Yachtmaster

Professional certification for yacht captains

An RYA/MCA Yachtmaster certificate is the benchmark qualification for professional yacht captains and is a passport to worldwide employment in the yachting industry. For recreational skippers, it is a validation of competence and a substantial personal achievement.

If you are ready for some time out, a Flying Fish Yachtmaster Fast Track programme is an awesome training adventure and an efficient pathway to certification.

Prefer to take things at your own pace? Plot your own training pathway from our menu of Yachtmaster Short Courses or ask us to help you make a training plan to suit your needs.

If you want the gold standard Yachtmaster Ocean certification check out the options below.

Our Superyacht Crew Training courses are for those looking to work as deck crew or interior crew in the burgeoning superyacht sector.

Yachtmaster Fast Track

Intensive courses to reach full qualification in a matter of weeks.

Yachtmaster Short Courses

Plan your bespoke pathway to Yachtmaster over a longer period.

Yachtmaster Ocean

The gold standard Yachtmaster qualification.

Superyacht Crew Training

Launch your career on superyachts.

Australia's best Yachtmaster training

Flying Fish have been training Yachtmasters in the UK and Australia since 1996.

With more than one million sea miles under our keels we are the longest established RYA approved centre in Australia.

Every year we welcome up to one hundred new Yachtmaster students from a varieity of countries and backgrounds to our training centre in Sydney.

Our past graduates include Clipper race skippers, charter yacht captains, superyacht deck officers, and Flying Fish instructors training the next generation.

Whatever your reasons or prior experience Flying Fish can help you achieve this prestigious qualification.

Yachtmaster Fast Track - a Sea Change

Reboot your operating system, give up the rat race and start an action-packed career on the water!

There are many reasons why people join our Yachtmaster Fast Track programme and a typical group includes eighteen-year-old students on a gap year as well as professionals in their forties, fifties and sixties taking a career break or starting an action-packed retirement.

Taking three months out to recharge, get out of your comfort zone, and learn new skills in a challenging and exhilarating environment is food for your soul.

You will discover your potential, gain a wealth of knowledge and skills, and leave the course as a confident skipper with a package of valuable qualifications and an international network of sailing buddies.

Whether you choose a career in sailing afterwards, go back to your old job, or buy a boat and sail around the world you will have had the adventure of a lifetime which will set you on course for a lifetime of adventure!

Yachtmaster exams & certifications

Examinations for Yachtmaster certificates of competence are conducted on board by RYA appointed Yachtmaster Examiners.

On passing your Yachmaster examination, you have been found competent to act as Master of a vessel up to 24 metres in length for operations limited by your level of certification, as shown below.

Yachtmaster Coastal is restricted to operations within 20 miles of port.
Yachtmaster Offshore is valid for use up to 150 miles from a safe haven.
Yachtmaster Ocean is unrestricted by distance.

All of the above can be endorsed for commercial use within the limitations shown above. See Yachtmaster commercial use below.

Pre exam requirements

Yachtmaster Offshore and Coastal candidates require the following prior to submitting for examination.

Radio operator’s certificate (restricted VHF or higher grade of certificate)
First aid certificate (on the RYA approved list)
Theory knowledge to RYA Yachtmaster Shorebased Theory standard
Boat handling and navigation ability to Yachtmaster Practical Skills standard.

Yachtmaster Ocean candidates MUST complete ALL of the following prior to submitting for the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean oral examination.

RYA Yachtmaster Offshore Certificate of Competence
RYA Yachtmaster Ocean shorebased theory course
Yachtmaster Ocean Qualifying passage (minimum distance 600 nm by the shortest navigable route.
A narrative of your qualifying passage including details of your celestial sights for submission to the examiner.

Seatime requirements

Required sea time and qualifying passages must be logged in the 10 years prior to examination

Yachtmaster Coastal

Seatime (30 days on board, two days as skipper, 800 miles, 12 night hours)
For holders of the RYA Coastal Skipper certificate the seatime requirement is reduced to 20 days on board, two days as skipper, 400 miles, 12 night hours

Yachtmaster Offshore

Seatime (50 days on board, five days as skipper, 2500 miles)
Qualifying passages (five passages over 60 miles, including two overnight and two as skipper)

Yachtmaster commercial use

If you intend to use your Yachtmaster certificate commercially anywhere in the world you will also need.

An ISAF approved Sea Survival qualification.
RYA online Professional Practices and Responsibilities course (PPR).

For commercial operations in Australia you will also require

An RYA diesel engine certificate
RYA Powerboat Level 2

A certificate of medical fitness is also required

Details for certificate of medical fitness in Australia