Professional Yachtmaster Offshore Commercial Course
Kristian Aderman a Pro Yacht Racer from Sweden being examined by RYA Examiner John Roberts earlier this year
Train to Work in the Sailing Industry
14 Weeks of Practical Training
Next Course : Spring 2025
Starts Mon 3rd March 2025
For Course Prices Scroll Down or Click Here
Below is a brief outline of the course content. Please contact us for a full description of the course program.
We would be delighted to have a sit down meeting with you over coffee to discuss your suitability for this program and how it can be tailored to suit your prior sailing experience. If you are booking from abroad we would be delighted to arrange a skype conversation to discuss the program with you.
Introduction
This course is designed to take the complete sailing novice to become a professional sailor in the sailing industry in an intensive accelerated course over fifteen weeks. The course culminates in the Yachtmaster Offshore Exam by an independent RYA Yachtmaster Examiner. It is a 10 hour practical and oral examination on all aspects of sailing a yacht in difficult circumstances. Provided you are hard working we will have you fully prepared and confident of passing the exam over the 3 months. We have run 11 successful Professional Yachtmaster Programs since the schools opening in 2011 and have almost 100% success rate in that every student has passed the exam first time after our training program. This is largely to do with having a small number of students and being able to focus on each students own weaknesses leading up to the exam.
Experience in the Industry
We have successfully trained students in the past who have gone on to work all over the world in different sectors of the sailing industry, from charter base managers, to delivery skippers, to Yachtmaster Instructors to yacht brokers to Riggers. Irish Offshore Sailing have developed contacts within the sailing industry over the past 14 years. You can call upon these contacts to help you achieve your first job in your new career in the yachting industry. The course is geared towards a career in the yachting industry, but we have a variety of students from guys in their 30s and 40s looking for a career change. We have school leavers looking for an alternate second career before attending university and newly retired people looking to change their approach to their own sailing, a to finally sail in a professional confident way.
The Course
The course is divided into 3 modules of four to five weeks in duration. Students can enter the course program at different stages depending on their previous sailing experience and the cost of the course will be pro-rated accordingly. Please consult us on this. Many fast track courses are run by different sailing schools in the Med. Some advertise courses that are only 10 weeks long and at very low prices. These are soft courses in the sunshine with little or no wind. Exams are almost always conducted under the same conditions. Our experience of these schools has been shabby yachts and poor quality tuition. At Irish Offshore Sailing we will train you to cope with challenging weather confidently using a modern offshore yacht with the most up to date navigational equipment. These yachts enter the Fastnet Race and Round Ireland Yacht Race every year, so they are extremely well equipped.
Our Commitment to You
At Irish Offshore Sailing we draw upon a team of expert instructors with over 10 years training students on the Professional Yachtmaster Scheme. We have put a course program together not just to get you to pass your Yachtmaster exam, but to make you into a competent confident professional skipper. We see time and time again within the industry, sailors barely meeting the grade and delivering yachts by the seats of their pants. Our aim is to train you to a standard where we would trust you to deliver our yachts in the dead of winter, and rest assured that the yacht will arrive in pristine condition. Students who train and sail in Ireland and the UK during the Winter and early Spring, experience strong winds, heavy swells and other difficult conditions. These difficult training grounds challenge and drive students to excel and ultimately produce a higher calibre of skipper.
At Irish Offshore Sailing, we run a professional, well structured course designed to meet your needs. We operate from our course from our base at Dun Laoghaire Marina using our two Jeanneau Sunfast 37 foot yachts “Desert Star” and “Sherkin” and our classroom facilities at the Royal Irish Yacht Club. Dublin Bay provides and incredible training ground for our students with a large tidal range, shallow harbours, commercial shipping, and offshore winds which allow us to continue sailing even under heavy wind conditions. The protection of the outer harbour in Dun Laoghaire allows us to sail even in the most challenging of winds, when any other school would have to have a day in the classroom.
Online Navigation Courses
Our two navigation courses, the dayskipper theory course, and the yachtmaster theory course are now conducted as online courses. This is beneficial to the student for three reasons. Firstly, it allows you to begin the navigation courses well in advance of the start date of the course, so makes the whole course feel less intense and you have plenty of time to digest the navigation course. Secondly, if you arent a big fan of online learning, dont despair, cover as much as you can, we have a dedicated full day in the classroom to address anything you didnt understand on each online course, or anything that you still feel weak at. We also use this time to bridge the gap between theoretical navigation, and the navigation that you will need to do every day while skippering a yacht in the real world. Thirdly, getting accommodation in Dublin has become difficult at sometimes expensive, by having bigger breaks, it allows students to go home between the practical courses on the yacht.
