TopCat Cruising School and Seanavigate.com

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Day Skipper Shorebased correspondence course

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I am very pleased you are interested in furthering your experience with this course. Knowledge of the content of the Day Skipper shore based course is essential to be safe at sea.

My name is Jim Duerden and I am the principal of Top Cat Cruising school. I have been sailing since my early teens and have been teaching sailing professionally for fifteen years. I don’t presume to teach you the right way to do any of the tasks required because I do not believe that there is "one right way". I teach a way that always works and is the easiest way to learn. Later when you gain more experience, you will no doubt develop your own ways, and that’s fine.

On the sea it doesn’t matter how much you cheat. Getting the right answer is all that matters!

I have broken the subject material into six modules, though there are links between them due to overlapping areas. Here is an overview

Module1, Charts, including familiarisation of symbols, Understanding Latitude and Longitude, Scale and Projection. Magnetics, deviation. Distance measuring and the Knot. Position. Expressing position, fixing by magnetic compass, Transit fixing. Electronics (GPS). Fixing by bearing and depth.

Module 2, Tides. Causes of tides. common terms and tidal levels. Tidal streams and tidal height calculations. (standard and secondary ports.)

Module 3, Estimating Position. and Course to Steer. Including leeway drift and errors.

Module 4, Weather. Sources of weather information. Common weather terms, Beaufort wind scale, Warm and cold fronts, air masses and fog.
See a clip?

Module 5, Pilotage, Pilotage plans, leading and clearing bearings. transits. Preparation, port information. IALA Buoyage region "A" International Regs for the Prevention of collisions at sea (IRPCS). Passage Planning

Module 6, Seamanship and safety at sea. Anchoring, Cordage and knots. Safety equipment, distress and rescue.

There are exercises to be completed for all modules and there is a reference to the RYA exercise booklet linked to all sections.

This CD is a stand alone reference to the day Skipper shorebased course, but if you have decided to take the full course including the exam, then you also have an RYA Day Skipper Shore based course pack, a Symbols booklet (5011) and a Practice Navigation Tables booklet (PNT).

You can telephone (0930 – 1630 local time) fax or email us for advice if you’re struggling and send in completed exercises for marking. This can be by post or email and in some cases by Fax. With chart work only scanned and saved as .jpg files. No other format accepted.

We try to check your work and send comments back within the day, but this is not always possible. At busy times this may take a little longer.

When you have completed all questions to both your and our satisfaction, we will send out two exam sheets. One to cover chart work and the other seamanship. On correct completion of this we will send you an "RYA Day Skipper Shore Based Certificate"

Please feel free to call and ask more questions. I wrote the CD and will be the man on the phone if you need help with the course.

email jim@multihull.tv