Day Skipper theory practice questions

How to use these questions

Every question below is adapted from the end-of-module quizzes in our course, and each one is labelled with the module it comes from. Cover the answer, commit to one, then open it. If you get a question wrong, the explanation tells you the rule to learn; the module named beside it teaches the whole topic with a narrated film and diagrams.

These ten show the answers on the page. The free taster exam does not: it draws ten questions on our server and marks your answers, so it is the better test of what you know.

1. Two yachts under sail are converging. Yacht A has the wind on her port side; yacht B on her starboard side. Who gives way?

   Module 04 · Rules of the road
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   Yacht A, on port tack. With the wind on different sides, the port-tack boat keeps clear. If both have the wind on the same side, the windward boat keeps clear (Rule 12).

2. At night you see a red and a green light together, with a white light above them. What is happening?

   Module 05 · Lights, shapes & sound signals
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   A power-driven vessel is heading straight for you. Seeing both sidelights means you are dead ahead of her; the white masthead light means she is under power.

3. At night you see a white light: VQ(3) 5s. Where is the safe water?

   Module 06 · IALA A buoyage
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   East of the mark. Three flashes, three o'clock: an east cardinal. You pass a cardinal mark on the side it is named after.

4. You sail at 6 knots for 30 minutes. How far have you gone?

   Module 07 · Position, charts & publications
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   3 nautical miles. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, so half an hour at 6 knots is 3 miles. A nautical mile is exactly 1,852 m.

5. A hand-bearing compass, used well away from metal, gives a lighthouse at 047°M. Variation is 2°W. What do you plot?

   Module 08 · The compass
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   045°T. Away from the boat's metal there is no deviation to apply, only variation. Magnetic to true, subtract West: 047 − 2 = 045.

6. A patch on the chart shows an underlined 0₈. The height of tide is 2.7 m. How much water is over it?

   Module 09 · Tides
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   1.9 m. Underlined means a drying height, 0.8 m above chart datum. Over a drying patch, depth = height of tide − drying height: 2.7 − 0.8.

7. A gale warning says the gale is "imminent". When is it expected?

   Module 14 · Meteorology
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   Within 6 hours of the time of issue. "Soon" is 6 to 12 hours and "later" is more than 12. A gale is force 8, 34–40 knots.

8. You will anchor on all chain. The depth at high water will be 7 m. Roughly how much chain do you let out?

   Module 16 · Anchoring & mooring
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   About 28 m. All chain: about four times the depth. Chain and rope: about six times. Work from the depth at high water, the most you will have.

9. Which justifies a Mayday: an engine failure well clear of danger, a crew member needing medical advice, or a yacht holed and sinking?

   Module 17 · VHF radio & distress calls
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   The yacht holed and sinking. Mayday is for grave and imminent danger with immediate help needed. An engine failure clear of danger or a call for medical advice is a Pan-Pan. How to make the call.

10. A crew member goes over the side. Which job matters most for one person on deck from that moment?

    Module 18 · Emergencies
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    Keeping the casualty in sight and pointing at them, all the time. A head in the waves is easily lost. The spotter does nothing else until the casualty is alongside.