidate Pre-Requisites and Preparation

Candidates are expected to arrive on a cruising instructor course with a certain number of pre-requsites. As a minimum they should be familiar with the RYA Yachtmaster Scheme, and ideally will have read the instructor handbook G158 (you could send them a copy/e-book voucher in advance, or they can buy it from the RYA Shop). Whilst neither the instructor handbook G158, nor the Syllabus and Logbook G27 are mandatory, it would be unusual if you didn’t send them up to date copies/eBook vouchers in advance. They will need access to both during the course.

They must have the following:

✓ A Yachtmaster Offshore Practical CoC with Commercial Endorsement in the discipline they are looking to instruct

✓ A PPR Course Completion certificate, even where not required by the above

✓ Completion certificates for the online pre-learning modules on RYA Interactive.

✓ Significant boating experience and an ability to perform tasks to a demo standard

Course Outcomes

It should be made clear to candidates before/during the booking process that this is not simply an attendance course. The three possible outcomes are:

• Pass, with the benefit of debriefs covering how to improve/progress
• Action Plan. This will be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound. This can include one or more areas that a candidate will have to improve prior to attending some sort of reassessment with a trainer.
• Unsuccessful. If the candidate needs to do some further preparation and repeat the entire course, this will be explained to them and they will be given an action plan highlighting what they did well, and what to improve.

Course Approval

When you know the dates, trainer(s), and moderator(s) for your course, you should submit it to the RYA for approval, using their online cognito form. You will normally then get an e-mail response agreeing you can go ahead with the course. In some cases you may be asked for further information, or other local courses could be highlighted in case you were unaware.

Summary

I look forward to helping with an instructor course hosted at your centre!