Watch Systems and Leadership Explained

Prerequisites

You should have:

Day Skipper experience, including skippering short passages and briefing a crew on safety.
Sea time towards the Yachtmaster Coastal minimum: 800 miles (400 with the Coastal Skipper practical course certificate), 30 days at sea, 2 days as skipper and 12 night hours, including passages of over 60 nm.
Completed the Coastal Passage Planning lesson (night passages and planning documentation).

The Yachtmaster Coastal practical exam assesses you as a skipper, not just a sailor. The examiner watches how you brief, delegate, monitor and look after the crew throughout a passage that typically includes night sailing. The RYA syllabus explicitly covers organisation of the crew, watch-keeping and skipper responsibilities.

Learning Objectives

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

Choose and design a watch system for the crew size and passage length (syllabus: crew management, watch-keeping).
Use dog watches to rotate a schedule.
Run effective pre-passage and pre-watch briefings and debriefs.
Conduct a safe watch handover.
Recognise and manage fatigue, including enforcing rest.
Distribute workload fairly and safely.
Adapt leadership style to the situation and resolve conflict.
Write standing orders and night orders, and set clear rules for when the watch calls the skipper.
Plan crew welfare (food, hydration, warmth, sleep) around the watch system.
Describe how the examiner assesses crew management during the Yachtmaster Coastal practical exam.

These map to the RYA Yachtmaster Coastal syllabus topics of crew management (organisation of the crew, delegation, briefings, motivation and conflict), watchkeeping (watch systems, handover, lookout) and skipper responsibilities (safety, rest, decision making), as set out in the RYA research for the course. The fatigue science that sits behind this lesson is taken further in the Offshore lesson on Watch and Fatigue Management, and extended crew management for ocean passages follows in the Yachtmaster Ocean material.

Exam-style tip: you are not tested on this topic as a separate question. The examiner assesses it continuously. Expect to be asked "how would you organise the watches if you were taking this boat overnight to Cherbourg with a crew of four?" and "what would you do if one of your crew was too tired or seasick to stand a watch?". Answer with a system, a reason, and a contingency.

The Skipper's Responsibility

Legally and practically, the skipper is responsible for the safety of the vessel and everyone aboard. SOLAS Chapter V applies to pleasure craft: passage planning, keeping a proper lookout and assisting others in distress. A skipper cannot do everything personally on a passage of more than a few hours; the crew must be organised so that the boat is safely sailed and navigated around the clock, with everyone (including the skipper) rested enough to make good decisions.

Watch Systems

A watch system defines who is on deck responsible for the boat at any time, and guarantees everyone else protected rest. On a coastal passage under 12 hours you may be able to work informally, but once a passage involves a night at sea a formal system is essential.

Principles

There is always someone on watch, awake and on deck (or at the chart table with frequent lookouts).
At night, at least two people on deck is preferable, especially between 0200 and 0500.
Each watch has a nominated watch leader who knows when to call the skipper.
The skipper may stand outside the system, available at any time, but must still get rest.
Off-watch crew must be allowed undisturbed sleep.

Two crew: 4 on, 4 off

Two-crew watch schedule: four on, four off

With only two aboard, each person alternates four hours on and four off. The real sleep obtained is much less than four hours (time to undress, eat and fall asleep), so it is fatiguing. It is workable for one or two nights; beyond about 48 hours fatigue builds fast. Shorter watches (3 on, 3 off, or 2 on, 2 off at night) may suit some crews better. Use the autopilot or windvane to reduce workload; the person on watch must still maintain a proper lookout, with a full horizon scan at least every 10 to 15 minutes (a ship at 20 knots covers the visible horizon distance in about 20 minutes).

Four crew: port and starboard watches

Port and starboard four-on four-off rotation

With four crew, two watches of two (traditionally "port" and "starboard") alternate four hours on and four off. Two people together are safer on deck and can reef, keep each other awake and handle a sail change. The weakness of a fixed 4 on, 4 off is that the same watch always gets the same hours, including the miserable 0000-0400.

Dog watches

Dog watches: splitting the evening watch to rotate the schedule

Splitting the 1600-2000 watch into two two-hour "dog watches" (1600-1800 first dog, 1800-2000 second dog) creates seven watches in 24 hours instead of six. Because seven is odd, the watches rotate each day: whoever had 0000-0400 last night has 2000-0000 tonight. The dog watches also let both watches eat an evening meal at a reasonable time.

