RYA Radar course - This course is aimed at

The RYA one-day Radar Course using Maritime Professional Development UK’s new radar simulator for the RYA Radar Course is designed for anyone who goes to sea and wants to understand how radar can be used safely and effectively for navigation and collision avoidance. Although the course is open to all leisure and professional mariners, it is particularly aimed at skippers and crew of powered and sailing vessels who operate in coastal or inshore waters where visibility, traffic density, or navigational complexity make radar an important safety tool.

Typical candidates include RYA Day Skipper and Coastal Skipper students, yacht owners, powerboat helms, commercial crew and those preparing for a commercial endorsement or higher-level qualification such as Yachtmaster or Advanced Powerboat. It is also valuable for crew on motor cruisers, fishing vessels, pilot boats, survey craft and Superyachts, where radar is in regular use and a professional standard of watchkeeping is expected.

The course is particularly beneficial for learners who have little or no radar experience, or for those who have used radar before but never had formal training. Many skippers rely on radar, AIS, chartplotters or mobile apps without fully understanding radar’s strengths, limitations, or how to interpret targets correctly. The simulator enables students to build real competence without the restrictions of time, weather or vessel availability. It allows repeated practice of radar set-ups, target aquisition manually and automatically, CPA/TCPA interpretation, and collision-avoidance decision-making in a controlled, realistic environment.

By using the new radar simulator, students experience vessel movements with multiple targets, course and speed vectors, VRMs/EBLs and parallel indexing exactly as they would appear on a real display. This makes the course ideal for those who want hands-on, practical learning rather than just theory.

In short, the course is aimed at any skipper or crew member who wants to improve safety, confidence and navigational awareness at sea, and who recognises radar as a key piece of modern marine electronics that should be understood—not just switched on.

RYA Radar course - Syllabus

The aim of the course is to teach students to use small boat Radar to assist decision making in navigation, pilotage and collision avoidance.

1. Switching on and setting up.

Knowledge of:.

1.1 How a radar set measures distance

1.2 How a radar set measures bearings

1.3 The main components of a small craft radar installation

Understands:

1.4 The limitations imposed by the power, antenna size and display of typical small-craft radar

Can:

1.5 Switch on a typical small-craft radar set and adjust its brightness, gain, range and tuning

2. Understanding the picture

Knowledge of:

2.1 How antenna size affects beam width

2.2 The differences between solid state and magnetron antennas

2.3 The benefits of the doppler setting

2.4 The factors that determine the strength of echo returned by a target

2.5 The use of radar overlay over charts

2.6 Effect of Propagation conditions.

Understands:

2.7 The effect of beam width on discrimination

2.8 The effect of pulse length on discrimination

2.9 The effect of false echoes, echoe stretch, blind arcs, shadow sectors and radar horizon

3. Optimising the display settings

Knowledge of:

3.1 The cause and cure for sea and rain clutter

3.2 The use of preset modes

3.3 The cause and cure for interference

Understands:

3.5 The risks associated with clutter clearance tools

3.6 The difference between head-up, course-up and north-up modes including stabilisation

3.7 How to use radar to monitor the performance of GNSS, heading sensor alignment and identify gyro error

3.8 Radar to radar interference

Can:

3.8 Adjust the sea clutter and rain clutter controls to suit prevailing conditions

3.9 Identify whether a radar is in head-up or north-up mode

3.10 Interpret radar screen images to identify errors and possible rectification

4. Radar Reflectors

Knowledge of:

4.1 How radar cross section is measured

4.2 Types of passive reflector in common use (octahedral, stacked, array, lens)

4.3 Types of active reflector in common use and the requirement to also carry a passive reflector

4.4 Types of AtoN and SAR in use (RTE, Racon, SART)

Understands:

4.5 The limitations of passive radar reflectors

Can:

4.6 Recognise a SART on the radar screen and respond accordingly

4.7 Identify a RACON buoy as an aid to navigation

5. Monitoring position by radar

Knowledge of:

5.1 The principles of a three point fix

5.2 Selecting discernible landmarks for a three point fix

Understands:

5.3 How to take and plot a position fix using the EBL

5.4 Limitations of the EBL for position fixing

5.5 How to combine EBL, VRM and other techniques to position fix

Can:

5.6 Plot the vessel’s position on a chart by using the VRM

6. Pilotage by Radar

Knowledge of:

6.1 “Eyeball” pilotage by radar

6.2 The limitations of “eyeball” pilotage

Understands:

6.3 The principle of parallel indexing (PI)

6.4 The principle and limitations of using VRMs in lieu of PIs

Can:

6.5 Prepare and execute a simple pilotage plan using clearing ranges, back bearings and parallel indexing

7. Collision avoidance

Knowledge of:

7.1 The principles of relative motion and Radar plotting

7.2 The existence and use of automatic radar plotting aids including possible errors in calculation and interpretation

7.3 The use of relative and true vectors and trails

Understands:

7.4 The implications of IRPCS rules 5 (look-out), 6 (safe-speed), 7 (risk of collision) and 19 (restricted visibility)

7.5 The practical limitations of small craft radar

7.6 The use of AIS as an aid to situational awareness and the limitations of AIS in determining the risk of collision

Can:

7.7 Assess the risk of collision with another vessel

7.8 Assess the closest point of approach of another vessel, the time to CPA and determine whether it will pass ahead or astern

7.9 Assess the course and speed of another vessel

7.10 Take appropriate action to avoid a collision