Navigation

• Tides and currents: current, upstream, downstream
• Buoyage: European SIGNI system (shape, colour, lights, signs), danger points, special marks, channels, harbour entrances
• Instruments: echo sounder, log, basics of VHF
• Waterways chart (IGN 1:250,000): scale, depths, distances (km) and speeds (km/h), symbols, voyage planning (bridges, locks, DNG), navigation time
• Notices to skippers: which ones, where to find them, interruptions

Manoeuvres & weather

• Types of pleasure boats and propulsion, propeller and rudder, basic manoeuvres
• Basic weather bulletins: visibility, wind, navigation area

Safety

• Outboard and inboard engines: checks (fuel, cooling, oil, electrics), petrol vs diesel
• Fire: prevention, fire classes, extinguishers, fire blanket
• Gas on board, water ingress and bilge pumps
• Compulsory life-saving equipment and ship’s papers
• Man overboard, distress signals on inland waters, pollution, electrolysis and anodes
• First aid: CPR, drowning

Regulations

• General regulations for the waterways of the Kingdom
• General police regulations for navigation on inland waters
• Regulations for the common Meuse
• Regulations for the Brussels–Rupel canal and the port of Brussels

Navigation

• Tides: full vocabulary, tide tables, calculating the height of water with the rule of twelfths
• Buoyage: IALA system region A
• Instruments: GPS (waypoints, GOTO, MOB, COG, SOG, ETA, XTE…), magnetic compass (errors and corrections), AIS (CPA, TCPA), VHF and the limits of mobile phones at sea
• Nautical chart: geographic coordinates, Mercator projection, nautical mile, symbols, chart datum (LAT), WGS 84
• Navigation: True / magnetic / compass north, variation and deviation, course through the water and over ground, current and leeway, dead reckoning, compass course, ETA, engine range
• Bearings: true, magnetic, compass, fixing your position, following a transit

Manoeuvres & weather

• Anchoring: types of anchor and technique
• Synoptic charts: anticyclones, depressions, isobars, warm and cold fronts
• Wind and the Beaufort scale, fog, thunderstorms and squalls (cumulonimbus), sea and land breezes

Safety

• Engine maintenance: batteries, bleeding diesel, thermostat, impeller, water filter
• Gas installation and detector, life-saving equipment, documents
• Man-overboard manoeuvres, distress signals and pyrotechnics, Belgian rescue services
• Towing, marine pollution (Marpol), fuel consumption and range, radar reflector
• First aid: evacuation, bleeding, shock, fractures, hypo/hyperthermia, seasickness

Regulations

• International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG, excluding traffic separation and radar)
• Lower Sea Scheldt, Ghent–Terneuzen canal
• Belgian territorial sea, coastal harbours and beaches
• Royal Decree on recreational navigation

Navigation

• Tides: origin (moon, sun), effect of pressure and wind, height-of-water calculations with standard and secondary ports, coefficients (SHOM), NAP datum
• Instruments: Advanced GNSS (layline, VMG, CTE, DOP, SBAS/DGPS, anchor watch), plotters and raster/vector charts, fluxgate compass, NAVTEX
• Communication: VHF-DSC, EPIRB and SART beacons
• Foreign charts and publications (Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Germany), deviation curve, tidal stream atlas
• Navigation over several hours: dead reckoning, successive courses, vector construction, ETA
• Bearings: relative bearing, three-bearing fix, running fix
• Logbook, time zones (UTC, BST, CET, CEST…)

Manoeuvres

• Heavy-weather manoeuvres (engine and sail), how sails work
• Man overboard under sail, nautical etiquette

Weather

• Atmosphere, air masses, convection, Coriolis force, geostrophic winds, Buys-Ballot’s law
• Clouds and precipitation, northern hemisphere depressions, typical summer / winter situations
• Regional Mediterranean winds (mistral, tramontane, meltemi, sirocco…)
• Synoptic charts, GRIB files, marine bulletins (Met Office, RMI, Météo-France…)

Safety

• 2- and 4-stroke engines, fault diagnosis, oil change, fuel filter
• Lightning, repairing leaks, 12 V electrics and batteries
• Stability (metacentre, centre of buoyancy, righting moment), jacklines
• SAR, abandoning ship, communicating with a helicopter, long-distance towing
• Multi-day passages with night sailing, SOLAS, storm tactics
• First aid far from help, radio medical advice

Regulations

• In-depth COLREG: traffic separation schemes (rule 10), radar in restricted visibility, lights and shapes, sound signals, annexes II and IV

Register online on the website of the FPS Mobility : Shipping › Recreational navigation › Skipper › Exams › Theory exam.

Already hold a Belgian licence? Only book the part you are missing or failed less than 3 years ago.

Indicative opening hours, check before you go.

• To charter a boat anywhere in Europe: general licence
• If the boat is used for commercial or professional purposes: yachtmaster licence

Exception: for private use, the general licence is valid throughout the Belgian territorial sea and EEZ. Beyond 200 miles (area 7): yacht navigator licence.

• Minimum age: 16 (you can register for the exam from 15)
• Medical certificate
• Theory and practical exams passed (within 3 years, in any order)