Worked four-crew schedule with dog watches

In the example above, port watch (A and B) stands 0000-0400, 0800-1200, 1600-1800 and 2000-0000; starboard (C and D) stands 0400-0800, 1200-1600 and 1800-2000, then takes 0000-0400 on the following night as the cycle shifts. Next day the pattern swaps.

Three-watch systems

With six or more crew (or five plus a skipper), a three-watch system gives each person much more rest.

Three-watch system: on watch, standby and rest

In one common form, each watch spends three hours on watch, then three on standby (available to help with sail changes but able to rest, perhaps in the saloon), then three off. Another form is three hours on and six hours off.

Three-watch system: three hours on, six hours off

Despite the "3-on/3-off" title in the diagrams, the key point in both is that each watch is on deck for three hours in every nine and gets six hours away from the helm, which is sustainable indefinitely.

Three-watch schedule for larger crews with skipper floating

Because a 24-hour day divides into eight three-hour watches, a three-watch system rotates naturally (eight is not a multiple of three), so dog watches are less essential than with two watches. The skipper usually stays out of the rota, floating between watches, available for decisions and monitoring fatigue.

Mother watch (three crew)

On a crew of three, a common pattern is the mother watch: one person stays off the sailing rota for a spell, running the galley and housekeeping, while the other two alternate watches. The mother watch cooks, makes hot drinks, tidies, and is available to help with sail changes. The role is rotated each day so that no one has the cooking duty all the time, and the person who cooks has a quieter time for rest.

An alternative is for each of three crew to stand a watch alone for three hours then sleep for six. This is simple but leaves a sole watchkeeper on deck with no one to help in an emergency, so it needs strict calling rules, a harness and jackstay, and a good autopilot. In busy shipping lanes or poor visibility, wake a second person.

Choosing a system

Crew	Suitable system	Notes
2	4 on/4 off or 3 on/3 off	Fatiguing; short passages; autopilot essential
3	Each on alone for 3 hours, 6 off; or skipper floats with two crew alternating	Solo night watches need clear calling rules
4	Port and starboard, 4 on/4 off with dog watches	Two on deck at all times
5 to 6	Three watches of two, or two watches plus floating skipper	Very sustainable

Adapt the system to the passage: shorter watches at night or in cold, wet conditions (2 or 3 hours), longer in daylight. Pair experienced with less experienced crew.

Worked example: building a rota for three crew

Three crew (Alex as skipper, Bea and Cal) sail a 34-foot yacht across the Channel from Brighton to Fecamp, about 80 nm, planning to leave at 1500 and arrive at about 0700 the next morning (16 hours; at 5 knots this is an 80 nm passage).

Constraints. Only one of the crew has night experience (Bea). Nobody has done a long night before. The skipper wants two people on deck when crossing the traffic separation scheme (around midnight to 0200).
System. The skipper floats, and Bea and Cal stand three-hour watches with the skipper acting as the second person during the TSS. This gives everyone about two blocks of rest.
First draft. 1500 to 1800 Alex and Cal (Cal is learning); 1800 to 2100 Bea; 2100 to 0000 Cal with Alex; 0000 to 0300 Bea with Alex for the TSS crossing; 0300 to 0600 Cal with Bea; 0600 to 0700 all hands for landfall.
Rest check. In this draft Alex is on deck 1500 to 1800, 2100 to 0300 and 0600 to 0700, and sleeps only in short blocks of three hours at most, arriving tired for the landfall. Revise it: Alex sleeps 1800 to 2200 (a protected four hours), Bea and Cal stand 1800 to 2200 together, Alex is on deck from 2200 to 0200 to support the crossing, and then sleeps 0200 to 0600 while Bea and Cal handle 0200 to 0600 once clear of the traffic scheme, with calling rules. Alex is fresh at 0600 for the landfall.
Lesson. Always check the skipper's own rest when you draw up a rota. If the arithmetic does not work for three people, shorten the passage, add a crew member, or stop for a night.

Briefings

Clear communication is the single most effective safety tool. Skippers who brief well rarely have to shout.

Briefing protocol structure: pre-passage, pre-watch and debrief

Pre-passage briefing

Before leaving harbour, cover:

The route, waypoints, tidal gates, timings and expected arrival.
The weather forecast, how certain it is, and how it might change.
Hazards on the route and the contingency plans.
Watch system, roles and meals.
Safety: lifejackets and harness rules (for example, always at night and when reefed), location and use of safety equipment, MOB procedure, fire, gas, flooding, VHF and DSC use, liferaft and grab bag.
Seasickness and how to report feeling unwell.

