RYA Powerboat Intermediate Course in North Wales

This two-day course is for powerboaters who have successfully completed RYA Powerboat Level 2 and want to further their skills. The aim is to teach powerboating up to the standard required to complete a short coastal passage by day.

Seawake revises the navigation you already have, then puts it to work on the Menai Strait. You also get an overview of the skill level required for the RYA Powerboat Advanced course.

Yes. The RYA suggests that anyone undertaking Powerboat Intermediate should be competent to the standard of RYA Powerboat Level 2. That ticket is the foundation this course builds on.

It is recommended that you also hold a First Aid certificate and a VHF/SRC operator's certificate, and have knowledge to the level of Day Skipper Theory. Those are recommendations, not a second ticket you must show at the door.

Shore-based sessions cover plotting a course to steer, tidal heights for standard ports using a tidal curve, buoyage, IRPCS, GPS waypoint navigation, a laminated chart afloat, and pilotage into an unfamiliar port by day.

The practical sessions put that theory to work so you can complete a short coastal passage. You work on boat preparation, boat handling, passage planning, practical pilotage and man overboard, in likely more demanding conditions than you are used to.

Intermediate gives you an overview of the skill level required for the RYA Powerboat Advanced course. The short coastal passage, the laminated chart afloat and the more demanding handling are the step between Level 2 and day-and-night Advanced work.

Advanced then adds night cruising, meteorology at that standard, engines and a fuller set of emergency procedures. Doing Intermediate first means you are not meeting those subjects cold.

The two days usually run from 9:00 to 17:00 each day. You meet at 40 High Street, Menai Bridge, for a briefing before walking down to the boats or sitting at the chart table.

Shore-based plotting and time on the water sit in the same day, because the classroom is a five-minute walk from the moorings. Lunch is your own, brought or bought locally.

Wear warm layers, a waterproof coat and non-slip footwear. Bring lunch each day unless you plan to buy it locally in Menai Bridge. Lifejackets, buoyancy aids, charts and plotting instruments are provided.

Come ready for more demanding conditions than a Level 2 day. A notebook is useful for the tidal curve and course-to-steer work ashore.

You should already have a knowledge of navigation, true and magnetic bearings, bearing and distance, chart symbols, tidal diamonds and tidal streams, pilot books, position lines and marina locks.

All of that is revised during the two days, so you are not expected to arrive word-perfect. The revision is there so the passage on the Strait can use those tools rather than teaching them from scratch.

Yes. On successful completion you receive the RYA Powerboat Intermediate certificate. It shows you have reached the standard needed to complete a short coastal passage by day.

That ticket is the usual next step after Level 2, and it sits well before Advanced if you want the day-and-night coastal course later.

Safety comes first. If the conditions are not right for a short coastal passage, the days are moved rather than pushing into water that does not match the plan.

The Menai Strait can still give you useful practice on many days that look ordinary from the shore. You will hear as early as we can if the dates need to change.

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 both sheltered practice and the Menai Strait for a short coastal passage, including the Swellies when the plan calls for it. Pay and Display parking is across the road.