There are many different schemes you can follow to get certified to be on the water. The three more internationally accepted are the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), International Yacht Training (IYT) and the American Sailing Association (ASA). If you want to know more in detail about the RYA scheme, I recommend you read my previous post about it, Understanding the RYA Scheme. To get a brief overview, I made this simple graphic to help you out.
Beginner Classes
Competent Crew
Competent crew is the unofficial introduction class. It’s a 5-day class that brings you up to the level where if a skipper is asking you to do something, you know how to do it. A lot of it is learning the names of the parts of the boat and the various processes you can encounter. To learn more visit the RYA’s website.
Try Sailing & Introductory Sailing Skills
Try Sailing is quite a basic course. It is a half-day on board that covers basic manoeuvres, rope handling and the points of sail. IYT goes more in depth here. The second portion is Introductory Sailing Skills. This 2 day course takes it a little further by adding some person overboard and some collision regulations. It should bring you to a level where you are comfortable crewing for a skipper.
Basic Keelboat Sailing
As with the two other schemes, the 101 course is meant to ease you into sailing. The instructor will go over parts of the boat, sail trim and buoyage. This is the course I did on Lake Champlain and had a great weekend doing so! The details are available here.
Intermediate Classes
Day Skipper & Coastal Skipper
I’ve covered the RYA scheme quite extensively on its own so to see that, click here. The important bit to know is that it is with a Day Skipper certificate that the RYA can give you an International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft (ICC). This certificate allows you to charter a boat on vacation and also gives a good start to being a proper skipper and being able to plan short passages. The Coastal Skipper allows to understand more the passage planning portion and the harder manoeuvres in close quarters.
Day Skipper & International Bareboat Skipper
The IYT Day Skipper is slightly more limited than the RYA one. It limits the boat you can skipper to 10m but it is slightly shorter. It is a 3 to 4 day course that gives a good introduction to planning a safe sail and basic boat checks. Otherwise, the two are quite similar.
The International Bareboat Skipper syllabus is quite similar to the Coastal Skipper. It certifies that the person can sail in coastal waters and knows how to manoeuvre a boat adequately. For the IYT, it is the first course that requires other certifications and a minimum sea time. The course pushes further on the boat checks, weather, tides and general regulations. For those requirements and more information, you can click here.
Basic Coastal Cruising & Bareboat Cruising
ASA uses their different certification levels to go towards bigger boats. At the 103 level, they determine you can properly control a 25′ to 35′ boat. At the 104 level, they judge you are competent to manoeuvre a 30′ to 45′ foot boat. After learning intermediate trimming, basic weather, navigation rules and anchoring in 103, you’ll be able to push these further in 104. The 104 syllabus also adds on provisioning, passage planning, and advanced sail trimming. The 103 syllabus can be found here and the 104 details are here.
Yachtmaster
The Yachtmaster level is the highest-level one can achieve on the recreational scale. The differences at the end are very slim but two schemes resemble each other more.
The three Yachtmasters
Same as the RYA, IYT only examines at this level, officially. Schools offer preparation classes that can be taken and will help iron out any wrinkles to give you the most chances of passing. The main difference in the three levels is the distance you are considered competent to be from a safe haven. At coastal, you can go up to 60 nautical miles, at offshore, up to 150 nautical miles and the ocean level has no limit. Extensive meteorology and celestial navigation can be expected. One of the bonuses from IYT is that they not only offer sail and power endorsements but also a catamaran endorsement. For more information, the best is to go to the source at the RYA or IYT.
4 Classes left
ASA offers classes until the end of the scheme. The last 4 classes push further for the length of the boat (up to 50′) and the content covered. Essentially, they all cover the same but it is more broken down in this scheme. The goal is that at the end of this scheme, you can sail oceans comfortably and plan appropriately.
I hope this helps clarify and create links between the different schemes. If you have any questions don’t be shy to go to the contact page and I will help you find the information you need.