Sailing qualifications

An important part of the sailing qualifications is a cerfication from the RYA (Royal Yatch Association). This is a national governing body with respect to certain water sports and it is placed in United Kingdom. Some of the water activities covered by the RYA include the sailing, windsurfing, sport boating, motor cruising, powerboat racing and personal watercraft. If you are preparing to be a professional instructor in any of these water activities, a certification and membership at RYA is essential.

RYA conducts an online skipper course called professional practices and responsibilities (PPR) which is compulsary for those lookingforward to be a skipper or a crew. Completion of this online course opens a wide variety of opportunities and you would be considered as the seafarer. The status of a seafare is similar to a cruiseliner or the captain of a ship and the duties taken care are similar.

The PPR course conducted by RYA for easy reference is divided into four basic modules and each module specializes in a particular topic. The duties and the life of a seafarer is compltely covered in the commercial environment module. The managment of the commercial vessels, skills to handle the crew and the people on the ship is covered under the people module. The management of the carriage, equipment and working of a particular ship is understood under the vessel module. Final module of the course comprises of the purpose for which the vessel is moving and also builts the skill for situational awareness. After the completion of modules under the sailing qualifications course, an online assessment exam would be conducted to know your understanding of the module.

A simplified process is involved for registering for the PPR course. The registration of the course can be done online. Once you register for the online program, the soft copies of the training modules are sent online and the knowledge is imparted through various interactive programs. These courses can be taken up in various training centres of RYA according to your convinience and an online support is provided for providing the guidance online for the course. Successful completion of the course by passing the online assessment would entitle you to take a print out of the certificate. These cerficates need to be sent to RYA for commecial endorsement cerficate.

Commercial endorsement is a confirmation on the RYA certificate of competence which states that you have undergone sufficient training and have cleared the medical tests. This confirms the employer that you are fit to work in commercial vessels. There are different types of commercial endorsement namely the standard commercial endorsement and the STCW endorsments. The standard commercial endorsement would entitle to go onboard the British flagged vessels where as the STCW endoresment would entitle you to go onboard non UK vessels.

However, there are certain exemptions and fulfilling these exemptions would entitle you to get a commercial endorsement certificate without going through the PPR online course. The exemption is for those who have successfully completed the MCA program of cometence or any program above master 200 programs.