How to prepare for the ISSA Coastal Skipper exam in 30 days

What the exam tests

ISSA Coastal Skipper is an international certificate that allows commanding a sailing yacht in the coastal zone up to 20 nautical miles from shore, by day and night, in conditions up to Force 6 on the Beaufort scale. The theory exam lasts 2–3 hours and includes about 60–80 questions: test items, chart plotting, COLREGs interpretation, and tasks on meteorology and safety. The pass mark in most schools is 75%.

30 days is enough to prepare from scratch if you are systematic and spend 1.5–2 hours a day on the material. Below is a plan based on the ISSA programme structure and the experience of our users who passed on the first try.

Days 1–7: navigation basics and yacht rig

The first week is the foundation everything else rests on. Without confident understanding of the terminology and navigation basics, you will be lost in the more complex topics.

Days 1–2. Sailing-yacht rig: hull, keel (fin, ballast, lifting), steering, standing rigging (shrouds, stays, spreaders) and running rigging (halyards, sheets, vangs). Sails: mainsail, jib, gennaker, spinnaker. Points of sail: in irons, close-hauled, beam reach, broad reach, run.

Days 3–4. Nautical charts: Mercator projection, scales (1:50,000–1:500,000), depth and IALA aids-to-navigation symbols. Working with a parallel rule and protractor. Coordinate systems: latitude, longitude, decimal minutes.

Days 5–7. Dead reckoning: true course, magnetic course, compass course. Accounting for magnetic variation and deviation. Formula: true = compass + deviation + variation. Plotting a track from speed and time.

Workload: 1.5 hours per day. Solve at least 5 plotting tasks every day — theory without practice does not stick.

Days 8–14: COLREGs and safety

Week two is the densest. COLREGs (Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea) is 38 rules that should not be memorised but understood logically.

Days 8–9. COLREGs Parts A and B: general provisions, rules 5–7 (look-out, safe speed, risk-of-collision assessment). Rule 8 (action to avoid collision). Rule 9 (narrow channels). Rule 10 (Traffic Separation Schemes — TSS).

Days 10–11. Sailing-vessel give-way — rule 12. Three key cases: different tacks (port gives way), same tack (windward gives way), doubt (the boat that sees the other to windward gives way).

Day 12. Power-driven vessels — rules 13–15: overtaking, head-on, crossing courses. Rule 18 — hierarchy of responsibility (sailing gives way to the special categories: vessels restricted in their ability to manoeuvre, not under command, fishing, etc.).

Day 13. Lights and shapes (Part C, rules 20–31). Learn lights for: a power-driven vessel under 50 m, a vessel under sail, a vessel under sail and motor, at anchor, fishing vessels, towing. Sound signals (Part D) — short/prolonged, fog signals.

Day 14. Safety: man overboard (MOB) — three recovery methods (Quick Stop, Figure-8, Williamson Turn). Distress signals, use of flares, EPIRB, VHF (channel 16), parachute flares. Lifejackets, life raft, safety lines.

Days 15–21: meteorology, tides, manoeuvring

Days 15–17. Meteorology. The Beaufort scale: visual wind cues from the sea state (from 0 — mirror, to 12 — hurricane). Synoptic charts: isobars, lows (L), highs (H), fronts (warm, cold, occluded). Buys-Ballot’s law: stand with your back to the wind — the centre of low pressure is on your left. Local winds: breezes (sea breeze by day, land breeze at night), katabatic winds.

Days 18–19. Tides and currents. Diurnal and semi-diurnal tides, springs and neaps, tide tables, the rule of twelfths (to compute tide height at any moment). Tidal currents, accounting for set in course plotting (vector triangle).

Days 20–21. Sail and motor manoeuvring: tacking and gybing, anchoring (site choice, scope 3–5× depth in calm weather, 5–7× in wind), approaching a berth with wind and current in mind, alongside and stern-to mooring.

Days 22–28: mock exams and weak spots

Week four is the check. Don’t learn anything new — work with what is already in your head.

Days 22, 24, 26, 28. Full mock exams in school format. Solve in the allotted time, no hints. After each — debrief: not just “memorise the right answer” but go back to the source and understand why you were wrong.

Days 23, 25, 27. Work on weak spots. By our statistics, the top-3 problem topics are vessel lights, tide calculations, and rules 15–18 of COLREGs in combined situations.

Days 29–30: final review and rest

Day 29. Light review: flip flashcards with terms, COLREGs quotes, the Beaufort scale. Take one more mock at a relaxed pace. Don’t start new topics.

Day 30. Full rest. Check what you take to the exam: passport, pencil, eraser, calculator (if allowed), protractor, parallel rule. Go to bed early.

Main tip: at the exam itself, first answer all the easy questions, then come back to the hard ones. Don’t spend more than 2 minutes on a single question — it eats time and induces panic.