RYA Powerboat Intermediate Course aims:

The RYA Intermediate Powerboat course will develop your skills to provide a more in depth knowledge of powerboating. You will gain a better understanding of how to manoeuvre a powerboat in a variety of conditions of wind and tide. A range of pilotage techniques are practised to enable you to plan and execute coastal passages. This is also helped by developing your chart work and passage planning in the classroom, before putting it into practice on the boat. By the end of the course you will have practised the skills needed to plan and execute longer coastal passages.

Powerboat Intermediate Course content:

On the RYA Intermediate Powerboat course you will cover a range of topics to help you develop and further your skills. This includes learning how to predict tidal heights and streams using almanacs. You will practise chart work in the classroom as well as using chart plotters onboard. This is backed up by developing a range of pilotage techniques for safe passage making. The course covers basic meteorology, enabling you to find weather forecasts and work out how they will effect your passage. Of course it also includes plenty of hands on practice, giving you ample opportunity to practise both slow and high speed manoeuvres. These include coming alongside and leaving a pontoon, picking up a mooring buoy, turning in confined spaces and high-speed turns. You will also learn how to help prevent and how to deal with emergency situations such as man over board.

Course pre-requisites:

For the RYA Intermediate Powerboat course you will need experience equivalent to Powerboat Level 2, preferably a Level 2 certificate. You should be happy navigating and planning trips in your local waters and be able to handle a boat in easy conditions (but you don’t have to be the best!).