60 mile passages for Yachtmaster

60 mile Qualifying Passages for Yachtmaster Exam

Before you take a RYA Yachtmaster Offshore exam you will need a minimum of:

5 passages over 60 nautical miles between ports including 2 overnight and 2 as skipper.

50 days seatime

5 days as skipper

2500 miles

VHF licence and First aid certificate

60 mile Passage Opportunities with Classic Sailing

Perfect voyages for 60 mile plus qualifying passages for RYA Yachtmaster include Isles of Scilly from Falmouth on Eve, Leader  or Bessie Ellen, Voyages up and down the Irish Sea on Eda Frandsen, Cross Channel hops from Brixham on Leader, Eda Frandsen, Grayhound and Provident or round Ushant on  Bessie Ellen all offer passages over 60 miles and night hours.

Examples of popular passages for Classic Sailing vessels.

St Mawes to Isles of Scilly - approx 60 miles....and 60 miles back of course.

Newlyn to Milford Haven - approx 100 miles

St Mawes to L'Aberwrach - 95 miles

Milford Haven to Dublin 123 miles

Brixham to Guernsey - 70 miles

All of these have much more interesting pilotage in and out of port and tidal gates to catch en route than Brighton Marina to Cherbourg!

Best Voyages to gain navigation and watchkeeping experience

If you have'nt done a day skipper sailing course, then even if you feel you have more experience than the average day skipper, this is the best intensive training where you have to plan the pilotage and do the navigation for lots of short passages with an experienced instructor on board to sharpen up your skills in a non stressful environment. (see Eve of St Mawes and Golden Vanity RYA courses).  A RYA Yachtmaster exam prep course is the next step up, but these focus on advanced boat handling and navigating under pressure, so make sure you have done some real pilotage into unfamiliar ports before you commit to a prep course and possible exam.

Any passage making voyage on our smaller boats would give you a chance to be involved in the navigation and have a go as a potential watch leader. Eve, Annabel J and Lizzie May only have a skipper on board as professional crew so they welcome guest crew who want more responsibilty 'in charge of the deck' or having a go at pilotage with skipper as back up. We have mates training courses and voluntary mate berths that can be pre booked if we have recommended you. If you are new to us and book a suitable voyage to give you valuable experience, then we can brief the skipper that you want to gain specific experience and he or she will do their best to broaden your skills within the context of the voyage.

Sailing Grounds with Advanced Navigation Opportunities

The Isles of Scilly, North Coast of Brittany, Gulf of St Malo, Channel Isles and South and North West Scotland all provide fast tides and plenty of rock plateaux.  On the plus side the cliffs and rocks are often distinctive with plenty of transits and landmarks to use in the daytime. The Scillies and remote areas of Scotland are not ideal playgrounds at night so you might have to resort to the pub ! No point learning to navigate if you can't enjoy your destination.

Best Classic Sailing voyages to gain lots of miles

If you are in a hurry then a tall ship like Europa on Ocean passages can notch upto 200 miles a day and 4-8 night hours every 24 hours. Classic Sailing probably has the biggest choice of long distance ocean passages on sailing vessels on one website so just put  ocean passages into our search facility and chose between Atlantic, Pacific or Indian Ocean, Mediterranean or Caribbean. We have Southern Ocean, Round the World, Cape Horn and other great rites of passage for your logbook and cv. 

See our top ten mile building voyages