Crew briefing structure and confirming understanding

Check understanding: ask crew to point out the liferaft release and the danbuoy, or to describe the MOB procedure in their own words. A briefing nobody absorbed is worthless.

Standing orders and night orders

Alongside the briefing, a skipper writes standing orders for the passage and night orders each evening. They remove doubt about when to call.

Typical call criteria that the skipper can write on a card at the chart table:

Any vessel on a steady bearing and closing, or any vessel closer than a set distance (commonly 1 to 2 nm, or a CPA below 1 nm).
Wind speed above a stated limit (for example 25 knots), a wind shift of more than 30 degrees, or a fall in the barometer of more than 2 hPa in an hour.
Visibility under 2 nm, or the first sign of fog.
Any doubt about position, or a light or buoy not seen when expected.
Any equipment failure, unusual noise, or smell of burning or gas.
Anyone seasick, injured, or too tired.
Whenever the watch leader feels uneasy.

Each watch leader reads and signs the orders. The skipper explains that being called is always welcome. A watch leader who hesitates for fear of waking the skipper is the biggest danger on board.

Pre-watch briefing

Five to ten minutes before each watch: current situation, what is expected in the coming hours (lights, traffic, tidal turns, weather), specific tasks, when to call the skipper, and any abort criteria.

Debriefing

After a passage, or a difficult event, discuss what went well, what did not and what to change. Keep it blame-free and focused on systems, not individuals. Record lessons learned.

Watch Handover

Many incidents happen just after a change of watch, when the new watch has not yet built a picture and the old one has mentally gone off duty.

The outgoing watch:

Writes up the log: time, position, course, speed, log reading, barometer, wind, sea state, sail plan, engine hours.
Gives a verbal handover: position and course, weather trend, traffic around (with any ship being watched), lights expected, sail plan, any equipment problems, crew concerns, next waypoint and tidal gate.
Stays on deck until the incoming watch formally accepts.

The incoming watch:

Gets dressed and on deck early enough to let their eyes adjust to the dark (up to 20 minutes for full night vision).
Listens, asks questions and reviews the log.
Checks the instruments, compass course and the traffic match what they were told.
Says clearly "I have the watch."

Never hand over in the middle of a collision avoidance manoeuvre or a sail change: finish it first.

Fatigue

Fatigue is the hidden hazard on passage. It degrades judgement long before the sufferer notices.

Signs include yawning, microsleeps, slowed reactions, poor or no decisions, fixation on one task, confusion over simple calculations, irritability and mood swings. Seasickness, cold, dehydration and hunger all magnify fatigue.

The circadian low between 0200 and 0500 is the most dangerous period: plan to avoid complex pilotage or harbour entry then, double the watch, and make sure the watch leader keeps everyone active (regular plotting, hot drinks, conversation).

Enforcing rest

Rest enforcement and accumulating sleep debt

Sleep debt accumulates over a passage and cannot be paid off quickly. It is the skipper's job to enforce rest: off-watch crew go below and sleep, rather than staying on deck to enjoy the view; no one extends their watch to be helpful; and noise below is kept down.

Rest period enforcement rules and recovery naps

Short naps help. Twenty minutes refreshes without grogginess; ninety minutes gives a full sleep cycle. The skipper must apply the same discipline to themselves: an exhausted skipper is the single biggest danger aboard. Get rest before an expected busy period, such as the landfall or a night harbour entry. Create a culture in which crew can say "I'm too tired" without stigma.

Crew Welfare: Food, Water, Warmth and Sleep

Crew welfare is part of the skipper's duty of care, and it is also a safety measure. A well fed, warm, hydrated crew is alert; a cold, hungry, thirsty one is slow, irritable and prone to errors.

Meals. Plan meals around the watch system, not against it. A hot meal before the first night watch and a hot meal at the end of the night are good morale and safety measures. Prepare food before departure where possible, in case the weather turns rough. Keep snacks and hot drinks easily available for night watches.
Hydration. Aim for around 2 to 3 litres per person a day, more in hot weather. A pale urine colour is a simple check. Seasick crew need small, frequent sips and, if vomiting persists, oral rehydration salts.
Warmth. Check that every crew member has adequate warm and waterproof clothing for night watches: layered clothing, hat, gloves, and dry boots. A cold, wet crew member who says nothing becomes a hypothermia and fatigue risk.
Sleep. Berths should be dark, ventilated and quiet. The skipper enforces quiet below and avoids white light. Crew who cannot sleep because of noise, a leaking hatch or a wet berth need the problem fixed.
Seasickness. Ask early on how crew have fared on previous passages, suggest tablets or patches the night before, and keep seasick crew warm and drinking. If someone cannot stand a watch, adjust the rota rather than push them.
Morale. Say thank you, give praise when it is earned, share the interesting jobs (navigation, helming) fairly, and mark milestones such as a first landfall or the end of the night.

