Passing the ICC Practical Assessment

Prerequisites

• You have read the first lesson of this course and know what the ICC is, what the I, C, M and S categories mean, and that an assessment is one of the routes to the card.
• You can already handle the type of boat you will be assessed on. The assessment tests; it does not teach. The standard is broadly that of RYA Day Skipper Practical for sail and RYA Powerboat Level 2 for power.
• You know the basics of the COLREGs (Rules 5 to 19, lights, shapes and sound signals), IALA Region A buoyage, simple chartwork and tidal heights, all covered in the Day Skipper lessons of this app.
• You are at least 16 years old.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Describe how an ICC assessment day runs, from booking to signing the form.
• Prepare the boat, the paperwork and the insurance a test centre will expect.
• Work through the typical practical tasks for a sail assessment and a power assessment, and know what the examiner is looking for in each.
• Answer the common oral and written theory questions: collision regulations, lights, shapes, sound signals, buoyage, chartwork, tides, weather and safety.
• Rate your own readiness honestly with a simple self-assessment scale, and fix the gaps before the day.

How the Assessment Works

Who runs it

ICC assessments are run by recognised test centres: sailing schools and yacht clubs with RYA recognition. A centre can only assess the disciplines it is recognised for, so a powerboat school cannot assess you under sail. The examiner fills in the official ICC application form, which contains the list of tasks and questions. Use the current version of the form: the RYA has warned that outdated forms may be rejected.

Assessment, not tuition

The examiner watches you skipper. They will not teach you how to come alongside; if you cannot do it safely, you will be told what to practise and invited back. Some centres offer a refresher session before the assessment for a separate fee. If you are not sure you are ready, book that or a full course instead.

Time and people

A club guide for a typical sail assessment suggests about four hours for one candidate, and up to a full day for three candidates sharing a boat. Have at least one competent crew member besides yourself (two is better), because the examiner is assessing you as skipper, not acting as your crew. You give instructions; your crew carries them out; the examiner watches the quality of your decisions and communication.

Your own boat or theirs

Many candidates are assessed on their own boat, which is fine as long as the boat suits the category (a motor cruiser for motor, a sailing yacht for sail) and the length limits. If you use your own boat, expect the centre to ask for:

• Third-party insurance with an adequate limit. One club specifies at least two million pounds and asks to see the certificate on the day.
• Coastal safety equipment in good order: lifejackets for everyone, a liferaft or suitable alternative for the area, flares in date, fire extinguishers and fire blanket, first aid kit, bilge pump, horseshoe buoy and danbuoy or equivalent, anchor with suitable cable, VHF radio, navigation lights, kill cord on a planing powerboat. The safety section of Reeds Nautical Almanac lists recommended equipment for coastal yachts.
• A seaworthy, well-maintained boat: engine serviced, sails and rigging sound, gas system safe.

Paperwork to bring

• The completed ICC application form, with the sections you fill in done in advance.
• A passport-style photograph and your passport details (the RYA form asks for them).
• Proof of insurance if using your own boat.
• Your RYA membership number if you have one.
• Charts of the area, a pilot book or almanac, and plotting instruments (Portland-style plotter or parallel rules, dividers, pencil, rubber).

The Day, Step by Step

1. Meet and brief. The examiner checks documents and explains the plan. Tell them honestly about the boat's quirks, for example strong prop walk to port.
2. Boat and engine checks. You run your normal pre-departure checks: engine (oil, coolant, raw water strainer, belt, fuel), bilges, gas, lights, VHF, safety kit. Talk the examiner through them as you go.
3. Safety brief. You brief crew and examiner: lifejackets and when to wear them, MOB equipment, liferaft, flares, fire extinguishers and fuel or gas shut-offs, VHF and how to send a distress call, first aid kit, heads, seasickness and moving about the boat. This is a core assessed item, so practise it aloud.
4. Passage plan. Expect to explain a short plan for the day: weather forecast and how you got it, tidal heights and streams, hazards, a bolt-hole.
5. Practical tasks. Leaving the berth, then a series of manoeuvres and exercises (see the checklists below).
6. Theory. Oral questions are often asked between manoeuvres; some centres add a written paper.
7. Debrief. The examiner tells you the result and signs the form, or explains what you must improve.

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Practical Checklist: Power

The power assessment draws on RYA Powerboat Level 2 content for small craft and on motor-cruising content for larger boats. A typical list:

Prop walk and the turn in a confined space

On a single right-handed propeller (one that turns clockwise seen from astern when going ahead), going astern walks the stern to port. You can use this: to turn short round to starboard, give a burst ahead with the wheel to starboard, then a burst astern (the stern kicks to port, which keeps the turn going), and repeat. For the same reason, if you can choose, come alongside port side to: the burst astern to stop also tucks the stern in towards the pontoon. Find out which way your boat walks before the day by putting it astern in clear water and watching the stern.