Below is a brief outline of the course structure for our 2025 Spring Course, our Autumn course will be very similar:
Module 1: March 2025
Week 1: Competent Crew (5 days) (Mon 3rd – Fri 7th March 2025)
Week 2: Dayskipper Theory (5 days Via Online learning in advance of the course start)
1 day Classroom Tutorial Sunday 16th March 2025 0930 – 1500 Dun Laoghaire
Week 3: Skills and Drills (3 days) (Mon 10th March – Wed 12th March 2025)
Week 4: Dayskipper 1 (Navigation and Pilotage) (5 days) (Mon 17th – Fri 21st March 2025)
Week5: Dayskipper 2 Mon 24th – Thurs 27th March 2025 ( 4 days)
VHF SRC (1 day) (Sun 23rd March 2025)
First Aid (1 day) (Sat 22nd March 2025)
20 days training incl. First Aid and VHF SRC, 1 day navigation tutorial
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10 days break: 1600 Thurs 27th March – 0900 Mon 7th April 2025
4 days break: 1600 Wed 12th March – 0900 Mon 17th March 2025
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Module 2: April 2025
Week 1: Yachtmaster Theory (6 days) (in advance of course start via Online Learning)
Login details give on enrolment for the course. You can cover this in early April over 6 days, or ideally in advance of the course start. 1 Day Navigation Tutorial Sunday 6th April 2025 0930 – 1500 Dun Laoghaire
Week 2: Milebuilder Passage 1 (6 days) Northern Ireland (Mon 7th April – Sat 12th April 2025)
Week 3: Coastal Skipper 1 (5 days) (Mon 14th – Fri 18th April 2025)
Week 4: Milebuilder Passage 2 (7 days) Irish Sea (Mon 21st – Sun 27th April 2025)
Week 5: Coastal Skipper 2 (4 days) ( Mon 28th April – Thurs 1st May 2025)
23 days training – including classroom navigation tutorial
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1 day Break: 1600 Sat 12th April – 0900 Mon 14th April 2025 (1 day)
2 day break: 1600 Fri 18th April – 0900 Mon 21st April 2025 (2 days)
9 days break: 1600 Fri 2nd May – 0900 Mon 12th May 2025 (9 days)
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Module 3: May 2025
ISAF Offshore Safety Course (2 days classroom) (Sat 10th – Sun 11th May 2025)
Week 1: Milebuilder Passage 3 (6 Days) (0900 Mon 12th – 1600 17th May 2025) Ireland South Coast
Week 2: Yachtmaster Preparation 1 (4 days) (Mon 19th May – Thurs 22nd May 2025)
Week 3: Yachtmaster Preparation 2 (4 days) (Mock exams, all elements revised) (0900 Sat 24th – 1400 Tues 27th May 2025 )
Yachtmaster Offshore Examination (2 days) (1400 Tues 27th May – 1300 Thurs 29th May 2025 Approx.)
18 days incl. Yachtmaster Offshore Exams
1 day break: 1600 Sat 17th May – 0900 Mon 19th May 2025
1 day break: 1600 Thurs 22nd May – 0900 Sat 24th May 2025
This course is comprised of 61 Days of Tuition and Examination + 11 days of online learning in advance of the course.
61 days in Dun Laoghaire
55 days of practical tuition onboard our yachts, covering practical boat handling, and offshore and inshore passages
6 days in a classroom in Dun Laoghaire covering radio, first aid, sea survival and navigation
11 Days of Online Learning in Advance of the start date of the course.
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The RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Exam is organised on the last two days of the course.
Professional Yachtmaster Training Program Prices
The 14 Week Course €12,350
One Module €6,350
Two Modules €9,500
Whats included:
- All food on board during practical courses on the yacht
- Waterproofs
- All accommodation during practical yacht courses
- All our ordinary practical courses run from Monday 09:00 to Friday 16:00. Our milebuilders begin at 0900 on the first day and finish approx 1600 on the last day, all shorebased courses begin at 0930 each day and finish approx 1630.
Whats not included: Food and accommodation is not provided during the shorebased courses. Air BnB’s, and hostels are available with good weekly rates and all the home comforts. Shorebased courses comprises of 6 days of the overall course length. Neither accommodation nor food is provided during the offtime between courses.
€85 SRC exam and license fee for the the SRC course
Yachtmaster offshore examination fee of £240
Examiners travel expenses ( Approx €120 per student depending on candidates)
are not included in the course fee.
Offshore Yacht Sailing Personal Insurance (€80 – €120)
This insurance is compulsory to participate in our mile building trips.
State Grants
Some students have in the past qualified for small state grants to attend our courses as the ISA Coastal Skipper Practical Course falls under the national qualification fetac scheme. Please contact us for further details about obtaining a grant while attending this course.
Additional Gear and Advice
We strongly advise students to purchase their own sailing boots and gear before the commences. Contact us for advice on this. We don’t believe in flashy prospectuses to hook you in. We want to meet you for a coffee, or have a lengthy phone conversation, answer your questions, explain the course in great detail, learn about your background and your motivation for doing the course and assess your suitability for the course before your place is accepted. We monitor your progress very carefully during the course, and a high degree of self motivation, self learning and a good patient nature is required.
Previous Experience
While previous experience is not required before booking, but we do strongly advise that you attend at the very least a start yachting weekend or competent crew course before making a decision to book onto this intensive full time sailing course. The optimum is that each candidate would have around 500 miles of sailing experience prior to coming onto the sailing course. This means that you would have an understanding of what its like to sail a yacht offshore and at night before coming on the course. It also takes the pressure off your attendance on the course, if you are sick for one week, then you may miss achieving your target mileage of 2,500 miles which is required to sit the Yachtmaster Offshore Exam, if you start the course with zero miles under your belt. We can advise you on how best to get these few days of training before the course begins when we meet for a coffee to show you the school and discuss the course.
Further Information:
We appreciate that it can be difficult to make a decision about an intensive campaign from a website. We would be delighted to discuss the campaign further and address any queries or concerns you may have, either in person over a cup of coffee in Dun Laoghaire or over the phone. In the meantime check out a few links to some raw unedited footage that will give you an insight as to what to expect during the race
Interesting Links:
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/novice-race-crew-hope-for-plain-sailing-30373977.html