Workload Distribution

Match tasks to people's skills, experience, fitness and current state. Rotate demanding jobs such as helming in heavy weather (every 30 to 60 minutes) and galley duty. Cross-train so that at least one other person can navigate, operate the radio and recover a MOB: the skipper could be the casualty. Give less experienced crew real responsibilities under supervision; it builds competence and engagement.

Leadership Styles

No single style suits every situation. Good skippers shift between them.

Style	How	When
Directive	Clear, brief orders; little discussion	Emergencies, MOB, close-quarters, inexperienced crew
Consultative	Ask for views, then decide	Passage planning, go/no-go decisions, experienced crew
Delegative	Hand a task with authority to a competent crew	Routine tasks, watch leaders, building confidence

Adaptive leadership: authority from competence and trust

Authority on a yacht comes from competence and trust, not just the title. Explain your reasoning when there is time, so that when there is no time, crew follow without question. Use names and clear, closed-loop communication: "Tom, ease the mainsheet." "Easing the mainsheet." The examiner looks for a skipper who is calm, decisive, involves the crew and stays in overall control.

Decision Making and Command

A skipper's most important decisions are made before leaving harbour: go or no-go, route, timing, and who is aboard. Good decisions come from a clear process.

Gather information: forecast, tides, boat condition, crew condition.
Identify the options: go now, wait, go to a different destination, go with a modified plan.
Ask the crew (consultative) if they have information or concerns, especially if experienced.
Decide, state the decision, and give the reasons.
Set a review point and the criteria for changing the plan ("if the wind is above 25 knots by 1800 we will divert to Weymouth").
Keep reviewing as conditions change. Do not let pressure from the schedule, or from the crew, override your judgement. Changing your mind is not weakness.

Remember that the skipper makes the decision and is responsible for it. A skipper who says "what does everyone want to do?" in an emergency is failing in leadership.

A useful safety attitude is to ask: "What is the worst thing that could happen, and what is my plan if it does?". Examiners are impressed by skippers who think ahead, and by those who tell the crew in advance what they will do if things go wrong.

Delegation and training the crew

A skipper cannot do everything and should not try. Delegate with three clear elements: the task, the authority and the standard, and then check that it has been done. Examples: asking a competent crew member to prepare the anchor and report when ready, asking a watch leader to plot the position every hour, or asking one crew to manage the sails during a reef.

Brief the less experienced crew on the specific tasks you expect of them: how to use the radio, how to take a bearing, how to start the engine, how to recover a person overboard. Give them chances to do it and give honest feedback. A trained crew makes the skipper's job easier and the boat safer.

Conflict Resolution

Small spaces, fatigue and seasickness make friction inevitable on longer passages.

Address it early, before it festers.
Listen to each person separately to understand their view.
Focus on behaviour, not personality: "When the log wasn't filled in at 0400, the next watch didn't know our position," not "You're lazy."
Find common ground: safety, a good passage, getting home.
Resolve and move on. The skipper retains final authority; record serious incidents and review after the passage.

Worked Example: Overnight Passage with Five

You are skipper of a 38 ft yacht with four crew (two experienced, two novices) on an 80 nm overnight coastal passage, departing 1400 and arriving around 0800.

Design. Two watches of two, pairing an experienced watch leader with each novice. You stay outside the rota. Watches: 1400-1800, 1800-2100, 2100-0000, 0000-0300, 0300-0600, 0600-0800. Night watches are three hours to reduce fatigue. You plan to sleep 2100-0000 and again 0300-0530 so you are fresh for the 0600 landfall.
Pre-passage brief at 1300: route, a tidal gate at 2200 off the headland, forecast SW 4, risk of fog patches after midnight, harnesses on after dark and whenever outside the cockpit, MOB drill walked through.
Calling rules for watch leaders: call the skipper for any vessel with a CPA under 1 nm, any change of more than 5 knots in wind or a barometer fall of 2 hPa in an hour, reduced visibility, any equipment problem, or simply if in doubt.
0200. The novice on watch is quiet and slow to respond; the watch leader reports it. You check: cold and seasick. You send them below to their bunk and stand the rest of the watch yourself, then adjust the next rota.
Debrief in harbour: what worked (the calling rules), what did not (seasickness management), lessons for the next passage (earlier tablets, warmer clothing).

