RYA Powerboat Advanced Course in North Wales

The aim of the RYA Powerboat Advanced 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.

🌙 Key Details

• Duration: 2 days, usually 9:00 to 17:00 each day
• Meeting point: 40 High Street, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5EF
• Minimum age: 17 years
• Recommended start point: Competence to Intermediate standard, plus First Aid and VHF
• Certificate: RYA Powerboat Advanced

🔑 Key Skills

• Preparation for sea, fuel and engine checks, and securing gear
• Boat handling in tide, wind, tight spaces and rough weather
• Coastal passage planning, pilotage, transits and high speed GPS navigation
• Night cruising, lookout and identifying marks by night
• Meteorology, IRPCS, engines and emergency procedures

👀 What to Expect

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'll plan a coastal passage that takes account of hazards, crew and boat, then use leading and clearing lines, transits and soundings as an aid to pilotage, plus high speed and GPS waypoint navigation.

Shore-based sessions cover forecast sources and terms used in the shipping forecast, including the Beaufort Scale, synoptic charts, and what that weather means for small craft. You'll apply IRPCS at sea, work through propeller diameter and pitch, how to change a propeller, ventilation and cavitation, and the checks for petrol and diesel engines. Emergency work includes fire, hull damage, medical emergencies, cold water immersion, towing, helicopter rescue, flares, distress by all available means, and search patterns.

📍 Location

Our training centre is in Menai Bridge on the Isle of Anglesey, with a fully equipped classroom and access to the training boats within a five-minute walk. The waters here give you sheltered practice and the tidal Menai Strait for day and night coastal work.

They say if you can navigate the Menai Strait then it sets you in good stead for any navigational boating challenge. Night sessions use the same harbours and marks you have seen by day, so you learn how this stretch actually looks after dark. The classroom is in the town itself, easily reached by taking junction 8A onto the A5 off the A55 at Britannia Bridge, with Pay and Display parking across the road.

✅ Prerequisites

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, so the two days match the standard this course actually asks for.

⭐ Why Choose Us

What makes a Seawake Powerboat Training course different is our team. We are all enthusiastic powerboaters with a vast amount of experience on the water, and Advanced is taught by instructors who know these tidal waters by day and by night.

Our instructors teach using RYA guidelines, their own experience and their local knowledge of the Menai Strait and North Wales coast. The classroom sits a five-minute walk from the boats, so meteorology, engines and emergency theory sit next to the water you will use after dark.