Powerboat  Level 1 

Duration: 1 day

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Course: £180

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The RYA Powerboat 1 course is a practical introduction to boat handling and safety in powerboats. The course is designed to give a good basic understanding of how a powerboat works and moves and also covers all the safety issues related to operating a powerboat.  It also covers different designs and the preparation of both the crew and the boat before setting out afloat. After completion, you will be able to operate a powerboat under instruction from a skipper, safely and confidently in some basic situations.

• Launching and recovery

• Use of and types of personal safety equipment, use of boat hook

• Boat handling manoeuvres, starting, stopping, use of kill cord, steering controls, low speed handling,

• Securing to a mooring, leaving and coming alongside

• Basic IRPCS

• Rope work, different types of knots and ropes

• Man overboard recovery

Powerboat  Level 2 

Duration: 2 days

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Course:

£385 per person

£550 one-to-one

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The RYA Powerboat 2 course is designed so students spend more than 70% of their time afloat. In this powerboat training course, the emphasis is very much on safe powerboat handling in harbours and out to sea. Time is spent learning the art of mooring, turning in confined spaces, recovering a man overboard and, of course, how to get a powerboat going fast on the plane and keeping it there comfortably. 
 

The theory section covers the rules of the road, how to plan a journey safely, weather and tides, and buoyage.There is no examination in the RYA powerboat 2 training course. Progress is determined by continuous assessment. On successful completion you will be able to handle a powerboat safely and with confidence in most everyday situations.

• Preparation of boat and crew and safety equipment

• Mooring to a buoy and alongside a pontoon, manoeuvring in confined spaces, wind on and wind off approaches

• Anchoring, different types of anchors, mooring area selection

• Recovering a man overboard, use of safety equipment

• High speed manoeuvres,

• Basic navigation techniques, tidal sequences, effects of wind against current flow

• Types of craft and engines, maintenance checks, IRPCS, weather forecasts, emergency actions

Intermediate Power Boat

Duration: 2 days 

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Course:

£425 per person

£575 one-to-one

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This 2 day course is perfect for those who have successfully completed the RYA Powerboat Level 2 and want to further their powerboat skills and qualifications.
The aim of the course is to teach power boating up to the standard required to complete a short coastal passage by day as well as allowing participants an insight into the level required for the RYA Advanced course
 

Participants should already have an understanding of navigation, true and magnetic bearings, bearings and distance, chart symbols, tidal diamonds and tidal streams, use of pilot books, positions lines, use of marina locks – however this will all be revised during the 2 days
We also cover the principles of GPS, as well as looking at sources of weather forecast information and how we interpret the forecasts. The aim of the practical session is to put into practice the theory covered in the shore based session and ultimately completing a short coastal passage. 

• Use a plotting instrument and plot a course to steer (CTS).

• Work out tidal heights for standard ports using a tidal curve.

• Interpreting buoyage.

• Interpret specific IRPCS.

• Use GPS waypoint navigation.

• Use pilotage to enter an unfamiliar port by day.
  Explain how to make a VHF emergency call.

Advanced Power Boat

Duration: 2 days

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Course:

£425 per person

£575 one-to-one

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The aim of this 2 day Advanced Power Boat course is to teach boat handling, seamanship, pilotage and navigation up to the standards required to drive a powerboat safely by day and night in tidal coastal waters.

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Participants on the Advanced Power Boat Course should be competent and ideally hold the RYA National Powerboat Certificate Level 2 (coastal) have a knowledge of navigation and chartwork to the level of the Day Skipper Shorebased Certificate. Participants should also ideally hold a First Aid Certificate and a VHF Operators License. 

• Prepare the powerboat

• Action to be taken in rough weather

• The importance of pre-trip planning

• Planning and making coastal passages, taking into account the relevant navigational hazards, the type of boat and the strengths of the crew

• Organise the navigation, safety and welfare of the crew during a powerboat passage

• Navigate at higher speed using time / distance 

• Use electronic navigational equipment for planning and undertaking a passage, including the use of waypoints, routes and XTE, SOG, COG, BTW, DTW

• Carry out pilotage plans and pilotage entry into or departure from harbour

• Use leading and clearing lines, transits, back bearings and soundings as aids to pilotage

• Use GPS and understands it limitations in pilotage

• Navigate using soundings

• Understanding weather, Terms used in shipping forecasts, including the Beaufort Scale, and their significance to small craft

• Sources of forecast information and interpretation of forecasts including synoptic charts

• Apply the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea

• What to do in a medical emergency

• Towing and being towed

• Helicopter rescue procedures

• Search patterns

• Pick up a man overboard in all available conditions

• Take charge of a powerboat at night, including leaving and entering harbour

• Demonstrate ability at keeping a proper lookout and identifying lit and unlit marks by night