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The MOB on a powerboat

The examiner throws a fender and shouts "man overboard". You:

1. Shout and point, and appoint a pointer who never takes their eyes off the casualty.
2. Throw flotation, and press MOB on the plotter.
3. Turn back, keeping the casualty in sight. On a planing boat a tight turn towards the side the casualty fell from brings you back fast.
4. Approach slowly, normally into the wind or stream so you can stop, and put the engine in neutral well before the casualty is near the propeller.
5. Recover alongside, usually on the windward side so the boat does not drift onto them, or as the boat's layout requires.

You will be expected to explain how you would actually lift a person out and when you would send a MAYDAY.

Practical Checklist: Sail

The sail assessment sits at about RYA Day Skipper Practical level. Typical items, collected from centre descriptions and the Day Skipper syllabus:

Under sail, the MOB return

Courses teach several methods. A common one is the reach-tack-reach: sail away on a beam reach for a few boat lengths, tack, and return on a broad reach, then come up to a close reach for the final approach so you can spill wind and stop with the casualty on the windward side of the bow. Many modern skippers simply start the engine (after checking no lines are in the water) and motor back. The examiner wants to see a method that works for that boat in those conditions, a constant lookout on the casualty, and a controlled, slow final approach.

Theory: Oral and Written Questions

Expect questions throughout the day. The topics follow the Resolution 40 syllabus. Below are typical questions with model answers.

Collision regulations

• A power-driven vessel sees a sailing vessel on a collision course. Who gives way? Generally the power-driven vessel (Rule 18), unless the sailing vessel is overtaking (Rule 13) or the power vessel is restricted or constrained in a way the rules recognise.
• Two power-driven vessels meet head-on. What does each do? Each alters course to starboard so they pass port to port (Rule 14).
• Two sailing vessels on opposite tacks. Who gives way? The one with the wind on its port side (Rule 12).
• How do you decide whether risk of collision exists? Take a series of compass bearings; if the bearing does not appreciably change and the range is closing, risk exists (Rule 7).
• What must give-way action be like? Early, substantial, and readily apparent to the other vessel (Rules 8 and 16).

Sound signals (COLREGs, vessels in sight)

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In restricted visibility, a power-driven vessel making way sounds one prolonged blast at intervals of not more than two minutes; a sailing vessel sounds one prolonged followed by two short (Rule 35).

Lights and shapes

• Sidelights: red to port, green to starboard, each showing over 112.5 degrees. Sternlight: white, 135 degrees. Masthead light: white, 225 degrees, forward.
• A sailing vessel under way shows sidelights and sternlight only (under 20 m these may be combined in a tricolour at the masthead). Under engine it is a power-driven vessel and shows a masthead light.
• At anchor: one all-round white light; by day one black ball.
• A sailing yacht motor-sailing by day shows a cone, point down.

Buoyage (IALA Region A)

• Port lateral marks red (can shape), starboard green (conical), with the direction of buoyage normally towards the harbour.
• Cardinal marks by topmarks: north both cones up, south both cones down, east cones base to base, west cones point to point. You pass on the named side of a cardinal.
• Isolated danger: black with red bands, two black balls. Safe water: red and white vertical stripes, one red ball. Special mark: yellow, yellow X topmark.
• Remember that the Americas, Japan, Korea and the Philippines use Region B, where lateral colours are reversed.

Chartwork, tides and weather

Expect a short practical task: plot a position from a GPS readout or two bearings, work out a course to steer allowing for a tidal stream, read a chart symbol, or calculate the height of tide at a given time using a tide table and the rule of twelfths (the tide rises roughly 1, 2, 3, 3, 2 and 1 twelfths of its range in each of the six hours). You may be asked where you got today's forecast and what the Beaufort force and sea state mean for your plan.

Safety

• How to send a MAYDAY by voice and by DSC, and when to use PAN PAN instead.
• Which fire extinguisher to use on a galley fat fire (fire blanket, not water).
• How to deal with a leak: find it, stop it with softwood bungs or improvised material, pump, call for help if needed.
• What to do if the engine fails near a lee shore: anchor, sail, call for help.

Self-Assessment Scale

A useful pre-course worksheet asks you to rate each skill on a four-step scale. Be honest; the examiner will be.

Rate yourself on: leaving and coming alongside both sides; turning in your own length; prop walk; picking up a mooring; anchoring; MOB under power and sail; bowline, clove hitch and cleating; the safety brief; a VHF distress call; buoyage; chart symbols; COLREGs; using a tide table; and, if you want inland, CEVNI signs, sound signals and lights. Anything below "confident alone" is your training plan.