Worked Example: Handling a Conflict

On day three of a four-day trip, Jo (an experienced sailor) is complaining that Max (a novice) is slow and "a passenger". Max has been sullen and has stopped eating with the group. The next night watch has Jo and Max together.

Notice and act early. At breakfast you see the tension and decide to speak to each person alone before the next watch.
Listen. Jo says Max did not call about a fishing boat. Max says Jo shouted at him and now he is afraid to call. You listen without taking sides.
Focus on behaviour. To Jo: "When you raise your voice at someone who is learning, they stop reporting. That is a safety risk." To Max: "Report everything, even if you are unsure. I would rather be called ten times than miss one."
Agree actions. Jo will brief Max at the start of the watch on what to report; Max will use the standing orders card; you will pair Max with a more patient watch leader for the next watch.
Follow up. You check in with each after the watch and note it for the debrief.

The skipper keeps responsibility for safety. If safety were at risk and the conflict could not be solved, you would separate the two on different watches, or divert to harbour.

Leadership Theory and Practice

Situational leadership

A skipper who is always directive will exhaust a competent crew, and one who is always consultative will lose control when a crisis demands a fast decision. Situational leadership matches style to the crew member and the task. With a novice on a new task, give clear instructions and check. With a competent but inexperienced crew member, explain the reasons and coach. With an experienced hand, delegate the task and the authority and check only on results. Experienced crew can be pushed up the scale by the skipper: when a crew member has done a task well three times, hand it over completely.

Authority gradient and speaking up

A steep authority gradient, where the skipper is feared or assumed to be infallible, silences crew who see a problem. A flat gradient, where no one is in charge, causes dithering. The right balance is a clear command with an explicit invitation: "If you see anything that worries you, tell me at once, even if you think I know." Crew should use a structured challenge when they see an error: state the concern, state the evidence, propose a solution and ask for agreement. Example: "Skipper, depth is dropping faster than predicted, 4.8 m now against 6 m on the plan; I suggest we turn out to the north-east."

Situational awareness

Situational awareness has three levels: perceiving the elements (depth, wind, traffic), understanding what they mean (the tide is turning and wind against tide will steepen the seas), and projecting forward (in 30 minutes we will reach the race). Fatigue, stress and fixation narrow awareness. A watch leader should repeat a short loop at regular intervals: where are we, where are we going, what could go wrong in the next 30 minutes? Say the answer aloud so that the crew shares the same picture.

Decision-making under pressure

Useful frameworks are simple. One is the DECIDE loop: detect the change, estimate its significance, choose objectives, identify options, do the best option, evaluate the result. Another is the what, so what, now what pattern for briefing: what has changed, what does it mean, what will we do. Under time pressure make the safest decision that keeps options open, communicate it clearly and review it. Avoid known traps: plan continuation bias (pressing on with the original plan because it has been invested in), anchoring (clinging to the first information), groupthink, and the get-home-itis pressure of deadlines such as work on Monday. Agree beforehand the criteria for turning back so the decision is made in calm conditions.

Communication standards

Use clear, closed-loop communication: the instruction, the read-back, the confirmation. "Helm, bear away to 270 degrees." "Bearing away to 270." "Good." Name the person you are addressing, use standard nautical terms, and avoid ambiguity such as "left" and "right" when you mean port and starboard, or "around" when you mean tack or gybe. In noise or wind, use hand signals agreed in the briefing for anchoring, mooring and sail handling.

Human factors and error chains

Most incidents are the end of an error chain, not a single mistake. Typical links include time pressure, poor planning, fatigue, a changed forecast, unfamiliar equipment, distraction by seasickness, and failure to challenge. Breaking any link prevents the accident. Teach the crew the chain-breaking habits: stop when something does not seem right, say what you see, check the second source (chart and radar, paper and electronic), and take the smallest safe action first.

