REVIEW: RYA Advanced Powerboat Handbook

[Paul Glatzel]

Hope you don’t mind me joining in as there are a variety of really good points being made. Addressing a few:

Trimix asks whether a book is an adequate replacement for the course. Absolutely not - in the same way that a course is no replacement for time on the water. A book is simply a way of adding to a course and providing some back up notes to support a course/instructor. They are complimentary to each other.

As you consider what you want to do training wise the way to think about RYA courses is Level 2 gives you the skills to make short inshore passages, intermediate gives you the skills to make longer coastal passages and operate in areas where there is a greater need for navigation skills/competence whilst the Advanced gives you the skills to operate at night, in rougher conditions, understand the principles of search, working with helicopters etc. Whether you need any or all of these should be a function of i) Do you want to progress ii) Do you need/want the ‘next level’ of skills. Training is not for everyone and you should do what suits you.

As to what the book covers it is always a real compromise. Some people want a huge volume of words and few images whilst others want few words and lots of images. The balance is somewhere between, working on the basis that a good image is worth many words. The focus in terms of content always had to be on making it relevant to the level people at an advanced level are operating at without necessarily trying to address every single subject as that is simply not feasible. Equally the idea is not to replicate too much that has been covered before in the Powerboat Handbook (not least of all as from a commercial perspective it would compromise the sales of that book !! ) . Yes there is some overlap but where there is then generally the strategy was to take things onto the next level – eg search, navigation etc

Furthermore some areas addressed subjects that are not covered in huge detail on the RYA Advanced Course. For example, we added in a section on moving transfers between craft despite this being removed on the Advanced course many years ago due to the inherent dangers in doing it. This was added in simply because whilst it may not be appropriate to teach it on the advanced course many commercial skippers need to do these sorts of transfers so advising how to do it in such a book makes real sense.

There will always be areas that could be covered more and I for one always want to 200% cover a subject but then there is also a budget in terms of images and overall numbers of pages to roughly keep to. Ultimately others will be the judge of whether the balance is right but I set out with an objective to produce a book that in many areas added real value and that I would want to add to my bookshelf and feel that we ticked that box.

Regarding the eBook the RYA aim with all books is to launch an eBook at the same time as a printed version as that is the way of the world nowadays. In the run up to the launch there is the aim to deliver in addition to the copy of the book three additional things:

1) Video comments/interviews
2) Partial animated images. For example on the area of stability there may be three consecutive images to display a concept. In the eBook these are linked and a ‘slider’ added to move between images – which works well, There are variety of these already present. They don’t give anything new (that the printed version doesn’t have) just a different way of looking at things.
3) Additional subjects are then animated in more detail. An example is jet drives which is presently being animated. This tends to take a while as its quite complicated. These aren’t in the eBook yet and will be populated through updates. There is a limit to what works when animated – for example rough water stuff won’t whereas jets (and some other areas) will

In providing these three elements the RYA hope that the eBook is thus adding value over a paper version. What you end up paying for an eBook versus a paper one is always a moot point but I know from my purchase of various magazines that similar prices for both seems the norm.

There is a point here for the RYA as it is clearly not obvious that the eBook will be shortly be updated to include these animations. I will feed this back.

The reason the RYA use an app rather than straight through Kindle etc is that it gives them the ability to add in these extra elements. It is available Android, IOS and Kindle. Fire.

Hopefully that addresses some of the questions, if there are any others just shout. Regards, Paul

[Poly]

Hope you don’t mind me joining in

of course, and thanks for letting us have a peak at the book.

2) Partial animated images. For example on the area of stability there may be three consecutive images to display a concept. In the eBook these are linked and a ‘slider’ added to move between images – which works well, There are variety of these already present. They don’t give anything new (that the printed version doesn’t have) just a different way of looking at things.

is this supposed to be in the current issue - i'm not sure if I'm just being thick?

[Paul Glatzel]

Poly - Attached is an example, yes it will be in the version you have. If you go to this page in the eBook there is a button that allows you to scroll through large versions of what were small images in the printed version. It is not proper animation (more of a slideshow type feature) but just another way of looking at the images that in some cases may make concepts clearer.

There is also a benefit to this sort of approach for instructors using RYA eBooks as they can get the eBook on a screen via Apple TV/cable and show the animations/slideshow as they wish.

Regards, Paul

[Poly]

Paul, must be the most difficult customer ever! Here is what I see in android:

[John Kennett]

It's the same on the PC version. No button

[Paul Glatzel]

I live and learn! From speaking to the RYA about the disparity between my view on this and Poly's/John's it would appear that the platform you are using makes a difference.

IOS gets everything that I have referred to. Android doesn't yet get the slideshow version that we have been discussing due to the technical challenges of making it work across the variety of Android variants. The PC version doesn't presently get them but it is envisaged will do so shortly. All will get the full on animations when they launch which will probably be in about 4 or so weeks. They are video files so work on any platform and will be populated my means of an update through the RYA App. As you open the book it will ask if you want to update it - answer yes and these revisions will download.

The joys of IT!

Regards, Paul

[Poly]

Paul thanks for clarifying.

[willk]

I've only just got around to reading this - again thanks Paul Glatzel for the chance to do so (I wouldn't have bought it as I had done the course some years ago) and thanks Poly for writing the review - I'm glad I didn't have to!

From the point of view of someone who as done the course and a little more - it still had something to offer - Paul's handy tips and scenarios gave me food for thought and the rest of the content struck me as particularly well presented. My take on this is that any half serious PB2 should spend the money on the book - it's a good read and very easy to absorb the points being made. Yes, it is geared towards those undertaking the Advanced course and assumes a certain level of knowledge. FYI Poly, I was advised to take an Intro to Nav course BEFORE the Advanced. A couple of years elapsed between my courses and I felt very rusty at the Nav during the Advanced course. So it's a skill you need to bring with you...

And finally - a truly inspired choice for the front cover

[markmullen]

I've just done the Advanced course and then exam on Friday, I found the book ideal for revision in the hotel room after each day's fun, well written and concise.

[tonymac]

Originally Posted by willk

A couple of years elapsed between my courses and I felt very rusty at the Nav during the Advanced course. So it's a skill you need to bring with you...

And finally - a truly inspired choice for the front cover

What he means is that during our course he nearly put us on the Mull of Kintyre rather than in Larne harbour !!!!!

[willk]

Originally Posted by tonymac

What he means is that during our course he nearly put us on the Mull of Kintyre rather than in Larne harbour !!!!!

Force of habit old boy. At least I wasn't determined to swat East Maiden, like our cabin cruiser buddy