Worked Example

Mark's power assessment

Mark has a 7 m RIB-style sportsboat and wants a coastal motor ICC. He has never done a course.

Preparation. He self-assesses: confident at higher speed, "done with help" for coming alongside port side to, and "never done" for anchoring. He books a two-hour refresher before the test and practises anchoring three times with a friend. He checks his insurance certificate shows adequate third-party cover, replaces out-of-date flares, buys a spare kill cord and fills in the application form.

The day. He briefs the examiner and his crew, Jen, on lifejackets, kill cord, flares, extinguisher, VHF, and what to do if he goes overboard. He leaves the pontoon by springing off the stern, as the wind is pinning him on. In the turning exercise he notices his outdrive walks to port astern and uses it. The MOB goes well: he turns tightly back, approaches into the wind, goes to neutral three boat lengths off and recovers the fender alongside. Anchoring: depth 5 m, high water still to come, so he plans for 7 m at high water; with chain and rope he lets out about five times that, around 35 m, and checks it holds with a transit.

Theory. Asked what one short blast means, he says "altering to starboard". Asked how he would pass a south cardinal, he says "keep to the south of it". He correctly calculates a height of tide with the rule of twelfths. Result: pass. The examiner notes that he should practise berthing starboard side to as well.

Lucy's sail assessment

Lucy sails her own 9 m yacht. She gives a clear safety brief, hoists the main head to wind clear of moored boats, and sails a triangular course. On the windward leg she pinches; the examiner asks her to explain sail trim and she does, then sails a better course. Her MOB under sail uses reach-tack-reach and stops with the fender on the windward bow. She passes, with advice to reef earlier as the wind gets up.

Common Mistakes

• Booking before you are ready. The examiner cannot pass someone who has never anchored. Use the self-assessment scale first.
• Skimping the safety brief. It is assessed. Cover lifejackets, MOB kit, fire, liferaft, flares, VHF, gas and fuel shut-offs.
• Acting as crew instead of skipper. Give clear instructions and let your crew do the work. Silence and doing everything yourself both count against you.
• Approaching too fast. In every manoeuvre, slow is safe. Speed can be added; it cannot easily be taken away.
• Forgetting neutral near a person in the water. A turning propeller is the biggest danger in a MOB.
• Not knowing your boat's prop walk. Find out beforehand.
• Outdated form or missing photograph. Check the RYA website for the current form.
• Missing or out-of-date safety kit on your own boat. The centre can refuse to run the test.

Summary

• ICC assessments are run by recognised test centres, only in disciplines they are recognised for, using the current official form.
• It is a test, not a course. Standard: about Day Skipper Practical (sail) or Powerboat Level 2 (power).
• Allow about four hours per candidate. Bring crew, charts, plotting instruments, photo, passport details and insurance proof.
• The day: documents, boat checks, safety brief, passage plan, practical tasks, theory, debrief.
• Core practical tasks: berthing, confined-space turns, moorings, anchoring, MOB, ropework, plus sail handling for sail.
• Know COLREGs Rules 5 to 19, lights, shapes, sound signals, IALA A buoyage, basic chartwork, tides and safety procedures.
• Use the four-step self-assessment scale to find and fix gaps before the day.

Check Your Understanding

1. Can a powerboat school assess you for the sail category?

Answer: No. A test centre can only assess disciplines it holds recognition for.

1. Name four things you should bring to an assessment on your own boat.

Answer: Any four of: the current application form, a passport-style photo, passport details, proof of third-party insurance, charts, plotting instruments, an almanac or pilot book, and suitable crew.

1. On a single right-handed propeller, which way does the stern walk when going astern?

Answer: To port.

1. Why should you put the engine in neutral well before reaching a person in the water?

Answer: To avoid injuring them with the propeller, which is the main hazard during a powered recovery.

1. What does three short blasts mean under the COLREGs?

Answer: I am operating astern propulsion.

1. Two power-driven vessels meet head-on. What should each do?

Answer: Each alters course to starboard so they pass port to port (Rule 14).

1. What topmarks does an east cardinal show, and on which side do you pass it?

Answer: Two black cones, base to base. Pass to the east of it.

1. What should a skipper's safety brief cover?

Answer: Lifejackets, MOB equipment and procedure, liferaft, flares, fire extinguishers and blanket, gas and fuel shut-offs, VHF and distress calls, first aid kit, heads, seasickness and moving about safely.

1. You rate yourself "done with help" for anchoring. What should you do?

Answer: Practise anchoring as skipper several times, or book a refresher, until you are confident alone before the assessment.