RYA Day Skipper Certificates – Old & New

     Day Skipper is one of the most popular RYA courses as it leads to an internationally recognised certificate. I’ve found that people who passed their Day Skipper several years ago are unaware that the certificate has changed.

     This post tells you about the old and new forms of Day Skipper certificate and how you can obtain one of the new style certificates if you don’t already possess one.

     If you passed a Day Skipper course more than a couple of years ago, you probably have one of the old-style card certificates. These have your name on them and are the right size to stick into your RYA Logbook. These old-style certificates were rather too easy to forge and, unlike most licences, they didn’t include a photograph. In 2011 the RYA introduced new style Photo-ID certificates. These are passport-sized, have a photograph, a hologram and are much harder to counterfeit.

     You can see an example in the image above. I’m afraid your name and the training centre will be hand-written on the real thing as we don’t have any means of printing onto the plastic, although I’m experimenting with this for the future.

     The new certificates have several languages on the reverse, making them useful for chartering. In most countries having a photo-ID certificate has replaced the need to carry an ICC (International Certificate of Competence). As most of our clients want to charter we provided the new style of licence as soon as it came into existence. It is now compulsory for all RYA centres to issue the new form of certificate rather than the old one.

     Unfortunately there is one drawback – you can no longer stick these new certificates into your logbook! I don’t know if the RYA will eventually change the Logbooks but over this winter I’m going to produce a card version for our students that can be used and there will be a place to enter your certificate number from your photo-ID certificate. I’ll let you know when this is ready and how to order one.

     The price is £30 / 35€ including recorded delivery postage *. Email Elena if you want her to issue you with a photo-ID certificate. * if you want the certificate sent by courier please discuss this with Elena.

     If you passed your course at another RYA centre you’ll need to get in touch with them to see if they can issue you with a new-style certificate.

     At the same time that these certificates were introduced the RYA implemented a central recording system for Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper certificates. This means that, when you pass your course, your details are now entered into the main RYA database, making it easier should you need a replacement certificate at any point.

     One of the lines on the certificate is used to indicate whether the certificate is Tidal or Non Tidal. I’ll discuss the differences between the two and how to convert one to the other in my next post.

     Happy Sailing

     Melody

     PS: As a precursor to my post on Tidal Day Skipper certificates – we’re running a trip to the Highlands of Scotland at the start of June 2014. It’s possible to convert your Non-Tidal Day Skipper to a tidal one by coming on this. Contact me for more details.