Worked example: delegating a harbour approach

Skipper Anna is bringing a 38 ft yacht into an unfamiliar harbour with a crew of four. In the pre-arrival briefing she assigns: Ben on the helm to follow her calls, Cara on the bow with the bow line, Dan on the stern with the stern line and fenders both sides, Eve on VHF and lookout. She says what will happen if the berth is occupied (motor out to the waiting pontoon), what signals she will use (hand signals if the engine is noisy), and asks: "What have I missed?" Dan notes that the berth is on the starboard side, not port, and the fenders are re-rigged. Anna has used delegation, defined contingency and invited challenge, which together prevent the typical docking error: unprepared lines and a mismatch between plan and berth.

Common Mistakes

Ignoring fatigue in crew or in yourself.
Inadequate briefings, with assumptions instead of checks of understanding.
Rigid schedules that cannot adapt to seasickness, weather or a crew member's state.
Avoiding conflict until it becomes a safety issue.
Unequal workload: the keen sailor helming for six hours while others sit idle.
A skipper who never sleeps.
Sloppy handovers with no log entry.
No calling rules, so watch leaders hesitate to wake the skipper.
Poor welfare planning: no hot food, no drinks, wet berths and cold crew.
Over-delegating without checking, or under-delegating until you are exhausted yourself.
Letting schedule pressure override the decision to go or to turn back.

Summary

A formal watch system ensures a proper lookout and protected rest around the clock.
Choose the system for the crew size: 4 on/4 off for two watches, three-watch systems for larger crews; shorten night watches.
Dog watches create an odd number of watches so schedules rotate daily.
Brief before the passage and before each watch; confirm understanding; debrief without blame.
Handover with log entry, verbal brief, instrument check and formal acceptance.
Watch for fatigue, particularly 0200-0500, and enforce rest, including your own.
Distribute and rotate work; cross-train crew in navigation, radio and MOB.
Adapt leadership style: directive in emergencies, consultative in planning, delegative for routine tasks.
Resolve conflict early by listening and focusing on behaviour.

Check Your Understanding

What is the main disadvantage of a fixed 4 on, 4 off watch system, and how is it overcome?

Answer: The same watch always stands the same hours. Splitting the 1600-2000 watch into two dog watches gives seven watches in 24 hours, an odd number, so the schedule rotates each day.

Why are night watches often shortened to three hours?

Answer: Fatigue, cold and the circadian low make it hard to stay alert for four hours at night; shorter watches improve alertness, especially between 0200 and 0500.

What should a pre-watch briefing cover?

Answer: Current position and situation, expected developments (traffic, lights, tidal turns, weather), specific tasks, when to call the skipper, abort criteria and handover items.

List the key items in a watch handover.

Answer: Log entry; position and course; speed and weather trend; traffic being watched; sail plan; equipment problems; crew concerns; next waypoint or tidal gate. The incoming watch checks instruments and formally accepts before the outgoing watch leaves.

Name four signs of fatigue.

Answer: For example: repeated yawning, microsleeps, slow reactions, poor judgement, fixation on details, confusion, irritability and mood swings.

A keen crew member wants to stay on deck during their off-watch to enjoy the sunset before a night watch. What do you do?

Answer: Encourage, and if necessary insist, that they rest. Rest periods are protected; sleep debt accumulates and they will be needed alert later.

Which leadership style suits a MOB emergency, and why?

Answer: Directive: there is no time for discussion, and clear, specific instructions to named people get the fastest coordinated response.

Why should you cross-train crew in navigation and radio use?

Answer: The skipper could be injured, ill or overboard. Someone else must be able to fix the position, call for help and recover a casualty.

Two crew are clashing over watch duties. How should you handle it?

Answer: Address it early, listen to each separately, focus on specific behaviours not personalities, find common ground in safety and the passage, decide fairly, and review afterwards.

A watch leader on a three-person yacht is alone on deck at 0300. What precautions apply?

Answer: The watch leader must wear a lifejacket and harness and be clipped on, keep a full lookout, and not leave the cockpit without waking someone. Calling rules must be clear, and the autopilot and alarms must be working. In busy shipping lanes or poor visibility the skipper doubles the watch.

When drawing up a rota for three crew including yourself as skipper, what should you check about your own schedule?

Answer: That you have a protected block of sleep before the busiest period (the landfall or a traffic crossing), and that you are not on deck for most of the busy time. A tired skipper is a danger.

List four items that should be in the skipper's standing orders.

Answer: Any four of: call for any vessel on a steady bearing or within a set distance; wind above a set limit or a large shift; barometer falling quickly; visibility dropping; doubt about position or unexpected lights; any equipment failure; anyone ill or too tired; always call if in doubt.