RYA Powerboat Advanced Course in North Wales

The aim of the course is to teach boat handling, seamanship, pilotage and navigation up to the standards required to drive a powerboat safely by day and night in tidal coastal waters. Seawake runs this from Menai Bridge, so you practise those skills on the Strait and in harbour rather than only on paper.

Night cruising, including entering and leaving harbour and identifying marks by night, sits in the two days. The course is written for people who already helm to Intermediate standard.

Anyone undertaking the course should be competent to the level of the RYA Intermediate Powerboat course and have knowledge of navigation and chartwork to the level of the Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore shorebased certificate. It is recommended that you hold a First Aid certificate and a VHF operators' certificate.

Participants should ideally hold the RYA Powerboat Level 2 certificate coastal and have a knowledge of navigation and chartwork to the level of the RYA Day Skipper Theory course. We talk through your previous experience before the dates are set.

Practical sessions cover preparation of the powerboat, hull forms and propeller configuration, power trim and trim tabs, and handling in tide and wind, including steering to transits, turning in confined spaces, berthing and picking up moorings. You then plan a coastal passage and use leading and clearing lines, transits, soundings and high speed GPS waypoint navigation.

Shore-based sessions cover forecast sources, the Beaufort Scale, synoptic charts, IRPCS, propeller diameter and pitch, ventilation and cavitation, and petrol and diesel engine checks. Emergency work includes fire, hull damage, medical emergencies, cold water immersion, towing, helicopter rescue, flares and search patterns.

The two days usually run from 9:00 to 17:00 each day, mixing time on the water with shore-based sessions in the Menai Bridge classroom. Night work uses the same harbours and marks you have seen by day, so you learn how this stretch actually looks after dark.

The classroom sits a five-minute walk from the boats, so meteorology, engines and emergency theory sit next to the water you will use. Lunch is your own, brought or bought locally.

You train on Seawake RIBs that are set up for day and night work, with the navigation tools and safety kit this course needs. They are the same school boats used for the rest of the powerboat scheme, not a different fleet.

The boats sit a five-minute walk from the classroom, so you can move from a weather plot to the helm without a long transfer. Close-quarters work and Strait water are both in reach.

Wear warm layers, a waterproof coat and non-slip footwear, plus extra layers for the night sessions. Bring lunch each day unless you plan to buy it locally in Menai Bridge.

Lifejackets, buoyancy aids, navigation tools and course materials are provided. A head torch is useful after dark, and a change of clothes helps if the night session is wet.

Yes. Night cruising, including entering and leaving harbour and identifying marks by night, sits in the two days. You also work lookout after dark, so the helm is not the only person watching.

Night sessions use the same harbours and marks you have seen by day. That is the point of running Advanced from Menai Bridge rather than treating night work as a classroom talk.

Yes. On successful completion you receive the RYA Powerboat Advanced certificate. It shows you have reached the standard to drive a powerboat safely by day and night in tidal coastal waters.

That ticket is also the one that can later take a commercial endorsement up to 20 miles from land by day or night, if you go on to the Commercial Certificate of Competence.

The course includes handling in more demanding conditions, but safety still comes first. If the night session or the coastal passage cannot run safely, the days are moved rather than pushed through.

You will hear as early as we can if the plan has to change. The same day-and-night syllabus is used on the new dates.

The two days run from our training centre in Menai Bridge on the Isle of Anglesey. The classroom is at 40 High Street, with the training boats a five-minute walk away.

The waters here give you sheltered practice and the tidal Menai Strait for day and night coastal work. Pay and Display parking is across the road from the classroom.